Conclusion

Karnataka State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited has been greatly instrumental in the industrialisation of the State, especially in the large and medium sector and important arm of the state in bringing industrial boom in various sectors. The intense urbanisation process in Tier I cities with the associated environmental problems and poor infrastructure, basic amenities has necessitated planning of Tier II cities to minimize the consequences of urbanisation. 

State government has plans to divert the new industrial establishments and activities to tier II cities. Also globalization process and subsequent opening of Indian markets has led to rapid urbanisation leading to unorganized and fragmented urban sprawl affecting the basic amenities. Belgaum city, with 5 km buffer has been analysed to understand LULC dynamics.  LU was analysed through supervised Gaussian MLC algorithm. The Land cover results show decrease in vegetation cover in the region from 98.8% (1989) to 96.35% (2006). The temporal analysis of the LU shows an increase of built up area from 0.31% (1989) to 6.74% (2012), decline of tree cover from 4.62 % (1989) to 2.33% (2006).

LULC change analysis indicates an increase of urban area by 14 times during 1989 and 2012 while the vegetation has reduced by 2.45%.  Shannon Entropy indicates the tendency of urban sprawl during post 2000 in all direction and predominantly in North West direction. Spatial metrics reveal concentrated urbanisation at the core of the city and is increasingly fragmented growth towards the outskirts of the city.

This type of analysis helps the town planning department and other departments, to understand and visualize the changes, extent and pattern spatially and temporally. This helps to plan the basic amenities and evolve appropriate land use polices.