Assessment of Rapid Urbanization Effects on Land Use Dynamics: A Google Earth and GIS Approach in Kemalöz District, Uşak, Türkiye - An Earth Science Perspective

Abstract

As urbanization continues to increase, the concerns about sustainable land use and management are also growing. Thus, there has been an increasing number of scientific research studies conducted on this phenomenon. In many cases, these studies have been performed by using expensive remote sensing software with low-resolution ( gt;30m) Landsat imagery. On the other hand, Google Earth Pro imageries have a geometric resolution of 1.5 meters to 2 meters for most of the covered areas in the world. The objective of this study is to investigate changes in land use in the Kemalöz District of Uşak, Türkiye, which is the fastest-growing district, by utilizing Google Earth Pro and GIS for rapid assessment of land use change between 2005 and 2024, offering an alternative to costly remote sensing software and low-resolution Landsat imagery. The study also aims to evaluate the relative benefits of integrating geoscience to analyze land-use changes to provide insights to policymakers and local officials to make informed decisions about the most effective way to manage land to mitigate the negative effects of urbanization. The findings of this study indicated that the build-up land use has increased from 1,734 to 2,755 km2 from 2005 to 2024. Vegetation land use has increased from 1,081 to 1,392 km2 between 2005 and 2024. Agricultural land use has decreased from 1,781 to 1,149 km2 between 2005 and 2024. Barren land use has decreased from 1,803 to 1,103 km2. This suggests significant urban development or infrastructure expansion occurred in the study area over the 19 years.

Keywords

• urbanization
• land use
• google earth
• earth science
• kentselleşme
• arazi kullanımı
• google earth
• yer bilimleri