Analysis of different methods for monitoring the urbanization process

The monitoring of urban sprawl in agricultural and natural areas requires the frequent acquisition of information relative to land cover changes. The loss of high capability agricultural lands is a major problem. The sound management of resources requires the knowledge of the nature and orientation of the urban dynamics.

Remote sensing is a useful tool for highlighting areas where changes have occured,for determining the type of change and for quantifying these changes. A spatial‐temporal analysis of the urban processes is carried out for the urban area of Montreal, Canada. Different sources of information are used: three Landsat MSS satellite images acquired in 1972, 1979 and 1982, planimetric data from the Department of Municipal Affairs of Quebec and statistics compiled by Environment Canada.

The satellite data shows a sharp increase, in the order of 65%, in urban areas during the period under consideration. These results are compared with governmental data derived from classical photo‐interpretation techniques.

On one hand, we observe that the results obtained by automatic classification of the satellite data are superior in the order of between 5% to 30%, depending on the year and the different governmental sources. On the other hand, we discuss problems of homogeneity in the use of terms related to land cover between the various governmental organizations.