Urbanization analysis through remote sensing and GIS in Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Singapore cities MUKESH SINGH BOORI 1, 2 , MAIK NETZBAND 2 , VÍT VOŽENÍLEK 1 , KOMAL CHOUDHARY 1 1 Palacky University Olomouc, 17. listopadu 50, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic 2 Geographical Institute, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany mukesh.boori@upol.cz, maik.netzband@rub.de, vit.vozenilek@upol.cz, Abstract: - This research work intends to explore the spatial analytical methods to identify both general trends and more subtle patterns of urban growth. In Kuala Lumpur, Malian and Singapore, where urban area have experienced an unprecedented rate of growth over the last 30 year. In this uncontrolled situation, city planners lack tools to measure, monitor and understand urban sprawl processes. Multi-temporal remote sensing has become an important data-gathering tool for analyzing these changes. The objective of this study is to explore an approach for combining remote sensing and spatial metrics to monitor urbanization and investigate the relationship between urbanization and urban land use plans. The study areas, consisting of the cities of Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Singapore, were examined using Landsat data from 1989 to 2014. In this study an ArcGIS spatial metric was undertaken to produce urban growth maps and evaluation the characteristics of urban composition. Land cover change analyses at the metropolitan city levels reveal that over the past three decades the significant increase of built-up land in the study area was mainly at the expense of non-forest vegetation cover. The spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the land cover changes allowed the identification of fast and slow sprawling areas. The results of the analysis suggest that at the metropolitan level both the areas of non- forest vegetation and the forestland became more fragmented due to development. Several factors contribute to on-going challenges of spatial planning and urban policy in these megacities, including rapid population shifts, less organized urban areas and a lack of data with which to monitor urban growth and land use changes. Key-Words: - Urbanization, Landsat data, Change detection, Remote Sensing, GIS 1 Introduction Increasing of urban sprawl is a major issue in many metropolitan areas due to importance of socioeconomic development under certain circumstances. The world population is shifting continuously from rural to urban. In 2008 half the world population raised in urban areas and by 2030 it will 60% [1]. The definition and impact of urban sprawl is not achieved [2], but urban sprawl is often referred to as uncontrolled, scattered suburban development that increase traffic problems, depletes local resources and destroys open space [3]. Urbanization can be defined as the changes that occur in the territorial and socioeconomic progress of an area, including the general transformation of land use/cover categories from being non-developed to developed [4]. To develop a comprehensive understanding of the causes and effects of the urbanization process, it is important to properly cauterize the urban sprawl. However, due to its association with poorly planned urban land use and economic activity [5], urban sprawl is often evaluated and characterized exclusively based on major socioeconomic indicators such as population growth, commuting costs, employment shifts, city revenue change and number of commercial establishments [6]. The main cause of urbanization is migration of people to search better jobs and improve living conditions. Historically, urban immigration has increased at rates that have exceed those of infrastructure development in the destination cities, resulting in immigrants being unable to find suitable employment opportunities and subsequently becoming part of the urban poor. This rapid increase in urbanization and the concomitant effect that it has on land use means that it is becoming increasingly for city planners to adopt appropriate sustainable land use plans [7]. The objective of this study was to validate the applicability of spatial metrics for characterizing urbanization in the Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Singapore cities. In the previous study, we detected the expansion of Kuala Lumpur by using an image classification method [8]. The results visually showed the urban change of Kuala Lumpur from 1989 to 2014. However, in order to have a better understanding about the history of Kuala Lumpur development process, the local land use planners raised the questions of quantifying where and when the urbanization occurred in the same period. We Recent Advances in Electrical Engineering ISBN: 978-1-61804-260-6 99