Application of the GIS Visual Interpretation Technique in Monitoring Air Pollution and Changes in Land Use During Urban Development

Abstract

Geographic information systems (GIS) have gone through many phases of development since their inception several decades ago. GIS is a tool for analyzing and representing the geographic features of the Earth's surface and the events taking place using a computer system. The article concerns the presentation of the potential of GIS software and the increase in its use in scientific research. The first research area is the issue of air pollution, which is the main problem of highly urbanized regions. This research part presents a spatial analysis of changes in the level of pollution in the European Union countries. The second research area aims to present the functionality of GIS software in the field of mapping land use and socio-economic activities in the strongly changing process of urbanization and development of large urban agglomerations. Research in this area is a useful tool for visualizing dynamic changes related to urbanization changes in areas that can be used in spatial planning. The article presents the process of creating spatial development maps based on SPOT-5 covering the years 2000 and 2012 in order to develop spatial development maps and monitor changes in land use. Time series of SPOT-5 2000/2012 images will be compared to detect changes. This example was based on Sungai Petani from a selected city in Malaysia.