Monitoring urban growth on the European side of the Istanbul metropolitan area

Istanbul is the largest city of Turkey with an area of around 5,750 km2 and a population of around 10.8 M (2000). However, in 1980 the population was only around 4.7 M and has more than doubled in only two decades. In 2000 around 65% of the population were living on the European side of the city with its large industrial/commercial and trade centres. The population is increasing as a result of both (i) births exceeding deaths and (ii) mass immigration. Consequently planed and unplanned housing is increasing while green areas are decreasing in area. Monitoring metropolitan growth will enable us to better understand and manage this complex urban area. The primary aim of this research was to quantify urban growth on the European side of Istanbul. Six land covers were identified in space and time using Landsat 5 TM images for 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2001 and the differences in land cover area between these dates was used to determine the rate of change. The accuracy of land cover maps was determined using aerial photographs, field surveys and topographic maps. The overall classification accuracy was between 80-86 %; urban areas increased by around 1,000 ha yr-1 and forest, semi-natural vegetation, crop and bare soil areas decreased collectively at a similar rate. The paper ends with a discussion of the relation between the urban growth and population growth