Urban Expansion and Pattern Analysis using Shannon ’ s Entropy approach in ElMinya Governorate , Upper Egypt

Urban expansion is a significant consequence of local land use/land cover change that is affected by human activities. Multi-temporal data enable monitoring urbanization over time in order to measure the changes of the urban expansion over the time interval. The aim of this research is to detect LULC changes in ElMinya governorate using Landsat TM /ETM /OLI satellite imageries for the years 1984, 2001 and 2017 respectively. The study uses Shannon’s Entropy to monitor urban growth utilizing remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems. Firstly, the 1984, 2001 and 2017 imageries were rectified and co-registered to UTM projection with root mean square error 0.3, 0.37and 0.41 respectively. Secondly, land use/land cover maps were prepared for 1984, 2001 and 2017 using neural network algorithm with an overall accuracy of 94.4%, 96.2, 97.5% for 1984, 2001 and 2017 respectively. Imageries were classified using neural network classifier into four classes (water, agriculture, desert, urban). The study shows that there is a significant increase in urban area during the study period. The results indicated that urban area in 1984 was (10,456) hectare which has been increased to (17,596), (38,360) in 2001 and 2017 respectively. This increase attributed to the intensive urbanization. The agricultural land increased from (219,340) hectare in 1984 to (227,360), (262,021) in 2001 and 2017 respectively. The increase in agricultural land is attributed to reclamation activity. Thirdly, Shannon Entropy was computed to quantify the urban area for the whole governorate. The obtained Entropy value (0.191) in 2017 was higher than Entropy values (0.079), (0.121) in 1984 and 2001 respectively. Higher value of overall Entropy for the whole urban area gave an indication of urban growth (compact development). Also, Shannon Entropy was computed to quantify the urban area over each ward (markaz) in order to know which one has higher urbanization. It was found that the highest urbanization in Maghaghah. Lastly, the pattern of urban expansion was determined for each ward. It was found that the urbanization took place around existing urban areas for all wards. Keywords— Neural Network, Shannon Entropy, Urban Expansion. R. E. Ibrahim is with National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, 23 Joseph Teto, ElNozha ElGedida, Cairo, Egypt. ( phone: 20226251-200; fax: 202-26225800; e-mail: ranyaalsayed@gmail.com). L.G. Taha is with National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, 23 Joseph Teto, ElNozha ElGedida, Cairo, Egypt. (e-mail: lamyaa@narss.sci.eg). A. Shalaby is with National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, 23 Joseph Teto, ElNozha ElGedida, Cairo, Egypt. (e-mail: adel_shalaby@hotmail.com).