Tracking urban growth and composition along the western portion of the U.S. - Mexico border: 1985 -2010
type: CreativeWork
description: Rapid urban growth has been a key characteristic of global land cover change over the last century. A microcosm of global urbanization can be seen in the US-Mexico border region. This dissertation follows the growth and composition of urban areas along the western portion of the border from 1985 - 2010 through three chapters. First, the remote sensing technique Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) was used with spatial metrics to compare relative quantities of vegetation, impervious surface and soil, between eight cities along the western portion of the international boundary. Three separate study areas enabled comparison of MESMA modeling techniques along a varying climatic gradient. For each study area a spectral library was constructed and applied to Landsat TM imagery. The most complex mix of urban materials required the most complex combination of MESMA models but spectral library complexity was related to the presence of abundant desert soils and lack of vegetation in the eastern border cities. Metrics of vegetation dominance and impervious surface orientation are well suited for differentiation of sociopolitical processes that result in variations in urban form on either side of the boundary. In the second chapter, the products of MESMA were used to represent urban areas in three ways: urban extent, dominant land cover, and continuous representations of vegetation, impervious surface, and soil. The urban representations were used to calculate landscape metrics and the metrics were subsequently analyzed over time from 1985 - 2010. Urban areas in the U.S. and Mexico follow a pattern of diffusion and coalescence however the scale of development in each country differs. Despite the differing scale and patterns of growth, the landscape metrics used in this study do not readily differentiate them. Also, in Mexico and the U.S., overall urban vegetation cover declined in terms of density and patch size while distance between patches of dominant vegeta…
abstract: Rapid urban growth has been a key characteristic of global land cover change over the last century. A microcosm of global urbanization can be seen in the US-Mexico border region. This dissertation follows the growth and composition of urban areas along the western portion of the border from 1985 - 2010 through three chapters. First, the remote sensing technique Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) was used with spatial metrics to compare relative quantities of vegetation, impervious surface and soil, between eight cities along the western portion of the international boundary. Three separate study areas enabled comparison of MESMA modeling techniques along a varying climatic gradient. For each study area a spectral library was constructed and applied to Landsat TM imagery. The most complex mix of urban materials required the most complex combination of MESMA models but spectral library complexity was related to the presence of abundant desert soils and lack of vegetation in the eastern border cities. Metrics of vegetation dominance and impervious surface orientation are well suited for differentiation of sociopolitical processes that result in variations in urban form on either side of the boundary. In the second chapter, the products of MESMA were used to represent urban areas in three ways: urban extent, dominant land cover, and continuous representations of vegetation, impervious surface, and soil. The urban representations were used to calculate landscape metrics and the metrics were subsequently analyzed over time from 1985 - 2010. Urban areas in the U.S. and Mexico follow a pattern of diffusion and coalescence however the scale of development in each country differs. Despite the differing scale and patterns of growth, the landscape metrics used in this study do not readily differentiate them. Also, in Mexico and the U.S., overall urban vegetation cover declined in terms of density and patch size while distance between patches of dominant vegeta…
author: Korbulic, Quinn P.
keywords: Remote Sensing, Urban landscape metrics, U.S. - Mexico border
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:47:36Z
provider: University of Nevada - Reno
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Nevada - Reno

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11714/3611