The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B7. Beijing 2008 
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Table 1. Surface coverage of years 1987, 1997 and 2007. 
As indicated in Table 1, the urban area and roads increase, in 
addition to forest is reduced in Istanbul between 1987 and 2007. 
As indicated in the Table 2, the urban area difference is 
increased 275,332 km 2 between 1987 and 1997, 183,365 km 2 
between 1997 and 2007, 458,699 km 2 between 1987 and 2007. 
Moreover, growth rate of the city between 1987 and 1997 is 
65%, between 1997 and 2007 is 26%, between 1987 and 2007 is 
109%. Istanbul’s urban area is almost doubled in 2007 of its 
value in 1987. 
includes urban area, agricultural area, forest, road, sea, lake and 
sand classifications. 
There is 10 year difference between images. Classification of 
the images shows the progress of the urban area in 10 year 
period which is started in 1987 and finished in 2007. There is a 
big difference between 1997 and 2007 images to 1987 image 
when their urban area compared to each other. 
Figure 4. Classification of the 1987 year urbanization for 
Istanbul image in 2007. 
Increasing of the urban areas and dicreasing of the forest and 
field areas have shown in the classification of images (figure 2, 
3, and 4) which are belong to 1987, 1997 and 2007. Moreover, 
numerical values of the urbanization change for 1987-2007 
period, are displayed in Table 1. 
Urban 
Road 
Agriculture 
Forest 
Sea 
Lake 
Sand 
Clouds 
Urban 
Road 
Agriculture 
Forest 
Sea 
Lake 
Sand 
Clouds 
Figure 2. Classification of the urbanization for Istanbul image in 
1987. 
Road 
Agriculture 
orest 
Sea 
Figure 3. Classification of the urbanization for Istanbul image in 
1997. 
1987 
1997 
2007 
Urban (km 2 ) 
325,964 
594,237 
746,583 
Roads (km 2 ) 
90,794 
101,855 
132,874 
Field (km 2 ) 
1587,780 
1543,586 
1514,900 
Forest (km 2 ) 
1640,618 
1388,679 
1216,794 
Lake (km 2 ) 
123,661 
138,291 
122,517 
Sea (km 2 ) 
1409,151 
1400,358 
1312,194 
Sand (km 2 ) 
52,333 
73,322 
102,726 
Cloud (km 2 ) 
8,974 
60,740 
1987-1997 
1997-2007 
1987-2007 
Urban 
area 
difference 
275,332 
km 2 
183,365 
km 2 
458,699 
km 2 
Growth 
J29 
65% 
26% 
109% 
Table 2. Urban area change from 1987 to 2007.