The spatial dynamics of land use changes in the metropolis of Tabriz is a critical topic for understanding urban growth dynamics and sustainable planning. This survey can help identify urban development patterns, prevent the destruction of natural and environmental resources, and guide growth towards balanced and sustainable development. This research utilizes Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI, and Landsat-9 OLI satellite images, along with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to analyze land use and land cover (LULC) changes in the years 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2023. The land use maps generated from supervised classification of remote sensing data indicate that over the 32-year period, built-up areas have increased by approximately 28%, primarily at the expense of valuable agricultural lands.

Identification of changes in the spatial pattern of LULC reveals that the highest average rate of increase in built-up areas occurs in Region 5, with an entropy value of -0.25, indicating significant changes in land use patterns. According to the results obtained from the Holdren model for the metropolis of Tabriz, which shows that 31.88% of urban expansion is due to population growth and 68.11% arises from unbalanced growth and sprawl, it is evident that Tabriz's spatial growth is largely driven by unbalanced development. Consequently, a significant increase in built-up land area, coupled with a decrease in water and agricultural resources, is observed, which will lead to future environmental crises. These findings underscore the necessity for comprehensive and sustainable planning to ensure balanced development and environmental protection in Tabriz.Spatial expansion of built-up areas in most urban centers of the world is mainly accelerated by the growth of urban population