MAPPING POST APARTHEID SETTLEMENT GROWTH PATTERNS USING
REMOTE SENSING AND GIS: A CASE OF SELECTED SOUTH AFRICAN CITIES
D.L.
Dechlan1, M.D. Sebake2
1 - Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
Meraka Institute (African Advanced Institute for Information and Communication
Technology)
2 - Council for Geoscience
dlpillay@csir.co.za
The spatial contexts in which South African
towns have been planned have its roots in the principles of Apartheid as a
system of maintaining separation between the various racial groups. As a result
cities in South Africa
have taken on distinctive spatial pattern that have resulted in socio spatial
inequality and a generally dysfunctional urban form. In this light, the
previously disadvantaged and socio economically marginalised inhabit the
peripheral regions of cities while the groups in higher social levels enjoy the
prime areas and benefit from products of these areas. Landsat ETM satellite
data was used to assess post Apartheid settlement growth in pre-selected cities.
High resolution aerial photographs were used to create base classes of land use
for the nine cities for 2002/3. These were then assessed and remapped using
past Landsat images for the ten year period. A unique raster based manual
classification procedure was used. This ensured that the classes remained the
same for the ten year intervals and that the growth of each class was easily
recognised. The areas were mapped using the GIS utilities present in ERDAS
Imagine 8.7. The mapped classes were
then transformed into GIS format and analysed using the appropriate GIS tools.
The analysis of the spatial change within each city was complemented with
theoretical data such as census information and integrated development plans
from each municipality. The results showed divergent development between
socio-economic strata with new development taking place largely in the
peripheral areas of South African settlements. These trends maybe attributed
to, amongst others, efforts by local governments in formalising previously
disadvantaged settlement areas alongside contemporary processes of urban sprawl
characterising new development around decentralised nodes.