Zonal-Level Urban Sprawl Analysis using Digitally-Merged Resourcesat-LISS IV and Cartosat-PAN Bitemporal Data

Remote sensing and GIS along with collateral data help analyzing the growth, pattern and extent of urban sprawl. With such a spatial and temporal analyses, it is possible to identify the pattern of sprawl and subsequently predict the nature of future expansion. The article brings out the extent and spatial distribution of urban sprawl over a period of six years i.e. 2005-2011 using Resourcesat-1 LISS-IV and Cartosat-1 PAN data over Hyderabad metropolitan city, Telangana state, India. The approach comprises data preparation-radiometric normalization, geo-referencing and image fusion; on-screen visual interpretation, and change analysis in a GIS environment. The study reveals that the built-up land have expanded by 8.65% during the 6-year period. Furthermore, in terms of growth, the high density built-up land score over their low density counterpart (5.7% versus 2.96%). Such a growth could happen at the cost of scrubs, cropland and barren/rocky area to a great extent and at the expanse of water bodies to a lesser extent. An estimated 65.294 sqkm of scrubs, 40.319 sqkm of cropland and 14.523 sqkm of barren/rocky areas have been transformed into settlements. Data used, methodology employed and the results of the study are discussed in detail.