Characterizing urban area dynamics in historic city of Kurukshetra, India, using remote sensing and spatial metric tools

Abstract

Developing countries like India are an urbanization hotspot with many upcoming towns and cities. Growth in small and medium sized towns and cities have been unnoticed and growing without appropriate urban planning. Utilizing the available medium resolution satellite data and geospatial platforms, the growth dynamics of Kurukshetra city was analysed over a period of 24 years. The study employed a combination of change detection technique and spatial metrics (six each of class and landscape levels) analysis to delineate the growth track of the city and its environs. A significant increase in urban built up (dense 237%; open 1038%) is seen majorly at the cost of open area (70%) and tree clad (58%). Phases of city’s aggregation and diffusion are observed using class and landscape level spatial metrics. Understanding and monitoring of land use changes in and around city limits using integrated spatial tools provide better decision making capability.

Keywords:

• Medium sized cities
• LULC
• spatial metrics
• change detection

Acknowledgements

AMM acknowledge University Grants Commission (UGC) for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) support. PKJ is thankful to DST-PURSE of Jawaharlal Nehru University of research support. We are also thankful to anonymous reviewers and the editorial board for providing valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of this research article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.