Research on the spatial temporary evolution of urban expansion in Xining city and its surrounding areas based on Landsat time series data

Quantitative analysis of the process of urban expansion and evolution is of great practical significance for the future planning and development potential of valley cities. Based on GEE cloud platform and Landsat satellite data, this paper analyzed the spatio-temporal change characteristics and transfer rules of land cover in Xining City and its surrounding areas in the past 33 years by using random forest algorithm, spatio-temporal consistency test, land use dynamic attitude, transfer matrix and transfer hot spot analysis methods. The results show that the accuracy range of the preliminary classification of construction land is improved by 1.57%–3.53 % by using the spatio-temporal consistency test algorithm. The characteristics of land cover change in the study area are mainly the increase of construction land and forest area, the decrease of cultivated land and grassland area, the small change of water body and unused land, and the change of land cover type from cultivated land to urban construction land is prominent. The hot areas of construction land have gradually shifted from the central and eastern districts of the city in 1987 to the hot areas dominated by the Haihu New District of the West of the city, the Biological Park and the higher education base of the North District of the city, the South New District of the city, Duoba Town and the Ganhe Industrial Park in 2019.