COMBINED APPROACHES FOR THE AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF URBAN AREAS: APPLICATION TO THE STUDY OF URBAN SPRAWL OF CASABLANCA.

The spatial expansion of towns and cities is one of the main areas management urban planning. Indeed, this sprawl largely governs the form of the economic development of the city as well as the distribution mode and the population interaction with space. The objective of this study is to evaluate the urban expansion of the economic capital of Morocco (Casablanca) during the last three decades quantifying the urban areas during this period and analyzing the form of this sprawl based on the observation techniques of the earth namely the images of the spatial detection. So to visualize this spatial dynamics, Landsat TM sensor images, Landsat ETM + and OLI have been used for the monitoring of built areas. The Classification treatments, the segmentation and the interpretation were used to map urban areas and thereby to deduce various forms of changes made in the study area. The monitoring of this spatial dynamics is of great importance as it highlights the challenge of the urban planning and the management of the urban environment which are nowadays important issues for the country.