Doctoral Dissertation Research: Integrating Multi-Date Satellite Images and Dynamic Spatial Modeling with GIS in a Rapidly Suburbanized Environment

大都市区向外扩展仍然是整个地球表面土地利用和土地覆盖变化的最重要形式之一。在美国，据估计，郊区的扩张每天导致超过20平方公里的农田或空地转变为城市用途。无论是研究大都市动态的人，还是必须在这些快速变化的环境中管理资源和提供服务的人，监测大都市边缘的增长和变化都是至关重要的。这一博士论文研究项目将通过综合不同时间拍摄的卫星图像的信息和在地理信息系统上运行的动态空间模型，研究从1973年到现在在佐治亚州亚特兰大大都会地区郊区导致土地利用和土地覆盖变化的过程。将利用卫星图像处理、动态模型开发和校准以及交互式数据可视化来评估郊区土地利用和土地覆盖变化的时空特征。将根据人口和社会经济变化对分散和集群城市形态的演变进行评估。该项目将增进对不同生物物理和社会经济领域的土地利用和土地覆盖变化机制的概念性理解，并将加深对新形式的数据整合和变化模型的适用性的见解。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

Outward expansion of metropolitan areas continues to be one of the most significant forms of land-use and land-cover change across the Earth's surface. Within the United States, suburban expansion is estimated to result in the conversion of more than 20 square km daily of farmland or open space into urban uses each day. Monitoring growth and change along the metropolitan periphery is of critical concern both to those who study metropolitan dynamics and those who must manage resources and provide services in these rapidly changing environments. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the processes resulting in land-use and land-cover change from 1973 to the present along the outskirts of the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area through the integration of information from satellite images taken at different times and a dynamic spatial model functioning on a geographic information system. Satellite-image processing, dynamic model development and calibration, and interactive data visualization will be used to assess the spatial and temporal characteristics of suburban land-use and land-cover change. The evolution of scattered and clustered urban forms will be evaluated in relation to demographic and socioeconomic changes. This project will enhance conceptual understandings of land-use and land-cover change mechanisms across different biophysical and socioeconomic domains, and it will add insights regarding the applicability of new forms of data integration and modeling of change. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.