INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES

Volume 3, No 3, 2013
© Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0
Research article ISSN 0976 – 4380

Identification of urban sprawl dynamics in a rapid growing city using GIS

Srimanta Gupta, Moupriya Roy, Arpan Sarkar
Department of Environmental Science, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan-713104 West
Bengal, India
srimantagupta@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT

Urban development is a phenomenon in developing countries. The measurement and

monitoring of urban sprawl is crucial for government officials and planners who urgently
need updated information and proper planning tools. In this study attempts have been made to
identify, characterize and quantify the sprawl by the use of Geographical Information System
and Remote Sensing techniques. The Remote Sensing software PCI Geomtica V10.1 and
satellite image (IRS-P6, LISS-4MX, Date: 7th January, 2008) is used in this work. Calculation
of Shannon’s Entropy from the remotely sensed data can efficiently identify and characterize
the urban sprawl. In this study, using the population data of Bardhaman Planning Area in
2011, the α-population density, β-population density and the distance (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 km)
from the urban centre are chosen as influencing factors of urban sprawl. These analyses find
the individual influence of α and β-population density and the distance from the urban centre
on the sprawl phenomenon. The equations involving the distance term clearly show that the
percentage of built-up area decreases as the distance from the urban core increases. These
regression analyses only reveal the individual effects of a single influencing factor on sprawl.
To sum up their influences on sprawl, a multivariate regression analysis has to be undertaken.
The study finds a moderately dispersed built-up land development in Bardhaman Planning
Area in 2011. It is predicted to be getting more dispersed in 2021 with a 24.6% increase in
built-up land.

Keywords: Urban Sprawl, Shannon’s Entropy, urban growth, GIS and RS, Sprawl dynamics.

1. Introduction
Urban sprawl is outgrowth of urban area caused by uncontrolled, unplanned haphazard urban
growth. Rapid constructions are often seen in the urban areas, in suburbs and at the rural-
urban fringes. Particularly concretization in the rural-urban fringe is resulted from extreme
loss of agricultural and forest lands, water bodies. This puts a tremendous pressure on the
environment by causing resource depletion, energy loss, and loss of habitats. It is important
to identify and characterize the urban sprawl in an area having urban, rural and rural-urban
fringe areas in it. Recognition and characterization of urban sprawl in an area helps in
planning and decision making for sustainable development. The need for understanding urban
sprawl is already stressed (Sierra Club, 1998; The Regionalist, 1997) and attempted in the
developed countries (Batty et al., 1999; Torrens and Alberti, 2000; Barnes et al., 2001, Yeh
and Li, 2001; Hurd et al., 2001; Epstein et al., 2002). Typically conditions in environmental
systems with gross measures of urbanization are correlated with population density with
built-up area (The Regionalist, 1997). Various issues concerned with quantifying urban
sprawl phenomenon are addressed (Torrens and Alberti, 2000; Barnes et al., 2001) to arrive
at a common platform for defining the process. Most of these studies quantify sprawl
considering the impervious or the built-up as the key feature of sprawl. The Shannon’s

Submitted on September 2012published on March 2013 486

 Identification of Urban Sprawl Dynamics in a Rapid Growing City Using GIS
Srimanta Gupta, Moupriya Roy, Arpan Sarkar

entropy index reflects the dispersion of spatial variable in a specified area. Types of sprawl
are useful in quantifying the urban sprawl (Yeh and Li, 2001).

1.1 Objective

In this study, the main objective is to identify and characterize the urban sprawl of
Bardhaman Planning Area in 2011 and its future fate by 2021.

2. The study area

The study area of this work is Bardhaman Planning Area (BPA) in the district Bardhaman,
West Bengal, India (Figure1). The BPA consists of both town and some mouja areas. The
BPA area includes Bardhaman Municipality Area (BMA) having 35 wards, and the parts of
two blocks (CD Block 1 and CD Block 2). Block 1 and Block 2 contain 29 and 23 moujas
respectively. The total area under the BPA is approximately 164.4Km2 in which Bardhaman
Municipal area contains approximately 31.22Km2; CD.Block.1 contains near about
90.70Km2 and the CD Block 2 contains approximately 41.97Km2 of area.

Figure 1: Study Area

3. Materials and methodology

Satellite image (IRS-P6, LISS-4MX, and Date: 7th January, 2008) of BPA (Fig 2), PCI
Geomatica V10.1 software, population data of BPA (2011). Expected population data of
2011 and 2021 are collected from Burdwan Development Authority, created by Department
of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT, Kharagpur.

