Google Earth Engine-Based Visual/Qualitative Investigation on Urbanization: Quick Urban Sprawl Visualization in Beijing, China

An increase in the global population has led to a net shift of the global community to move towards cities from per-urban and village areas due to various reasons. This population pressure has made a net expansion of cities over time making urban-periurban fringe quite non-distinguishable in past decades. Especially in developing countries, these cities' expansion is often done on agricultural lands resulting in fast depletion of the most important natural resource responsible for feeding the globe. Google Earth Engine is an open access multi functional remote sensing platform that can be effectively used to monitor urban sprawls. In this chapter, after a brief introduction of urbanization, google earth engine based investigation is presented to visualize urban sprawl patterns in Beijing China. Visual presentation and high spatial resolution of google earth engine have proven to be very beneficial in this regard and the author strongly recommends using it for quick multi temporal urbanization study.