Analyzing the Fragmentation of Urban Footprints in Eastern and Southern Indian Cities and Driving Factors

Rapid urbanization in combination with poor planning processes and/or policies give rise to dispersed and fragmented patches. Small pockets of urban sprawl forming fringes, secondary cores, or satellite towns in the peri-urban space hinder city sustainability. The current study comprehends the magnitude of fragmentation in terms of urban spatial dynamics over the cities of eastern and southern India. A total of eight cities considered, those are existing metropolitans or possess the strong potential to become one shortly. Satellite-derived land use and land cover (LULC) information is used to study the urban expansion by adopting the LULC change assessment, entropy, and spatial metrics approach for detailed understanding of urban dynamics. A novel approach using spatial difference of night-time light (NTL) is carried out to nullify the NTL image saturation and amplify the minute changes to make new urban built-up patches identifiable. The results show a heterogeneous growth pattern and sprawling for different cities with overall expansion, infill, and outlying type of growth. Entropy analysis reveals the aggregation and dispersive nature of the selected cities. An increase in night-time anthropogenic activity noticed within the newly developed urban patches rather than densely populated areas. This analysis also discovered the existing gaps between the scientific and technological advancements and relevant policies while materializing the urban development plans for Indian urban agglomerations.