Land change dynamics: insights from Intensity Analysis applied to an African emerging city

Land change in Kigali, Rwanda, is examined using Intensity Analysis, which measures the temporal stationarity of changes among categories. Maps for 1981, 2002 and 2014 were produced that show the land categories Built, Vegetated and Other, which is composed mainly of croplands and bare surfaces. Lan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of spatial science Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 69 - 83
Main Authors Akinyemi, Felicia O., Pontius, Robert Gilmore, Braimoh, Ademola K.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis 02.01.2017
Taylor and Francis
Subjects
category
INTENSITY ANALYSIS
LAND CHANGE
LAND USE
STATIONARY
TRANSITION
URBANIZATION
Africa
Rwanda
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Summary:Land change in Kigali, Rwanda, is examined using Intensity Analysis, which measures the temporal stationarity of changes among categories. Maps for 1981, 2002 and 2014 were produced that show the land categories Built, Vegetated and Other, which is composed mainly of croplands and bare surfaces. Land change accelerated from the first time interval (1981-2002) to the second time interval (2002-2014), as increased human and economic activities drove land transformation. During the first interval, Vegetated showed net loss whereas Built showed net gain, in spite of a small transition directly from Vegetated to Built. During the second interval, Vegetated showed net gain whereas Built showed nearly equal amounts of gross loss and gross gain. The gain of Built targeted Other during both time intervals. A substantial portion of overall change during both time intervals consisted of simultaneous transitions from Vegetated to Other in some locations and from Other to Vegetated in other locations.
Bibliography:Africa
Rwanda
ISSN:1449-8596
1836-5655
DOI:10.1080/14498596.2016.1196624