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 Identification of Urban Sprawl Dynamics in a Rapid Growing City Using GIS
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Figure 2: Satellite Image of BPA (IRS-P6, LISS-4MX, and Date: 7th January, 2008)

3.1 Land Cover Classification and Development of Land Cover Map by GIS/RS
Approach

A study on multi-spectral satellite image (IRS-P6, LISS-4MX, and Date: 7th January, 2008)
of BPA and field survey reports suggests that BPA comprises of urban built-up lands,
agricultural lands, water bodies, wetlands, sand lands, range lands and some forest areas.
Total land use data of the BPA is classified in the following classes and related subclasses
and shown in Table 1. Multi-spectral satellite image of BPA were analyzed by unsupervised
classification and finally the land cover map was developed using PCI Geomatica V10.1
software.

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Table 1: Land cover classes of BPA

Class Sub Class

1.Urban or Built-up Land
1.1 Residential
1.2 Commercial and Services
1.3 Transportation, Communication and Utilities
1.4 Industrial
1.5 Other Urban or Built-up Land

2. Agriculture and 2.1 Cropland and Pasture

Vegetation 2.2 Farms
2.3 Dense Evergreen Natural Vegetation along
with Urban or Built-up Land
2.4 Dense Evergreen Natural Vegetation
2.5 Spar Vegetation
2.6 Forest

3.Rangeland

4.Wetland

5.Water Bodies 5.1 Ponds

5.2 Streams and Canals
5.3 Artificial Canals

6. Barren Land 6.1 Sand Land

3.2 Creation of buffer Zones

Circular buffer zones according to Table 2 are drawn around a point chosen at Curzon Gate
More, Bardhaman as shown in Fig 3. Built-up Land (including the following land cover
classes: Commercial and services, Transportation, communication and utilities, Other urban
built-up land, Residential Area, Industrial Area) in each Zone (Area in Km2) is calculated
(Table 3 and Table 4) to determine relative Shannon’s Entropy for detection of urban sprawl.

Table 2: Buffer Zones

Origin of Buffer Zones Buffer Zone Distance from the Centre

Number (n). (in Km)
Circular buffer zones were drawn 1 2
around a point chosen at Curzon
Gate More, Bardhaman. 2 4
3 6
4 8
5 10
6 12

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Figure 3: Buffer Zones Drawn From Centre of BPA

Table 3: Land Cover Data of Each Buffer Zone

Land Cover Class Area in Each Buffer Zones in Km2

Zone1 Zone 2 Zone3 Zone4 Zone5 Zone6
Artificial canals 0.000 0.304 0.358 0.147 0.066 0.020
Commercial and services 0.457 0.228 0.170 0.030 0.000 0.000
Crop land and pasture 0.045 15.382 32.687 35.10 12.881 2.678
Dense Ever green vegetation
along with urban built up land 0.090 2.417 2.535 0.419 0.094 0.000
Dense Evergreen Vegetation
cover 0.030 0.196 0.024 0.161 0.177 0.000
Farms 0.000 0.002 0.246 0.006 0.006 0.000
Forest 0.003 0.173 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Industrial Area 0.085 0.303 0.145 0.181 0.005 0.000
Other urban built-up land 0.042 0.022 0.026 0.125 0.000 0.000
Ponds 0.817 1.550 0.987 0.826 0.496 0.031
Rangeland 0.000 0.644 1.602 0.087 0.000 0.000
Residential Area 9.209 11.094 2.084 1.194 0.480 0.176
Sand Land 0.000 1.021 0.981 0.000 0.000 0.000
Spar Vegetation 0.813 1.056 0.989 1.103 0.181 0.057
Streams or canals 0.244 0.529 0.335 0.173 0.053 0.000
Transportation, communication
and utilities 0.475 0.845 0.510 0.386 0.116 0.019
Wetland 0.203 0.273 0.416 0.308 0.102 0.000
Total Area Under Each Buffer
Zone in Km2 12.513 36.039 44.095 40.246 14.657 2.981

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Table 4: Built-up Land in Each Zone (Area in Km2)

Urban or Built-up Land Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 Zone 5 Zone 6

Commercial and services 0.457 0.228 0.170 0.030 0.000 0.000
Industrial Area 0.085 0.303 0.145 0.181 0.005 0.000
Other urban built-up land 0.042 0.022 0.026 0.125 0.000 0.000
Residential Area 9.209 11.094 2.084 1.194 0.480 0.176
Transportation, communication
and utilities 0.475 0.845 0.510 0.386 0.116 0.019
Total Built-up Land(xi) 10.268 12.492 2.935 1.916 0.601 0.195
Percentage of Built-up Area 82.060 34.667 6.667 4.760 4.100 6.540

