A method for detecting and describing land use transformations: An examination of Madrid’s southern urban–rural gradient between 1990 and 2006

• The present work proposes a methodology for analyzing the urban–rural gradient.
• It can be used anywhere in Europe allowing analyses over different periods of time.
• There are huge differences in speed of urbanization compared to other transformations.
• Urbanization was the predominant land use transformation in the study area.

The growth of large cities often involves changes in territorial and landscape structures. Modern procedures for classifying land cover, based on mapping involving territorial databases (such as the European CORINE database) and geographic information systems, allow changes in land use, the spatial distribution of land use, and territorial dynamics to be examined. The present study identifies and quantifies the urban–rural transformation processes that occurred over the period 1990–2006 towards the south of Madrid. The results obtained show urbanization to have been the predominant transformation process. The speed of transformation towards urban land use has been enormous, increasing the urbanized area by over 100% between 1990 (29,914 ha) and 2006 (70,095 ha). Characterizing the transformation processes that take place along urban–rural gradients provides a means of quantifying the impact of urbanization on the landscape.

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