Extending the Frontier of GIS Applications: Towards Evolving a Hybrid Tool for Sprawl Analysis

Abstract

The accurate mapping of and analysis of urban sprawl has been a major challenge to urban planners. This has links to the shortcomings of known procedures and techniques of analysis that involve the use of the Shannon's entropy and the GIS and Remote Sensing techniques as standalone tools. The search for enhanced tools to confront these challenges has been long, but results have been slow in coming. This paper demonstrates the application of a unified frame of sprawl analysis based on the integration of GID, remote sensing and the Shannon's entropy method. The results obtained showed advantages including the concurrent time series mapping and analysis of sprawl as well as the identification of sprawl implications. The results obtained confirm the potential of the tool in establishing the pattern and urban management implications of sprawl on multiple spatial and temporal scales. The primary benefit of the tool is that it provides urban planners and managers with an accurate, precise, flexible and cost effective means of determining and managing sprawl towards the sustainable growth and development of cities.