Urban sprawl into the Niagara Region: the effect of urban encroachment on agriculture seen through the use of remote sensing applications and landscape metrics

The Niagara Region contains land that is ideal for agricultural practices. This thesis strives to illuminate whether or not urban growth in the Niagara Region is a detriment to agricultural land use. Using Landsat 5 TM and 8 OLI-TIRS satellite imagery, spatial statistics, called landscape metrics, will be utilized to determine growth and loss of urban and agriculture land uses. Satellite imagery will be classified based on researched methods in order to create land class maps. These maps will then be utilized for landscape metrics using the Patch Analyst extension for ArcMap. Change detection methods will also be observed. The above methods will be done for the overall landscape of the Niagara Region. This study will find that agriculture in the Niagara Region is changing and endeavors to highlight how urban sprawl is part of the cause. Fragmentation will be discussed as part of the issues due to urban sprawl.