Urban growth pattern of Didim

28th European-Association-of-Remote-Sensing-Laboratories (EARSeL) Symposium and Workshops on Remote Sensing for a Changing Europe -- JUN 02-05, 2008 -- Istanbul Tech Univ, Remote Sensing Div, ITU Maslak Campus, Istanbul, TURKEYWOS: 000342298700023Didim peninsula is the fattest growing urban area in the Aydin province, Turkey. Since 1990, the Town of Didim has changed significantly after discovered by domestic and international tourist. In spite of the recent rapid LULC change, Didim has not been spoiled compared to other big touristic towns of Turkey. Didim has been announced as "Tourism hot spot" in 2000, thus its planning is overseen by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Monitoring of the Didim's development is necessary to guide the Ministry in promoting sustainable planning guidelines. The present work aims to determine the characteristics and the amount of urban growth in Didim by using remote sensing and GIS technology. Already rectified Aster (dated 04/27/2005) and Spot 2X (03/02/1994) images were used as well as the population information, aerial photographs, city plans and thematic maps from previous studies. Object oriented classification technique is employed. Some complementary information is extracted from aerials and maps by on-screen digitization. Total of 16 LULC categories are defined. After, putting all information in the GIS database, the pattern of landscape change in Didim is described by using selected landscape metrics. The case study of the Town of Didim offers a good example of the impact of national policies on land use dynamics at local landscape scale. The findings indicate three simultaneous key trends: loss of coniferous forests, the thinning of the maqui vegetation cover, and intensification of urban areas on valuable class II type of soils. Identified trends have significant consequences in terms of the response that ecosystems have given to these anthropogenic landscape alterations. A strategy to promote sustainable land use management should be generated timely manner.European Assoc Remote Sensing Lab