LAUSR

With the ongoing development of economy and urbanization in China, the change of land use types has attracted more and more attention. In this study we focused on the urban development of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, analyzing Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI data. We used an SVM based classification, a land transfer matrix approach, a directional growth analysis method and we calculated the inversion of land surface temperature to derive information of land cover changes that occurred in the time period between 1987 and 2017. The results are combined with Shenzhen’s economy, transportation policy and other aspects to find the driving forces of the urban development. The results show that during the observed 30 years, the area of construction land has increased significantly. Most of it is converted from other lands, and some of them are reclaimed. Most rapidly developing are areas west and northwest of the Bao’an, Nanshan and Longhua. The vegetated areas decreased slightly. Caused by the continuous increase of the construction land, the so-called heat island effect emerges slightly but continuously.