The use of remote sensing and geographic information system technologies to detect, monitor, and model urban change in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The city of Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has undergone tremendous urban growth in the last half century. Fueled by social, economic, and political considerations, population and resource usage has grown at a pace that threatens to strain both the resources and the local and regional infrastructure required to support such growth.; This dissertation examines the potential of remotely sensed data analyzed with other geospatial data in a geographic information systems (GIS) context to provide information that can be employed by policy makers and persons involved in making decisions concerning the future of urban development in the city of Riyadh.; The dissertation research found and recovered a large number of extant aerial images of the city of Riyadh and subjected these to a rigorous photo-interpretation process that characterizes the evolving land uses in the city of Riyadh. The results were compared with an official land use map prepared from other sources, and correlated with available population estimates and water usage. Comparisons revealed the superiority of remotely sensed data to accurately capture land usage, and to reveal the growth patterns that drive resource consumption and degradation of environmental qualities. Classical models of urban structure including the Islamic City model were contrasted with the urban growth pattern in Riyadh in an attempt to capture the dynamics of growth of the city from the turn of the century to the present.; Remotely sensed data has in the past been vastly underutilized in guiding urban development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But new satellite imaging and GIS analysis systems have the spatial resolution and capability to more accurately and economically acquire land use data than by any other means. This dissertation demonstrates the value of these technologies and recommends their adoption in a new spatial data infrastructure initiative for the Kingdom.