Remote Sensing and GIS-Based Analysis to Envisage Urban Sprawl to Enhance Transport Planning in a Fast Developing Indian City

Abstract

Rapid changes and sudden shootouts of development are occurring in most of the major cities in developing countries, leading to a requirement for mass transit facilities. Envisaging Urban Sprawl helps in finding out the future needs and critical locations of development. This paper validates the use of Shannon’s entropy in finding out the sprawl in Nagpur, one of the fast developing cities of India, with the help of remote sensing data and GIS tools. In the present study, the spatial pattern of urban sprawl has been worked out based on location factors. Remotely sensed data obtained from Landsat and IRS LISS-III sensors were utilized. The entropy values show that the city is spreading outward following the transportation corridors. The observed growth pattern can be used for the future development plans of the city to mitigate some of the environmental impacts and provide sustainable growth.