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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ISPRS-Archives</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ISPRS-Archives</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2194-9034</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIX-B3-2026-545-2026</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>An Automated Approach based on Machine Learning for Tracking Urban Expansion: Case of Study in Gharbia Governorate, Egypt</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ahmed</surname>
<given-names>Wael</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Atef</surname>
<given-names>Islam</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Baraka</surname>
<given-names>Moustafa</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>ElShazly</surname>
<given-names>Adel</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Senousi</surname>
<given-names>Ahmad M.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Darwish</surname>
<given-names>Walid</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0549-6052</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Geomatics Engineering Lab, Public Works Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>NAMAA for Engineering Consultations, Dokki, Giza 12612, Egypt</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Department of Civil Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Civil Engineering Program, German University in Cairo, 11835, Egypt</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>30</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>XLIX-B3-2026</volume>
<fpage>545</fpage>
<lpage>550</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Wael Ahmed et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B3-2026/545/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B3-2026-545-2026.html">This article is available from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B3-2026/545/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B3-2026-545-2026.html</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B3-2026/545/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B3-2026-545-2026.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B3-2026/545/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B3-2026-545-2026.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), and the protection of terrestrial ecosystems (SDG 15), is closely linked to understanding patterns of urbanization. Rapid urban growth significantly influences ecosystem functions, including transportation, housing, and economic development. Monitoring this growth and analyzing performance patterns are essential for supporting decision-making and guiding urban planning and management. This study presents an automatic approach for monitoring urban expansion by applying the Random Forest machine learning classifier from 2015 to 2025 using Google Earth Engine. The method exploits spectral indices not only for unsupervised classification but also for training the Random Forest classifier, thereby ensuring a fully automated workflow. The proposed approach is applied to Gharbia Governorate, a region which lacks surrounding desert margins and is instead entirely composed of fertile agricultural land, to monitor urban expansion in three-year intervals. The proposed study, which achieved a kappa coefficient exceeding 0.96 across all study periods, revealed a gradual decline in agricultural land from 75.5% in 2015 to 72.7% in 2025. These outcomes offer valuable insights to support evidence-based planning and promote sustainable land use management.</p>
</abstract>
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