Spatial-temporal transformation of land cover between the period 1979-2019, and its projection to 2038, for the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM), Costa Rica

Abstract

The processes of change in land use coverage can be described according to the regional urban dynamics in Costa Rica through analysis of geographic information systems as support tools for spatial analysis. In the case of the city region of the Greater Metropolitan Area, dynamics associated with the protection areas, the coverage of land uses for the year, the change in urban coverage during the years 1979, 2000 and 2019 are described. In addition, the probability of change of urban coverage to the year 2038 which allows projecting the trend that this region will have in the future. The data reflects that the GAM from the first year under study has grown steadily in terms of infrastructure and, clearly, also in population. A space-time transformation has been generated where it is highlighted that both inside and outside the containment ring, which must be remembered that its priority function within the limit is for urban use and outside the limit preferably rural, however, it has suffered great pressures, which based on the data obtained shows that outside this ring its coverage is being pressured by the urban.