The current study represents an attempt to investigate the status of Omdurman City urban land, Sudan to identify,
characterize and quantify the urban sprawl using remote sensing and GIS techniques as well as statistical calculations. The
identification, characterization and quantification of sprawl are very important for better urban planning and land resource
management. The main objective of this study is to identify and characterize the urban sprawl and population growth of
Omdurman City in the period from 1987 through 2000 to 2013 using the powerfulness of remote sensing and GIS
technologies to process three Landsat TM, ETM and OLI imageries for the detection, measurement, and analysis of land
use/land cover (LULC) changes. The outcome of this study indicated that the total population increased from 552,161
persons in 1983 census to 963,301 persons in1993 census and reached 2,099,751 persons in 2008 census. Omdurman City
population is increasing rapidly from 150,000 in 1890 to 3,099,711 in 2014, depending mainly on displacement, migration
and natural population growth. As a consequence, the urban land in the study area was increased from 147.8 square km in
the year 1987, to 245.5 square km in 2000. This increase may be attributed to the population growth; however, the migration
contributes significantly. Two types of displacement and migration occurred: from the rural areas to Khartoum, and that
happened during the eighties of the last century due to desertification affected most parts of Sudan, the event that forced
many people to migrate to Khartoum. The urban land was increase to 614.9 square km in the year 2013 representing 160%
of the urban land in 2000. An increase of about 316% between the years 1987 and 2013 was attained in the period of 26
years. The urban expansion was at the expense of the other land use/land cover types, among which the cultivated areas.