Istanbul (around the airport): land change, 2016–2025
Two Sentinel-2 satellite images of a 20 km square around Istanbul (around the airport), from 2016-07-24 and 2025-07-20, were classified by a ResNet18 model trained on EuroSAT. Every 640 m cell is put in one of four land-cover groups, and the two dates are compared cell by cell.
- Before
- 2016-07-24
- After
- 2025-07-20
- Area analysed
- 394 km²
Change
+37.8 km²net change in built-up area
In cells the model is sure of on both dates (confidence ≥ 0.8): 22.1 km² became built-up, 39.7 km² changed in total.
Land cover on both dates
| 2016 | 2025 | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture decreased | 27.7% | 16% | -11.7 |
| Natural vegetation increased | 38.3% | 40.9% | +2.6 |
| Built-up increased | 17.2% | 26.8% | +9.6 |
| Water no notable change | 16.9% | 16.2% | -0.7 |
Largest transitions (confident cells)
- Natural vegetation → Built-up12.7 km²
- Agriculture → Natural vegetation9.4 km²
- Agriculture → Built-up9.4 km²
- Built-up → Natural vegetation3.3 km²
- Natural vegetation → Agriculture2.9 km²
Limits
- Every value shown is a model estimate, not a measurement.
- Areas are not measurements but approximations counted from cells. The figures are always computed on 640 m cells; the scale only changes how the map is drawn.
- The model was trained on European images; results outside Europe are less reliable.
- Clouds, shadows and seasonal differences can show change that is not there.