Study of Urban Expansion in Jordanian Cities Using GIS and Remoth Sensing

Urban environments are among the most dynamic systems on earth. Rapid urban expansion necessitates proper planning to avoid profound negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technologies provide very efficient tools to collect and analyze the information necessary to detect changes in urban areas that conventional surveying technology can't deliver in a timely and cost effective manner. GIS and RS techniques were used in this work to locate and estimate the expansion of urban areas in three Jordanian cities: Amman, Ma'daba and Irbid. Rapid urbanization and industrialization have caused not only social problems, but also environmental and socioeconomic problems in most of the Jordanian cities. Aerial photographs and LandSat images were used to identify urbanized areas and to quantify urban expansion in the above-mentioned cities for periods dating from 1918 to 2002. The results show a massive urban expansion in these cities. The urban area of Amman increased from 0.3 km2 in 1918 to 162.9 km2 in the year 2002. The city of Ma’daba expanded from 0.3 km2 to 11.2 km2 in the span of eighty-four years from 1918 to 2002. Meanwhile, the urban area of Irbid increased from 1.8 km2 to 38.2 km2 over a period of almost fifty years from 1953 to 2000. The entrance of war-time refugees and internal migration of Jordanians over the years constitute the reason for this irregular but magnificent urban growth. Additionally, the study shows that urbanization in these three cities has found concentration near major roads and fertile lands.