Monitoring and Landscape Quantification of Uncontrolled Urbanisation in Oasis Regions: The Case of Adrar City in Algeria

Nowadays uncontrolled urbanisation is one of the major problems facing Algerian oasis regions The monitoring and evaluation of its landscape transformations remain a key step for any oasis sustainability project This study highlights the evolution of spatial growth in the city of Adrar in southern Algeria during the period 19862016 by establishing a Spatiotemporal mapping and landscape quantification The methodological approach is based on a multitemporal analysis of Landsat satellite images for 1986 1996 2006 and 2016 and the application of landscape metrics The results show two opposite spatial trends significant growth of builtup areas against an excessive loss of palm groves The landscape metrics allowed the identification of a progressive fragmentation process characterising the palm groves Thus the findings of this study show the utility of satellite imagery and landscape metrics approach for monitoring urbanisation patterns and assessing their impacts on oasis ecosystems