Road network drives urban ecosystems - a longitudinal analysis of impact of roads in the central Himalaya

Abstract

This study investigates spatio-temporal paradigm of the impact of road networks on urban ecosystem dynamics (UED) by analysing the composition and configuration of land use land cover (LULC) and land surface temperatures (LST) derived from Landsat data for the years 2000 and 2017. The results indicate a positive association between road network and built-up land showing higher concentration of built-up land closer to the road network. This increase in grey infrastructure has led to an increase in the maximum LST by 6 °C to 7.5 °C along primary and tertiary roads, whereas 4 °C to 5 °C along secondary roads. Rapid intensification of road network along with the associated disproportionate changes in LULC and LST are deemed to be the major contributors to UED. Findings from this study will serve as baseline for examining the influence of road network on regional urban growth and assist in sustainable road infrastructure planning.

KEYWORDS:

• Road network
• urban ecosystem
• LULC
• LST
• landscape metrics
• central Himalaya

Acknowledgement

We do not have any conflict of interest to declare. DM is specifically thankful to Shiv Nadar University for the technical infrastructure and PhD fellowship for research support. PKJ is thankful to DST-PURSE of Jawaharlal Nehru University for research support. Authors are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers and the editorial board for providing valuable comments to enhance the quality of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).