**7. Overall conclusions**

sprawl phenomenon in the study area. Moreover, the fractal shape dimension value was al‐ ways slightly higher than 1, indicating a moderate shape complexity. In addition, the de‐ crease in Euclidean Nearest Neighbor Distance metric between 2000 and 2010 denoted a reduction in the distance between the built-up patches, suggesting coalescence (Table 8).

**No Metrics 2000 2010** 1 Edge Density 0.7014 2.8892 2 Largest Patch Index 0.0003 0.0005 3 Class Area (km2) 6.042 18.123 4 Number of Patches 1794 7894 5 Euclidean Nearest Neighbour Distance 1886.36 593.2545 6 Contagion 54.845 47.8295 7 Area weighted mean patch fractal dimension 1.0021 1.0061

However, it is important to mention that the landscape metrics results can be used as gener‐

The impacts of changes in land use patterns on hydrology due to extensive urbanization in the spatial limits of watershed is a critical issue in water resource management and water‐ shed land use planning. Land use and land cover maps of the study area for the years 2000 and 2010 were obtained using spectral bands, texture bands or combination of both of them. The major motivation for the use of alternative classification methodologies was the exis‐ tence of similar spectral signatures for urban and marl/chalk geologic formations located in the study area. These methodologies were evaluated for their accuracy and the optimum classification products were selected in order to be used to the research of urban land use regime evolution during the last decade. In both cases (2000 and 2010) the combination of three spectral bands with the first three principal components extracted from texture bands led to more accurate and reliable results. In the next stage, landscape spatial metrics were used to measure the urban sprawl phenomenon in the study area and its changes through time. Specifically, seven metrics were applied to the two final classified images. The results from the vast majority of the metrics, besides Euclidean distance measurement, denoted a steady dispersion of urban settlements within the area of watershed. Although there was not a significant total urban area increase during this period, a considerable urban sprawl

This study denoted that spatial measures, such as texture, can play an important role in the analysis of satellite imagery. The overall improvement of classification accuracy products derived from images of medium spatial resolution such as those of Aster highlights the po‐

al indicators and do not provide the users with absolute answers.

**Table 8.** Landscape indices

124 Remote Sensing of Environment: Integrated Approaches

phenomenon was recorded.

**6.6. Results**

**Year**

This study revealed that the integrated use of satellite remote sensing and GIS technology can contribute substantially to the sustainable management of a watershed basin. Interpreta‐ tion of multi-spectral satellite sensor data proved to be of great help in the development of updated LULC maps and record of the LULC regime and urban sprawl phenomenon in a catchment area. Moreover, a soil erosion model such as RUSLE was found to be efficiently applied at basin scale with quite modest data requirements in a Mediterranean environ‐ ment. The RUSLE model provides the end users with reliable quantitative and spatial infor‐ mation concerning soil erosion and erosion risk in general. Following, the results denoted the potential of Radar imagery in recording soil moisture regime of an inundated area as well its potential to improve classification accuracy.

The overall results pointed out the substantial contribution of satellite remote sensing to the sustainable management of a catchment area.
