Applying Built-Up and Bare-Soil Indices from Landsat 8 to Cities in Dry Climates

Azad Rasul, Heiko Balzter, Gaylan R. Faqe Ibrahim, Hasan M. Hameed, James Wheeler, Bashir Adamu, Sa’ad Ibrahim and Peshawa M. Najmaddin
Additional contact information
Azad Rasul: Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Heiko Balzter: Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Gaylan R. Faqe Ibrahim: Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Soran University, Soran 44008, Iraq
Hasan M. Hameed: Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Soran University, Soran 44008, Iraq
James Wheeler: Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Bashir Adamu: Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Sa’ad Ibrahim: Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Peshawa M. Najmaddin: Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

Land, 2018, vol. 7, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Arid and semi-arid regions have different spectral characteristics from other climatic regions. Therefore, appropriate remotely sensed indicators of land use and land cover types need to be defined for arid and semi-arid lands, as indices developed for other climatic regions may not give plausible results in arid and semi-arid regions. For instance, the normalized difference built-up index (NDBI) and normalized difference bareness index (NDBaI) are unable to distinguish between built-up areas and bare and dry soil that surrounds many cities in dry climates. This paper proposes the application of two newly developed indices, the dry built-up index (DBI) and dry bare-soil index (DBSI) to map built-up and bare areas in a dry climate from Landsat 8. The developed DBI and DBSI were applied to map urban areas and bare soil in the city of Erbil, Iraq. The results show an overall classification accuracy of 93% (κ = 0.86) and 92% (κ = 0.84) for DBI and DBSI, respectively. The results indicate the suitability of the proposed indices to discriminate between urban areas and bare soil in arid and semi-arid climates.

Keywords: dry built-up index (DBI); dry bare-soil index (DBSI); dry climates; land use land cover; Erbil; remote sensing; indices; Landsat 8 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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