Spatio-temporal analysis of urban growth in selected small,medium and large Indian cities

This study attempts to ascertain the spatial and temporal variations in the evolution of Indian cities using multi-date remote sensing data. A two-stage object-based nearest neighbour classification approach with hierarchical segmentation was used to extract built-up area in selected small, medium and large cities, whereas object-based temporal inversion was applied for change analysis. The temporal trend of net population density, degree of scattered development and compactness of urban core in each city was determined using the built-up area. The study observed a declining trend in growth rate of built-up area in small and medium sized-cities, in contrast to large cities. However, the net population density in cities of all types is decreasing as urban growth has outpaced the corresponding population growth. Furthermore, small and medium cities indicated greater tendency for scattered development in comparison to large cities, whereas the core urban areas of the later appeared relatively less compact.