Monitoring Urban Expansion by Coupling Multi-Temporal Active Remote Sensing and Landscape Analysis: Changes in the Metropolitan Area of Cordoba (Argentina) from 2010 to 2021

Uncontrolled and unsustainable urban sprawl are altering the Earth’s surface at unprecedented rates. This research explores the potential of active remote sensors for mapping urban areas, for monitoring urban expansion processes and for depicting landscape pattern dynamics in a metropolis of South America. Based on multi-temporal urban cover maps of Cordoba, Argentina, purposely derived from COSMO-SkyMed SAR data by urban extraction algorithms, we quantified urban surface increase and described urbanization processes that occurred during 2010–2021 in sectors with different degrees of soil sealing. We extracted urban extent in four time-steps using an Urban EXTent extraction (UEXT) algorithm and quantified urban expansion, identifying newly built areas on 2.5 ha cells. For these cells, we computed urban cover and a set of landscape pattern indices (PIs), and by projecting them in a composition vs. configuration Cartesian space we performed a trajectory analysis. SAR-based urban extraction and cover change proved to be very accurate. Overall accuracy and Cohen’s Kappa statistic evidenced very high values, always above 91.58% and 0.82, respectively, for urban extraction, and also above 90.50% and 0.72 concerning the accuracy of urban expansion. Cordoba’s urban surface significantly increased (≈900 ha in 10 years) following three main spatial processes in different city sectors (e.g., edge-expansion and outlying on peri-urban areas, and infill inside the ring road), which may have contrasting effects on the sustainability of the metropolitan area. Trajectory analysis highlighted non-linear relations between the urban cover and the PIs. Areas with very low and low urban intensity underwent a steep rise of both urban cover and PI values (e.g., urban patch dimension, complexity and number), depicting urban edge-expansion and outlying processes. In the areas with medium and high urban intensity the increase in patch dimension, along with the decrease in patch number and complexity, evidence the coalescence of urban areas that incorporate in the urban fabric the remnants of non-built up zones and fill the few residual green spaces. The proposed SAR mapping procedure coupled with landscape analysis proved to be useful to detect and depict different moments of urban expansion and, pending more tests on other cities and geographical conditions, it could be postulated among the RS indicators to monitor the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals established by