Mapping Urban Change for Planning the Future

The process of transformation of Maputo City (in Mozambique) was observed and mapped over 5 decades (between 1964 and 2008) based on several different data sources (historical aerial photos, digital base maps, Quickbird and Ikonos satellite images). As a first result the time series of maps and mapping process in GIS will be presented. Special attention will be given to the fact that the nomenclature includes a morpho-functional semantics incompatible with an automated process using digital image processing. The “Land Change Modeler for ArcGIS” was used for the quantification and localization of land use change. A second result will point out a dichotomy between the urbanized colonial city and the sprawling suburbs, which corresponds to the general model of land use organization and its change. Two types, which are also categories of change, can be identified: the central land use changes which have little significance, but are important from a functional point of view; and the suburban land use changes, which involve vast areas of dominant residential land use. The third result corresponds to the analysis of these changes in the context of the Municipal Urban Master Plan, recently approved. The guidelines of this plan and the relevance of the thematic cartographic information in which it was based are discussed in this paper. The significance of the land use change model calculated for the plan proposal and the simulation of future scenarios for urban expansion will also be discussed. Focus on the importance of the land use maps produced, in the absence of other maps, to provide the Municipal Urban Master Plan, and its permanent update based on satellite images providing territory monitoring.