Abstract

Urbanisation refers to the physical growth of urban region with the increase in the population due to either migration or amalgamation of peri-urban areas into cities. India, with 31.5% (377 million) urban population as per 2011 census, has been experiencing the global trend of increasing urbanisation. Urbanisation process involves changes in land uses and enhanced consumption of energy, which contribute significantly to the global warming. This necessitates developing effective urban planning strategies with the regular monitoring of landscape dynamics. Availability of temporal data of the earth’s surface acquired through space borne sensors helps in mapping and monitoring landscape. Spatial metrics aid in quantifying the urban structure and patterns of urban growth. In this context, the current communication reports of urban growth (urbanization and urban sprawl) in Ahmedabad, based on the temporal land use dynamics, use four decades remote sensing data with gradient analysis and spatial metrics. Urban land use dynamics, in terms of both patterns and quantities, were studied using Shannon Entropy index and select spatial metrics for the study area with 10 km buffer (from administrative boundary). This provided insights into the pattern of urban development and its complexity. Results indicate that Ahmedabad city has rapidly grown from 3.2 % to 14.58 % in the period from 1975 to 2010. Spatial metrics highlight that the core area of the city (which is the core financial area) has grown into a compact single urban class, whereas the outskirts have dispersed urban patches. This analysis helps the regional planners and decision makers in advance visualisation of urban patterns for sustainable planning of the city with basic amenities and infrastructure.

Keywords: spatial analysis, remote sensing, land use, spatial metrics, urabnisation, urban sprawl, Ahmedabad.