Study area

The study has been carried out for a rapidly urbanizing region in India. 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.

Figure 1. Study area : Greater Bangalore