Identification and Characterization of Urban Sprawl: Shannon’s Entropy Approach

Various approaches have been directed through the years to identify and characterize the
urban sprawl, but none of them stood for long for the lack of versatility. Shannon’s Entropy
calculation incorporation with GIS/RS data is a very popular and well appreciated approach
in this field. Calculation of Shannon’s Entropy from the remotely sensed data can efficiently
identify and characterize the urban sprawl. (Yeh and Li. 1999, Torrens and Alberti. 2000,
Yeh and Li. 2001, Hurd et.al., 2001, Lata et.al, 2001, Sudhira et.al, 2003, 2004, Li. 2009)
The Shannon’s entropy En can be used to measure the degree of spatial concentration or the
dispersion of a geospatial variable (Xi) and is given by:

] …1

Where, Pi is the value of each type of land development or the geospatial variable in the ith
zone (Xi say) divided by the total land area in that zone. The letter n denotes the total zone
numbers.
= …2
The value of En varies from a minimum 0 to maximum log (n). If the distribution of the
geospatial variables is concentrated in one zone, then the minimum entropy value is obtained
and the entropy value approaches to the maximum when the distribution of the geospatial
variables is dispersed among all the zones. It is more convenient to scale the entropy value in
the range between 0 and 1. It can be done by calculating the Relative entropy (Thomas,
1981) which is given by:
= ] …3
The land cover data are used to calculate the Shannon’s Entropy. The value of entropy is
independent of the size and number of buffer zones. Calculation of Relative Shannon’s
Entropy ( ) is shown in table 5.
Table 5: Calculation of Relative Shannon’s Entropy ( )

Zone No. Value of Pi = ]

1 0.821
2 0.347
3 0.067 0.65
4 0.048
5 0.041
6 0.065

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4. Results and discussions

4.1 Land cover data analysis

The LULC data of BPA, CD Block1, CD Block2 and BMA are tabulated in Table 6 and 7
and maps are presented in Fig 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively. BPA covers 164.38 Km2 areas in
which 18.87% is covered with urban or built-up land, cropland and pasture has covered
72.79% area, water bodies have covered 4.61% area and range land, wetland and sand land
has covered 1.55%, 0.86% and 1.33% area respectively. 16.10% of total BPA and 85.34% of
total built-up area is residential area. Industrial area occupies only 0.48% of BPA and 2.50%
of total built-up land (Table 6). The land cover data as it is given in Table 3 reveal that the
two constituting blocks of BPA are the intensively farmed zones. 80.19% area of CD block 1
and 72.55% area of CD block 2 is cultivated land. Where as in the municipal area, almost
60.12% area is built-up land in which 54.07% is residential area. Almost 13.75% of total
municipal area is cultivated land. The LULC maps of BPA, CD Block1, CD Block2 and
BMA are presented in Fig 4, 5, 6 and7.

Table 6: Land Cover Data of BPA

Land Cover Class Area.Under.Each Total Area. in %.of Occupancy.of

Class in Km2 BPA.in Km2 Each Class

Residential 26.467 16.101

Commercial and Services 0.966 0.588
Transportation,.Communication.an 2.563 1.559
d Utilities
Industrial 0.783 0.476
Other Urban or Built-up Land 0.235 0.143
Urban or Built-up Land 31.014 18.867

Cropland and Pasture 107.879 65.625

Farms 0.282 0.172

Dense Evergreen Natural 6.064 3.689

Vegetation along with Urban or 164.386
Built-up Land
Dense Evergreen Natural 0.642 0.391
Vegetation
Spar Vegetation 4.586 2.790
Forest 0.195 0.119
Agriculture and Vegetation 119.648 72.785

Rangeland 2.548 1.550

Wetland 1.420 0.864
Ponds 5.138 3.126
Streams and Canals 1.455 0.885
Artificial Canals 0.977 0.594
Water Bodies 7.570 4.605
Sand land 2.186 1.330

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Table 7: Land Cover Data of CD Block 1, CD Block 2, and Bardhaman Municipal Area
(BMA)

Land Cover Classes Area occupied by the classes Percentage of Occupancy of

in Km2 in the Class
Block 1 Block2 BMA Block 1 Block 2 BMA
Residential 7.024 2.561 16.881 7.744 6.102 54.068
Commercial and Services 0.231 0.036 0.698 0.255 0.086 2.236

Transportation,.Communicatio 1.047 0.664 0.851 1.154 1.582 2.726

n.and Utilities
Industrial 0.242 0.278 0.263 0.267 0.662 0.842
Other Urban or Built-up Land 0.157 0.000 0.078 0.173 0.000 0.250
Urban or Built-up Land 8.701 3.539 18.771 9.593 8.432 60.121

Cropland and Pasture 72.732 30.449 4.293 80.191 72.548 13.750

Farms 0.280 0.000 0.002 0.309 0.000 0.006
Dense Evergreen Natural 1.102 2.600 2.361 1.215 6.195 7.562
Vegetation along with Urban
or Built-up Land

