Rule-based, hierarchical land use and land cover classification of urban and peri-urban agriculture in data-poor regions with RapidEye satellite imagery: a case study of Nakuru, Kenya

Maximilian Willkomm; Alexander Follmann; Peter Dannenberg

doi:10.1117/1.JRS.13.016517

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9 February 2019 Rule-based, hierarchical land use and land cover classification of urban and peri-urban agriculture in data-poor regions with RapidEye satellite imagery: a case study of Nakuru, Kenya

Maximilian Willkomm, Alexander Follmann, Peter Dannenberg

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J. of Applied Remote Sensing, 13(1), 016517 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.13.016517

Abstract

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is of high importance for city dwellers especially in medium-sized cities in sub-Saharan Africa as it fulfills a wide range of multifunctional urban needs. However, the extent of recent agricultural land use dynamics in sub-Saharan African cities under rapid urbanization so far remains unclear. This study assessed the operationality of a rule-based, hierarchical classification of RapidEye satellite imagery to monitor land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics from 2010 to 2017 with a focus on UPA and its patch sizes on the example of the rapidly growing medium-sized city Nakuru, Kenya. The hierarchical system was able to provide a high-resolution, multitemporal, area-wide data set, and proved beneficial through a high flexibility in considering each class separately. Though the approach offered limitations in distinguishing between agricultural crops, the produced data set gave insights about intense LULC dynamics and high land use pressure indicated, in particular, by an increase of sealed areas by 83%, an ongoing expansion of agricultural land and high variations in the detected classes between the years. In the context of data shortage, the findings contribute to the understanding of urbanization patterns in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Maximilian Willkomm, Alexander Follmann, and Peter Dannenberg "Rule-based, hierarchical land use and land cover classification of urban and peri-urban agriculture in data-poor regions with RapidEye satellite imagery: a case study of Nakuru, Kenya," Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 13(1), 016517 (9 February 2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.13.016517

Received: 17 September 2018; Accepted: 22 January 2019; Published: 9 February 2019

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