Mapping the Urban Changes Using GIS Technology Case Stydy-Tirana City, Capital of Albania

Tirana is the capital city of Albania. During the years different government has apply different Urban Plans what bring many changes on the city, some of them with positive and negative impact on the city development and in environment. The purpose of this paper is to map the Urban Changes and their impact on environment over the years. The mapping and analyzing process is done using GIS technology. The methodology used is the comparison of the actual situation of the city with that before over the years through existing maps and satellite images. To realize these objectives the following steps have been taken: Urban Plans and satellite imagery analyzing; Identification of changed areas on the ground, etc. The result of this paper is the GIS maps of Urban Changes in Tirana over the year and the impact on the environment. The paper closes with conclusions and recommendations for the future.