INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES, cilt.6, sa.12, ss.2907-2915, 2011 (Hakemli Dergi)
The utility of Landsat TM imagery for mapping land use/cover in Istanbul, Turkey is examined in this
study. Urbanization has been the dominant demographic trend for the last few decades in Istanbul. The
research focused especially to one of the biggest districts of Istanbul (Umraniye), which represents
best the growing problems of urban sprawl. Umraniye district is exposed to rapid land use change over
last few decades, due to the population growth. Landsat TM data gathered in 1995 and 2005 were used
for land use/cover mapping. The changes were monitored by a post classification method. The results
suggest that the approach has the potential, particularly for local governments for monitoring land
use/cover changes and planning applications. The overall accuracy of the classifications of the data is
80% for both years 1995 and 2005, and the accuracy assessment result shows kappa coefficient
agreement of 0.744 and 0.745 for the years 1995 and 2005 respectively. The results revealed that major
degradation occurred in the forest and green areas of Umraniye district. The changes from the class of
forest and green area to the classes of road, residential and bare land are calculated as 874.17, 483.63
and 1823.31 ha respectively.