Evaluation of Land Use Land Cover Change due to Urbanization in Mactan Island, Cebu, Using Landsat Data
D. Clarin, D. Dy, and A. Diola (86-103)
Abstract
Rapid urbanization is occurring at an unprecedented rate in recent human history and is having a marked effect on the natural functioning of ecosystems. Changes in land use/land cover (LULC) due to urbanization is proceeding more quickly in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). This study aims to quantify LULC changes in Mactan Island (Central Philippines) using remote sense data from Landsat 7 ETM+ for the year 2000 and Landsat 8 OLI for the year 2018. The Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin in QGIS was used in analyzing and processing of Landsat data. Fragmentation patterns were identified, and the effect of LULC change on land surface temperature was evaluated. Overall accuracies of Landsat-derived land use data were 86.2% and 86.4% for the years 2000 and 2018, respectively. Results showed that the built- up class had increased to about 31.3% while other classes such as vegetation (25.8%), bare soil (7.3%), and water bodies (74.4%) had decreased. The mean land surface temperature increased by about 2.9 °C from 2000 to 2018. Vegetation patches increased from 515 in 2000 to 862 patches in 2018, suggesting the degree of fragmentation and the extent of subdivision of the landscape. LULC has significantly changed from the year 2000 to 2018. Fast urbanization in the island had led to fragmentation of vegetation and an increase to land surface temperature. The results of this study provide additional information that is important to the urbanization process in Mactan Island and can be used further to investigate the effect of LULC on local climate change in the future.