Results - Response of Flood Events to Land Use and Climate Change - page 212

Calculated area (km 2 ) for different land use change over time

Table 6.23

Type 1956 1974 1982 1995 2000 2004

Coniferous forests 46.26 46.68 47.83 48.60 51.54 61.65

Natural grassland 10.51 10.43 10.22 10.22 11.51 11.35

Arable land 12.86 11.01 10.54 10.08 5.79 5.86

Pastures 4.20 5.40 5.63 5.03 3.93 4.04

Bare rocks 10.88 10.79 10.67 9.71 10.14 10.07

Black marls 4.76 4.66 4.29 4.24 4.24 4.37

Urban fabric 1.67 2.70 2.87 3.40 3.98 4.01

Water course 1.03 0.82 0.77 0.75 0.66 0.65

Marshes and water bodies 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.04

Alluvial deposits 0.99 0.82 0.86 0.89 0.90 0.84

this period. New construction has played an important role in encouraging urban
expansion and population increase. GIS-based analysis results show land use
changes from 1956 to 2004 (Fig. 6.81 ). These findings confirm anthropogenic
effects over the case study area and could be considered as main deriving factors in
the river's regime changes and also as an accompanying factor of climate change
in this study. This point was discussed in the climate change sections in more
detail.
Figure 6.82 shows more focusing on Barcelonnette area and compare the land
use change in 1956 and 2004.
Figure 6.83 shows the land use change over time: (a) 1956, (b) 1974, (c) 1982,
(d) 1995, (e) 2000, and (f) 2004. The red-dash line represents decreasing arable
land and increasing urban areas over time.
More focusing on results, as shown in Fig. 6.84 , confirm this fact that the arable
lands, the forests, the urban areas, and the water course were faced the most
changes from the past to now.
The result of this investigation is shown in Table 6.24 .
Being a touristic center, Barcelonnette has faced rapid urbanization over the
past 43 years. As part of these developments, this study provides important insight
into the urban land use changes that took place between 1956 and 2004, and aids in
monitoring these changes and in assessing the effects of planning decisions. An
integrated approach of GIS has been shown as an effective technique for the study
of land use analyses. The spatial analysis of thematic information which can be
derived from GIS helps in the assessment of developmental plans before they are
implemented in the field. For a better comparison of the changes between 1956 and
2004, the results are shown in Figs. 6.85 and 6.86 .