Spatio temporal landscape pattern change in rapid urbanization of Iskandar Malaysia

Abstract

The urbanization process is continuously modifying the pattern of land use and land cover to support human development. Analyzing spatiotemporal land use change is essential for understanding its characteristic and ecological consequences. The study explored the spatiotemporal landscape changes in Iskandar Malaysia region before and after the booming of development. Remote sensing and GIS were used to analyse the spatial changes from 1994 to 2011 and the landscape pattern was analysed using selected matrices in FRAGSTATS software. The findings show that agriculture areas were the major land converted into urban land use. It also changed the water body to urban land and modified the structure of the remaining ecological areas. The landscape pattern of the region will continuously change in accordance to its comprehensive develop plan. The result is important in contributing to a better understanding of the past landscape changes and improve decision-making of land use planning in the region.