Spatio-temporal Analysis of Land Use Change in Wuhan

The land use in Wuhan was taken as the research subject, and the Landsat images from 2005, 2009, and 2013 were interpreted to analyze land use changes and urban expansion in Wuhan City.Markov method was used to predict land use in Wuhan City in 2021.The results show that:1) During the period from 2005 to 2013, the urban area in Wuhan expanded at annual rate of 9.84% on average, following a trend of rapid growth at the beginning and a slowing-down at the later half;urban land use underwent a sharp increase with large quantities of forest land and unused land being used for urbanization;the spatial distribution of farmland saw drastic changes and the constant shift of land use types is violent;2) The rapid increase in the population of the city proper of Wuhan, the fast development of secondary and tertiary industries, and the geological surface formation are the principal factors affecting the urban expansion of Wuhan.3) The growth rate of urban areas in Wuhan is predicted to slow down, the area of cultivated land and water areas will remain basically unchanged, and the unused land is expected to decrease in 2021.