... Department of Natural Resourcesand Environment, the mainlandusestructure in Ho Chi Minh City isshown in Table1andFig.2.Table1.Mainlandusestructure in Ho Chi Minh City overyearsLanduse/ Year ... rateStudyareaVNUJournal of Science,EarthSciences24(2008)104‐111104Researchon the effect of urbanexpansiononagriculturalland in Ho Chi Minh City byusingremotesensingmethodTranThiVan*InstituteforEnvironmentandResources,VNU‐HCMCReceived11April2008;received in revisedform13July2008Abstract. Ho Chi Minh City isaone of the biggestcities of Vietnam.Before1945,therewereabout400,000inhabitantsliving in the city. During the lasttwodecades,itbecame the biggestindustrialand commercial center of the country.According to the statistics in 2005,itspopulationwasabout6.2millionpeople. ... TMandETM+ to extract the built‐up land in the city and evaluate the change of agricultural land underurbanization in Ho Chi Minh City. 2. The studyarea Ho Chi Minh City has a very favorablegeographicallocation in the centre of the richSouthern...