Abstract
Land-use in northern Cheongju region is changing rapidly because of the increased interactions of human activities with the environment as population increases. Land-use change detection is considered essential for monitoring the growth of an urban complex. The analysis was undertaken mainly on the basis of the multi-temporal Landsat images (1991, 1992 and 2000) and DEM data in a post-classification analysis with GIS to map land-use distribution and to analyse factors influencing the land-use changes for Cheongju city. The area of each land-use category was also calculated for monitoring land-use changes. Land-use statistics revealed that substantial land-use changes have taken place and that the built-up areas have expanded by about $17.57km^2$ (11.47%) over the study period (1991 - 2000). This study illustrated an increasing trend of urban and barren lands areas with a decreasing trend of agricultural and forest areas. Land-use changes from one category to others have been clearly represented by the NDVI composite images, which were found suitable for delineating the development of urban areas and land use changes in northern Cheongju region. Rapid economic developments together with the increasing population were noted to be the major factors influencing rapid land use changes. Urban expansion has replaced urban and barren lands.
