Ancient Defensive Structures Shape Long Term Land Use in Damghan Iran
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Unregulated land-use change complicates the management of historic cities in seismic regions. Damghan, northeastern Iran, enclosed by an ~ 8.8-km defensive wall, provides a testbed to examine how fortifications shape long-term urban form. We integrated historical maps, 1955 aerial photos, declassified CORONA imagery (1972, 1981), and recent very-high-resolution satellite data to reconstruct land-use trajectories from the medieval period to 2025. All datasets were georeferenced and orthorectified; object-based image analysis with SVM classification supported change detection. Urban area grew slowly until the mid-20th century, then accelerated after the 1970s, with a persistent west–southwest bias. Despite its lost military role, the wall continued to act as a spatial boundary limiting expansion, especially along northern and southern sectors. Limited growth to the east likely reflects early wall destruction and local hydro-geomorphic constraints. Results show that historical defensive structures can shape urban development for centuries and demonstrate the value of multi-temporal remote sensing for managing heritage cities in arid regions.