Introduction
The rapid modification of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) by human
activities are well recognized worldwide. The rapid population growth,
urbanization and economic development have significantly altered the
Earth’s terrestrial surface processes, which causes undesirable impacts
on environmental attributes at a local, regional and global level
(Verburg and Overmars, 2007). The monitoring regarding land use land
cover change has become a fundamental component in recent strategies for
managing natural resources (Lambin, Geist, and Lepers, 2003). In recent
decades, LULC change studies has emerged as an important research
question due to abrupt LULC changes which are responsible for natural
landscape modification worldwide (Xiao et al., 2006). Though it is
possible to detect and monitoring LULC by traditional surveys and
inventories, however, Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote
Sensing (RS) techniques are more advantageous in terms of temporal, time
saving and cost effectiveness, as well as future monitoring of LULC
(Yuan et al ., 2005). It is very important to have historical,
persistent and accurate data on LULC of the earth’ surface for
sustainable development program in which LULC work as one of the main
input criteria (Elkawy et al ., 2010).
The land cover change detection and monitoring by various disciplines
found that LULC has diverse applications such as ecology, environment,
hydrology, forestry and geology. Urban landscape change is a major
concern for eco-friendly and sustainable development for the economic
growth of any area. The abrupt urban LULC such as unregulated
development, loss of agriculture lands, soil erosion, deforestation,
damage of wildlife habitat and pollution are very harmful for the
environment (Weng, 2001; Hassan et al., 2016). Urbanization and urban
sprawl is one of the main causes, which re altering the land cover of
the earth’s surface. The process of urban complex is determined by the
interactions of environmental and human factors in different
spatio-temporal scale. In the past decades, urban sprawl has been
studied widely due to the increasing interest in environmental issues
and challenges (He et al ., 2006; Kamh et al., 2012).
Sporadic development of urban inhabitants and its footprint on the urban
environment has been widely reported. Urban expansion can lead
significant environmental modification as main ecosystem services, such
as availability of water, food, raw material, natural vegetation and
landscape beauty, may degrade as a result of rapid growth of urban areas
(Sieber and Pons, 2015; Manzoor et al., 2018). Studies indicates the
effects of unplanned urban growth on ecosystem services and to
incorporate the evaluations into urban management plans. For instance,
environmental carrying capacity of a landscape can be assessed by its
ecological footprint and bio-capacity, and identified whether a given
development activities is consistent with particular environmental
targets, hence assisting to develop environmental sustainable spatial
plan for future urban expansion (Świąder, Szewrański and Kazak, 2018; De
Jung et al., 2018). It is essential to identify Ecosystem Services
Bundles (ESB) and socio-cultural preferences in urban landscape
development where human-environmental relations creates desirable or
undesirable ecosystem services (Raudsepp-Hearne, Peterson and Bennett,
2010; Spake et al., 2017).
The world’s most populous cities are located in developing countries,
therefore, rapid and unplanned urban expansion produces server impacts
on ecosystem services and facing difficulties and challenges in urban
landscape management. Although, in developed countries consequences of
rapid urban expansion are repeatedly documented (Jafari et al.,2016). LULC studies in developing countries like Pakistan, remain scant.
In South Asia, Pakistan is a fastest urban growing country, the process
of urbanization increased due to rapid population growth as well as
industrial expansion, economic and social activities and intensive use
of land resources. In Pakistan the annual growth rate of urban
population is nearly 2.5 percent (Shaikh and Ijaz, 2018). In the last
two decades, Punjab province of Pakistan has experienced rapid
population growth and economic development accelerated the process of
urbanization and caused extensive deforestation, agricultural land to
build up area and environmental degradation (Lee et al ., 2017,
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 2018). The country has cover only 3% of
forest whereas government aimed at 7% forest by 2015 which has not been
achieved yet; forest cover of 20-25% is needed for a stabled economy
(Manzoor et al., 2018; Zizinga et al ., 2018). Recently,
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project is likely to have
impacts on socioeconomic conditions of the provinces
Not many studies on LULC changes have been conducted in urban areas of
Pakistan and for Islamabad in particular. For example, Hassan et
al . (2016) conducted a study using GIS and remote sensing methods at
capital Islamabad area. They observed increase in agriculture area,
build up area and water bodies from 1992 to 2012. Samie et al .
(2017) scenario based analysis indicated that cultivable and build up
land would expand, the findings mentioned sustainable land use planning
and management in Punjab province is essential. Therefore, regular and
up-to-date data on urban sprawl is needed for urban planning, land use
management and for proper distribution of services and infrastructure
within the urban area. Islamabad city is a functional city, rapid LULC
change due to population growth, economic development and climate change
resulted in wide range of environmental impacts, including degraded
habitat quality (Hassan et al., 2016). While remote sensing technology
has been the main provider of cost-effective, high quality datasets for
land surface management and monitoring in the past decades (Lunetta et
al., 2002). Pakistan urban areas needs an appropriate interdisciplinary
policy guideline and political wills to device a sustainable management
and protection of forest, vegetation and ecological sensitive sites. In
this context, the main objective of the study was to assess the nature,
significance and rate of land cover change from 1979 to 2019 based on
the analysis of satellite Imagery.