INTRODUCTION

Patterns and processes of globalization are influencing factors for contemporary land use trends and unknown challenges for sustaining land use systems (Currit and Easterling, 2009) fornewly emerging cities. Analysing  these landscape  patterns  and  dynamics  becomes  one of  the  main  goals  of  landscape, geographicaland ecology studies.  Landscape changes are an important aspect as they play an important role in theglobal environment(Wood and Handley,2001; Firmino, 1999) earth dynamics (Vitousek, 1994)and the spatial patterns of their transformation through time are undoubtedly related to changes inland uses (Potter and Lobley, 1996).Landscape changes are diverse but very often influenced by regionalpolicies (Calvo-Iglesias et al., 2008).The  main  driving  factors  for global environmental changes are been  identified  as  agriculture  intensification  (Green,  1990; Harms  et  al.,  1984)  or  urbanisation  (Phipps  et  al., 1986)  in  the  context  of  local  policies (Lipsky,  1992;  Meeus,  1993; Kubes,  1994). It is accepted that socio-economic impacts areoften determinant of the types of land use within a given region; they in turn affect environmental issues (Mander and Palang,1994; Melluma, 1994). In order to address these urbanization challenges without compromisingthe environment values and their local sustainance, land use planning and necessary supporting data are crucial, especially to developing countries under severe environmental and demographic strains(Food and Agriculture Organization, 1995).

Urbanization being a global and highly irreversible process involving changes in vast expanse of land cover with the progressive concentration of human population. Urbanising landscapes will invariably have high population density that might lead to lack of infrastructure and provision of basic facilities. The  urban population  in  India  is growing at about 2.3% per annum with  the global urban population increasing from 13% (220 million in 1900) to 49% (3.2 billion, in 2005) and  is  projected  to  escalate to 60%  (4.9 billion)  by  2030  (Ramachandra  and Kumar, 2008; Urbanization Prospects, 2005). Population of Mysore is 0.789 million as per census 2001 which was 0.653 million as per census 1991.

The increase in urban population  in  response  to  the growth  in  urban  areas  is  mainly  due  to  migration.  There  are  48  urban cities (Tier I)  having  a  population  of more  than  one million  in  India  (in  2011). As the Tier 1 cities have reached the saturation level of providing basic amenities and are affected with over population, the growth in Tier 2 cities offer humongous potential as they already possess the basic amenities required or have capability of providing the same. The basic infrastructure like roads, air and rail connectivity should be ensured. Apart from these, the government should also ensure adequate social infrastructure such as educational institutions, hospitals along with other facilities and the tier 2 towns must be planned to handle the growth of population over few decades, which otherwise leads to a phenomena Urban Sprawl.

Urban Sprawl is characterised bya sharp imbalance between urban spatial expansion and theunderlying population growth (Bruekner, 2001). Sprawl  of  human  settlements,  both  around  existing  cities  andwithin  rural  areas,  is  a  major  driving  force  of  land  use  and  land  coverchange  worldwide  (Batisani & Yarnal,  2009;  Gonzalez-Abraham et  al.,  2007). Sprawl is a process entails the growth of the urban area from the urban center towards the pheripheryof the city municipal jurisdiction. These small pockets in the outskirts will be lacking in basic amenities like supply of treated water, electricity, sanitation facilities. Sprawl is associated with high negative impacts and especially the increasing dependency for Basic amenities (Torrens & Alberti, 2000), the need for more infrastructure (Bruekner, 2001), the loss of agricultural and natural land, higher energy consumption, the degradation of peri urban ecosystems etc., (Johnson, 2001; Li et al., 2006; Lagarias, 2011). Understanding this kind of growth over past few decades is a very crucial factor that helps the administration to handle the population growth and helps to provide basic amenities and more importantly the sustainable management of local natural resources through regional planning.

The basic information about the current and historical land cover/land use plays a major role for urban planning and management (Zhang et al., 2002). Mapping landscapes on temporal scale provide an opportunity to  monitor  the  changes,  which  is  important  for  natural  resource  management  and sustainable  planning  activities. In this context, “Density Gradient” with the time series spatial data analysis is potentially useful in measuring urban development (Torrens and alberti, 2000). This article presents the temporal land use analysis and adopts the density gradient approach to evaluate and monitor landscape dynamics and the landscape pattern.