Change detection: how has urban expansion in Buenos Aires metropolitan region affected croplands

ABSTRACTCropland is one of the essential elements of our ecological systems for producing agricultural products. In developing countries, urban expansion is a frequently appearing phenomena, which is a type of land cover land use (LCLU) change. This change can drastically alter the features on the land surface including croplands. It can lead to detrimental consequences which has considerable effects on the social-ecological systems when croplands are lost. Argentina is an extremely agricultural intense developing country, and Buenos Aires province is a top agricultural production site and has been urbanizing during the last 30 years. Thus studying and analyzing the metropolitan area of this province will contribute to our understanding of the relationship between urban expansion and its effect on croplands. So far, no research has used measurable quantitative methodologies on the Buenos Aires metropolitan region (BAMR) to reveal the relationship between urbanization and cropland. By using 30-meter resolu...