Interdisciplinary Journal of Civil Engineering

Interdisciplinary Journal of Civil Engineering

Geospatial Assessment of Urban Expansion and Green Infrastructure Dynamics for Sustainable Urban Planning in Kabul, Afghanistan

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mohammadnoor Ataie 1
Zahra Azizi 2
Behnaz Ghaderi 1
Maryam Aghamiri 1
1 Department of Remote Sensing & GIS, SR. C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Geoinformation & Geomatics Engineering, Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
10.48308/ijce.2026.244964.1026
Abstract
Rapid urbanization in conflict-affected cities often occurs with limited planning capacity and inadequate spatial information, creating challenges for sustainable urban management. This study assessed urban expansion and green infrastructure dynamics in Kabul, Afghanistan, between 2013 and 2023 using multi-temporal Landsat imagery and an integrated geospatial framework. Landsat data were processed through atmospheric correction, spectral index extraction, supervised Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification, and GIS-based change detection analysis. Vegetation dynamics were evaluated using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), while urban expansion was characterized using the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI). Land use/land cover maps were generated for four classes, including built-up land, vegetation, bare land, and water bodies. Classification performance was assessed using confusion matrices, overall accuracy, and the Kappa coefficient. The results revealed substantial urban expansion, primarily concentrated in the northern, western, and southern sectors of Kabul. Although localized improvements in vegetation density were observed, urban growth exerted increasing pressure on surrounding open lands and green infrastructure. Overall classification accuracy improved from 92.02% in 2013 to 99.28% in 2023, demonstrating the reliability of the proposed methodology. The integrated geospatial framework provides a practical, transparent, and transferable decision-support tool for monitoring urban growth, prioritizing green infrastructure conservation.
Keywords
Landsat Time Series
Support Vector Machine (SVM)
NDVI
Urban Expansion
Kabul
Afghanistan
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Interdisciplinary Journal of Civil Engineering
Volume 2, Issue 1 - Serial Number 5
Winter 2026
Pages 105-119