Applications of GIS and Very High-Resolution RS Data for Urban Land Use Change Studies in Mongolia

The aim of this study is to analyze the urban land use changes occurred in the central part of Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, from 1930 to 2008 with a 10-year interval using geographical information system (GIS) and very high-resolution remote sensing (RS) data sets. As data sources, a large-scale topographic map, panchromatic and multispectral Quickbird images, and TerraSAR synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data are used. The primary urban land use database is developed using the topographic map of the study area and historical data about buildings. To extract updated land use information from the RS images, Quickbird and TerraSAR images are fused. For the fusion, ordinary and special image fusion techniques are used and the results are compared. For the final land use change analysis and RS image processing, ArcGIS and Erdas imagine systems installed in a PC environment are used. Overall, the study demonstrates that within the last few decades the central part of Ulaanbaatar city is urbanized very rapidly and became very dense. 1. Introduction At present, cities allover the world are experiencing rapid growth because of the rapid increase in the world population and the irreversible flow of people from rural to urban areas [1]. In the coming decades, the world’s rapid urbanization will be one of the greatest challenges to ensure human welfare and global environment. According to recent estimates, cities occupy about four percent of the world’s terrestrial surface, yet they are home to almost half of the global population, consume close to three-quarters of the overall natural resources, and generate three-quarters of its pollution and wastes. The UN estimates that virtually all net global population and economic growth over the next 30 years will occur in cities, leading to a doubling of current population [2]. In general, the developed countries have a higher percentage of urban people than the developing countries. However, rapid urbanization process is mainly occurring in less developed countries, and it is expected that in future most urban expansions will occur in developing countries. Mongolia, as many countries of the developing world, has problems with the urban expansion and the growth of population in the main cities. For example, over the last two decades, Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, has experienced different urban related problems. In the city, various problems had been previously accumulated during the centralized economy, and they have been intensified by the reforms of the entire political and economic systems,