Measuring urban sustainability is a multi-dimensional issue, while urban quality and patterns provide useful information on the state of urban sustainability, urban flows are also crucial to guide sustainable urban planning for improving the understanding of how urban sustainability performance is interacted with its activities and lifestyles. One direction in studying urban flows is to examine urban impact on the environment through ecological footprints by analysing the flows of natural resources that support urban metabolism. This helps to allow a conservative measurement of human impacts by measuring the biologically productive land and sea areas which are required to maintain the biotic resource consumptions and compensate carbon emissions for a given population. Tier II cities in Karnataka have been chosen for implementing the proposed study.
Temporal land use changes refer to dynamic changes that the land/geographical area has undergone with time, which can be effectively analysed using the satellite data (ex: Landsat data) and classifying it using supervised pattern classifiers based on Gaussian maximum likelihood estimation using maximum likelihood estimation with the best estimates maximising the probability of the pixels falling into one of the classes using the open source program of Geographic Resources Analysis Support System http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/grass). The study regions were analyzed by considering a buffer and dividing the region based on directions and using the effective concentric ring approach. The complexity of a dynamic phenomenon of urban sprawl pattern has been done through the computation of sprawl indicator metrics.
- Greater Bangalore: Greater Bangalore is the administrative, cultural, commercial, industrial, and knowledge capital of the state of Karnataka, India with an area of 741 sq. km. and lies between the latitude 12°39’00’’ to 13°13’00’’ N and longitude 77°22’00’’ to 77°52’00’’ E. Bangalore city administrative jurisdiction was redefined in the year 2006 by merging the existing area of Bangalore city spatial limits with 8 neighbouring Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and 111 Villages of Bangalore Urban District. Bangalore has grown spatially more than ten times since 1949 (~69 square kilometres to 716 square kilometres) and is the fifth largest metropolis in India currently with a population of about 7 million (Ramachandra and Kumar, 2008; 2010, Sudhira et al., 2007). Bangalore city population has increased enormously from 65,37,124 (in 2001) to 95,88,910 (in 2011), accounting for 46.68 % growth in a decade. Population density has increased from as 10732 (in 2001) to 13392 (in 2011) persons per sq. km. The per capita GDP of Bangalore is about $2066, which is considerably low with limited expansion to balance both environmental and economic needs.
- Mysore: Mysore is the second largest city in the state of Karnataka, India. This Vibrant royal city of South, with a large area of heritage sites, has hit the fast track of urbanization off late, altering the landscape that will in the coming years go beyond recognition. With the government planning to develop this area under various Projects which has invited the surge of investors to invest heavily in this heritage city, especially the IT Companies. The City has been growing and in demand and is expected to generate at least 60,000 new jobs during the next few years, which means its demographic and geographic profile is also set to alter with these changes, bringing in a touch of cosmopolitan culture.
- Shimoga: Shimoga is located in central part of the state of Karnataka, India. It lies on the banks of the Tunga River. The climate is tropical wet and dry and temperature ranges between 37oC (Max) to 23.2oC (Min). The district receives an average rainfall of 1813 mm. Shimoga encompasses an area of 8477 sq. km. Shimoga district is divided into 2 Sub-divisions and 7 Taluks. District Headquarters of Shimoga is located in Shimoga. Shimoga district has a population of 16.43 lakh (as per 2001 Census), with population density of 194 per sq. km.
- Hubli-Dharwad: Hubli - Dharwad are twin cities in Indian state of Karnataka. Hubli-Dharwad is the second-largest urbanized centres in Karnataka. The twin cities have a common governance and are governed by Hubli - Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) with a corporation governing area of 202.3Sq km. The population of the Twin cities is about 1 million (Census 2011). Hubli is basically a commercial and industrial centre with various commercial establishments. Dharwad is an educational and administrative centre with numerous colleges, universities and government offices. Hubli - District encompasses an area of 4263 sq. kms.
- Gulbarga: Gulbarga was known as 'Kalburgi' means "rose petals" in poetic Persian. This is a biggest district in Karnataka State covering 8.49% of the area and 5.9% of State’s population. It is bounded by Bijapur district (of Karnataka) and Sholapur district (of Maharashtra), in the west by Bidar district (of Karnataka) and Osmanabad district (of Maharashtra) on the north and by Raichur district of Karnataka in the south. It is one of the three districts that were transferred from Hyderabad State to Karnataka state at the time of re-organization of the state in 1956. Gulbarga is basically an agriculture dominated District with crops such as Tur, Jowar, Bajra, Paddy, Sugarcane and Cotton. District receives and annual rainfall of 839 mm.
- Raichur: Raichur district is one of major district in northern Karnataka, India, having 5 taluks and 37 hobli’s and 120 hamlets, with an area of 8386 sq. km. and a population density of 181 persons per sq. km (2001). Raichur is drought prone, and it falls in the northeast dry agro climatic zone. The normal annual rainfall of the district is 621 mm. The average temperature is 350 C. Krishna and the Tungabhadra are two water sources which cater to the needs of drinking water supply to Raichur city. Raichur is famous for its rice mills which exports high quality rice and has a production of pure cotton.
- Bellary: Bellary city is situated in the Karnataka State and has a jurisdiction over an area of 82 Sq. Kms. Population of about 0.4 million as per 2011 census (provisional).Bordering Bellary on the west, state of Andhra Pradesh on the East, Chitradurga and Davangere on the south. Temperature ranges from 250c to 450c. Mean Annual Rainfall is about 700mm. The city has a huge spread of industrial activity and is one of the major centres in production of clothing in the country.
- Belgaum: Belgaum City (Figure1) geographically located in the North Western Part of Karnataka State, with a gross area of 38013.27 hectares. The city has about 58 Wards, with population of 488292 (2011 Census Provisional) and Population Density of 84.21 persons per hectare, the population in the region has a decadal increase of 7.31%. BUDA (Belgaum Urban Development Authority) formed during 1988 is responsible for Layout and Town planning in Belgaum. BUDA consists of local planning area of 182 sq.km including the Belgaum city corporation, 26 surrounding villages and area coming under conurbation limit under BUDA since 1988 about 19 townships have been developed (belgaumuda.org). Temperature varies from as low as 18 degrees in winter to 40 degrees during summer, city receives annual average rainfall of 1418 mm. Soils in the region consist of shallow to very deep black soils, red loamy soils, lateritic soils etc.
