Abstract

Urbanisation reflects metropolitan growth (planned or unplanned) in response to economic, social, political and physical geography of an area. Dynamic urban change processes, especially the tremendous expansion of urban areas affect natural and human systems at multiple scales. Unplanned rapid urbanisation has changed the structure and also influenced the functioning of landscapes as evident from lack of basic infrastructure, amenities, enhanced levels of pollution, changes in local climate and ecology. In this regard, Earth observation satellites provide information over a considerable range of spatial and temporal resolution for mapping land cover (LC) to understand the spatial and temporal aspects of landscapes. These data are classified to derive metrics that are quantitative measures for spatial pattern, which are helpful in understanding the landscape dynamics and linking the agents of change. Here, we analyse temporal remote sensing data of diverse spatial and spectral resolutions for Greater Bangalore. The city was divided into 8 zones to analyse the landscape metrics using classified data from 1973 to 2010. The study reveals that there has been a 584% urban growth with a 66% decline in water bodies and 74% decrease in vegetation cover. The city was more compact in 1973 and began to disperse in all directions with decrease in the ratio of open space and increase in the number of urban patches as well as urban density. Most large urban patches have developed in west, south-west and southern regions of the city corresponding to the policy decision of setting up small scale industries, Information Technology-Bio-Technology firms and consequent housing projects.

Keywords: Urbanisation, landscape, spatial metrics, urban planning, remote sensing