Ottawa: land change, 2016–2025
Two Sentinel-2 satellite images of a 20 km square around Ottawa, from 2016-07-20 and 2025-07-18, 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
- 2016-07-20
- After
- 2025-07-18
- Area analysed
- 394 km²
Change
+81.9 km²net change in built-up area
In cells the model is sure of on both dates (confidence ≥ 0.8): 30.3 km² became built-up, 32.4 km² changed in total.
Land cover on both dates
| 2016 | 2025 | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture decreased | 4.3% | 0.7% | -3.6 |
| Natural vegetation decreased | 50.9% | 32.7% | -18.2 |
| Built-up increased | 37.4% | 58.2% | +20.8 |
| Water no notable change | 7.5% | 8.4% | +0.9 |
Largest transitions (confident cells)
- Natural vegetation → Built-up27.9 km²
- Agriculture → Built-up2.5 km²
- Agriculture → Natural vegetation1.2 km²
- Natural vegetation → Water0.8 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 only; results for places tagged "experimental" are less reliable.
- Clouds, shadows and seasonal differences can show change that is not there.