Entropy Approach for Assessment of Urban Growth: A Case Study of Jaipur,INDIA

In India the last 30 years had witnessed a radical transformation of urban scene. In particular, during this period, the one lakh cities and million plus cities began to grow rapidly. In the present study, urban growth of Jaipur city in the last 31 years (1975–2006) was assessed. Jaipur ranks 11th in India with a total population of 2.3 million and has shown a consistent increase in the past 50 years. It is one of the fastest growing mega cities of the country with an annual average growth rate of 4.5% which is quite high from the national urban growth rate. Remote sensing and GIS have been used to extract the information related to urban growth-built up area and its spatial and temporal variation. The Shannon’s entropy at two levels (city as a whole and ward wise) is computed in order to quantify the form and patterns of urban growth using built up area as spatial phenomena. Further, multivariate statistical techniques have been used to establish the relationship between the urban growth and its causative and determining factors. Results of this study reveal that the growth rate of built up in Jaipur has outstripped the rate of population growth. Shannon’s entropy quantifies as dispersed form of urban growth till 2000 and after it, there is relative compactness in 2006.