Urban Expansion And Agriculture Land Use Change In Palestine Using Remote Sensing And Geographic Information System
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Date
2011-02
Authors
Raddad, Samer Hatem
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
At present, half of the worldâs population live in urban areas and this area is experiencing rapid urbanization. Furthermore, many countries face significant increase in demand for land in urban and peri-urban areas in order to satisfy the needs of urban residents. Therefore, controlling and managing urban expansion should be one of the main agendas among planners and policy makers, since urbanization started to encroach into valuable agriculture land. Planners and policy makers especially in the conflict areas, therefore, should start by trying to understand drivers of urban expansion in order to control and reduce the negative impacts of the political instability conditions on urban environment. Agriculture land is an essential component in urban sustainability, however, it was often ignored or considered unimportant by planners or policy makers. In the area experiencing political instability condition, agriculture activities could provide food security and promote sustainable urban environment. Usually agriculture areas are used to satisfy demand for land from other development projects. This study, therefore, aims to assess the impact of the political instability factor on temporal and spatial characteristics of urban expansion, identify the main factors effecting agriculture land use change in the urban environment, and evaluate role of planning factor in protecting and supporting agriculture land use and activity in urban areas. The Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) experienced political instability condition, which caused lack of information about urban development issues especially during the occupation period. Therefore, this study used geo-information technologies in the quantitative methods to detect land use changes based on satellite images to analyze urban expansion trends in Ramallah metropolitan area during the political transformation period. Furthermore, it used qualitative methods survey and interview with planners and policy makers were undertaken to identify main factors that effecting agriculture land use changes in the Palestinian urban environments. This study found significant direct and indirect impact of political instability conditions on urban expansion in Palestinian urban areas especially during occupation stage where the Palestinian cities were prevented from expanding by the Israel authorities. The study also found that high increase of built up area during stable stage when the Palestinian Authority was established. Therefore, urban planners and managers in the OPT need to develop new planning policies, laws, and plans to overcome these conditions in future Moreover, the study also found directed impact of urban expansion were geopolitical factors, low income farmers, and weak of planners interests in agriculture lands in the city as main factors that effecting agriculture land use change in the Palestinian cities. Consequently, this study expands urban planning knowledge about urban expansion drivers especially under instability conditions. Furthermore, it focused on the important role of agriculture in the future urban sustainability which was ignored by the planners and urban managers. This issue, therefore, needs more attention in order to integrate agriculture land use in the future urban development projects and support it as a essential part of future urban structure.
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Keywords
Agriculture Land , Remote Sensing And Geographic Information System