The process of urbanization is unavoidable due to economic growth and results in a high urban population and demand for residential facilities. In countries like Pakistan, people move from rural to urban cities for better amenities of life, which creates pressure on the available natural resources. Population growth, urban sprawl, changes in local and regional environmental characteristics, loss of agricultural land, and consumption of other environmental resources are major contributors to the urban growth trend. LULC changes could be natural or anthropogenic in nature. Land use and land cover (LULC) changes contribute to the alteration of the environment on local, regional, and global scales. The outcomes of this study may be helpful in policymaking for better planning and management of land use land cover and urban sprawl in the context of sustainable development goals. Population growth showed a strong positive correlation with the built-up class and a strong negative correlation with the bare land class for both cities. Surface water bodies decreased in both study areas. Vegetation showed an increment of 4.7% for Islamabad and 24.5% for Rawalpindi. Results revealed that built-up increased from 5.7% (52 km 2) to 25.7% (233 km 2) and 3.7% (60 km 2) to 14.1% (228 km 2) from 1990 to 2021 for Islamabad and Rawalpindi, respectively. Maximum likelihood algorithm and confusion matrix were employed for classification and accuracy assessment. For classification four land-use land cover classes: built-up, vegetation, bare land, and water were selected. The main objective of this study was a comparative assessment and quantification of LULC changes in relation to population growth and urbanization from 1990 to 2021 with the help of satellite imagery and population data in planned and unplanned cities. For the last three decades, Islamabad - a planned city, and Rawalpindi - an unplanned city, have experienced massive land use and land cover changes.
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