International Journal of Environment & Water ISSN 2052-3408 ___________________________________________________________________________ Vol 6, Issue 2, 2017 49 Page Urban Expansion Effects on Landscape Pattern: The case of Ramallah Area. Mohammad Muhsen 1 and Ahmad Abu Hammad 2 1. Main author- Assistant Professor. Department of Geography / Birzeit University, Ramallah-Palestine. Email address: muh.mohsen@gmail.com 2. Department of Geography, Associate Professor. Birzeit University. Email address: ahammad@birzeit.edu Abstract Urbanization is a worldwide phenomenon particularly in the developing countries. Urban expansion and changes along with its effect on the natural landscape and environmental consequences have been investigated. The study used a number of time sequence aerial photos analysis and urban landscape index model for the period 1993-2016. In addition, GIS and RS were applied for interpreting the results that are related to various factors in natural landscape change. The study showed that urbanization rate of Ramallah area is about 60% and is much more in comparison to other cities of the West Bank, which is mainly driven by uncontrolled urban expansion process due to increasing internal migration since 1993 and up today. Urban expansion has brought serious loses of agricultural and natural vegetation cover that affected adversely on the natural landscape, in addition to variety of urban related environmental issues such as air and water pollution. Results also indicated a reduction in the forest area by about 3.5%, a reduction of 57% in the uncultivated land, and a reduction 22% in olives groves. Such reduction in land use attributes has been accompanied by an increase of about 55% in urban areas. In addition, the Landscape Expansion Index (LEI) has changed from in-filling to edge-expansion in the first stage of urbanization process, then started to be an out-lying expansion landscape pattern in a later stage which is indicating high landscape change. Major urban expansion areas occurred in the north-west direction of the study area where most of land use was classified as green area. In addition, the continuous urban expansion has a profound effect on the green areas, in addition to environmental, economic and social implications. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Key word: Urban expansion. Landscape Expansion Index. Ramallah area. Land use, GIS. Introduction Today the urban area has been augmented rapidly and the majority of world population lives within main cities as compare to the last few decades (OECD, 2012 and Shabu, 2010). Such a quick urbanization process has an effect on existing landscape and greenery areas, especially when urbanization is unplanned. Rapid urban expansion in the Ramallah area tend to reveal noticeable spatial and temporal variations of landscape into the existing green areas. This process usually greatly affected