Structural Urban Landscape Changes over Time Series in Gangneung-Si
This study analyzes structural landscape changes over a time-series for a small and medium-sized city, Gangneung-Si, based on area and distribution patterns, and according to the type of land cover. Among the types of land cover, the area ratio of urbanized areas increased by 2.02% in the late 2010s as compared to the late 1980s, while there was a decrease of 2.69% in farmland and 0.69% in grassland areas. On analyzing the changes in land cover use by applying the Fragstats program, it was confirmed that landscape changes in urban and management areas were relatively severe according to the Landscape Shape Index, Largest Patch Index, and Aggregation Index. A pattern of concentrated expansion was also found around certain areas. In particular, from the analysis, it was established that the proportion of urbanized area had considerably increased and that the extent of farmland damage to management areas, including planned management areas, was large. Additionally, the Total Core Area generally indicated a reduction in the core areas of farmland and forest within urban and management areas. A medium-sized city showed significant changes besides large cities in terms of landscape structure. The developmental pressure on management areas, in particular, was quite high.