V-I-S model for cities that are experiencing rapid urbanization and development

This is a study of modeling urban environments from TM satellite images. Urban environments are so heterogeneous that it is necessary to simplify them as combinations of basic land cover materials in order to enable quantitative studies. The V-I-S model proposed by Ridd in 1995 is a conceptual model to simplify urban environments as combination of three basic ground components: vegetation, impervious surface, and soil. Most urban grounds can be interpreted as combinations of these three basic components. This model is used in this study on Shanghai City, China. As a step further, water bodies are masked. From the mixing space, however, we find some difference from the traditional V-I-S model according to the fact that most urban features have their own unique V-I-S composition. The difference can come down to the rapid urbanization and fast development in Shanghai. This is an uncommon course or stage in the development of cities' urbanization for it may be a case evidence to testify something. Specific urban ecosystem or environment model is built. Percentages of main ground components are extracted from TM data. Various charts and plots are generated to demonstrate the capacity of V-I-S composition on urban land cover analysis. This unique V-I-S composition may provide another ideas for further urban land cover analysis aiming at cities that are experiencing rapid urbanization and development.