Dense Evergreen Natural 0.025 0.518 0.098 0.028 1.234 0.314

Vegetation
Spar Vegetation 1.822 1.012 1.748 2.009 2.411 5.599
Forest 0.000 0.000 0.195 0.000 0.000 0.625
Agriculture and Vegetation 75.961 34.579 8.697 83.752 82.388 27.855

Rangeland 1.533 0.250 0.765 1.690 0.596 2.450

Wetland 0.148 0.942 0.330 0.163 2.244 1.057

Ponds 1.931 1.313 1.887 2.129 3.128 6.044

Streams and Canals 0.480 0.495 0.469 0.529 1.179 1.502
Artificial Canals 0.495 0.356 0.124 0.546 0.848 0.397
Water Bodies 2.906 2.164 2.48 3.204 5.155 7.943

Sand land 1.449 0.497 0.179 1.598 1.184 0.573

Total Land Area in the 90.698 41.971 31.222
Blocks and BMA

4.2 Shannon’s Entropy Analysis

Shannon’s Entropy value from the remotely sensed data can efficiently identify and
characterize the urban sprawl. (Yeh and Li. 1999, Torrens and Alberti. 2000, Yeh and Li.
2001, Hurd et.al., 2001, Lata et.al, 2001, Sudhira et.al, 2003, 2004, Li. 2009). The relative
Shannon’s entropy value calculated in the study (Table 5) is 0.65 (maximum is 1) which
indicates moderately dispersed built-up land development. Most of the land development is
concentrated in the urban core, but the process of urbanization is spreading the land
development outside the core of the urban area.

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Figure 4: LULC Map of BPA

Figure 5: LULC Map of CD Block 1

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Figure 6: LULC Map of CD Block 2

Figure 7: LULC Map of BMA

4.3 Dynamics of sprawl and future prediction

In this study some factors are considered which influence the urban growth rate effectively
and the urban sprawl as well. Population always plays a vital role in urbanization. A large
population always induces a higher urbanization rate. In this study along with the population
in BPA in 2011, the α-population density, β-population density or simply the population
density and the distance from the urban centre are chosen as the influencing factors of urban

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sprawl (Sudhira et.al. 2003). α-population density is the population in a zone divided by the
total residential area in that zone. β-population density or simply the population density is
simply the ratio between the population in a zone and the total area in that zone. Population
statistics in Each Buffer Zone in 2011 is given in Table 8.

In order to make a relevant relationship between the percentage of built-up land and the
causal factors or the influencing factors of urban sprawl, regression analyses were undertaken
(Sudhira et.al. 2003, Batty et al., 1999). Linear, quadratic, logarithmic regression analyses
figure out the nature of dependence of the sprawl on the individual causal factors. The
regression analyses are given in Table 9 and the corresponding regression statistics is given in
Table 10. The linear regression analyses undertaken reveal that β-population density has a
significant contribution on sprawl in BPA. The quadratic regression analyses find out the
influence of population, α-population density, β-population density and the distance from the
urban centre on the sprawl phenomenon. The equations following the power law can easily
be represented in logarithmic way and vice-versa. These analyses find the individual
influence of α and β-population density and the distance from the urban centre on the sprawl
phenomenon.

The equations involving the distance from Urban Centre in Table 9 clearly shows that the
percentage of built-up area decreases as the distance from the urban core increases. These
regression analyses only reveal the individual effects of a single influencing factor on sprawl.
To sum up their influences on sprawl, a multivariate regression analysis is to be undertaken.
The problem is that the ways in which the causal factors are affecting the sprawl are exactly
not known. In that cause only a multivariate linear regression analysis can be done to obtain
the cumulative effects of the causal factors on sprawl. The equation established from the
multivariate linear regression analysis is

Pbuilt-up = -7.95+1.87×10-7POP+5.37×10-4 α-POPden+4.95×10-3β-POPden -0.12Dist ...4

By using the equation 4, future percentage of built-up area in BPA can be estimated if the
chances of occurrence of major changes like set up of heavy industrial plants, sudden
migrations or natural disasters in BPA are neglected. Changes in the socio-economic
conditions may also affect in urbanization but these are not considered for simplicity. The α-
Population density of a zone is a function of the built-up area in a particular time in that zone.
To get the value of α-Population density of that particular year for which the percentage of
built-up area is to be estimated, a factor is to be multiplied with the present α-Population
density. Thus,

α-POPden |for 2021(say) = α-POPden 2011× × % of residential

area .…5

Population Statistics in Each Buffer Zone in 2021 is tabulated in Table 11. Zone wise
estimation of percentage of built-up area in BPA in the year 2021 by applying equation 5 is
given in Table 12. Total built-up land cover in entire BPA in the year 2021 could increase by
24.6% and that could result in 38.66 Km2 urban cover in BPA. In 2021 almost 23.52% area
of BPA will be covered by urban built-up land. Urbanization rate will be higher in Zone 1
and 2 and it suggests that a huge portion of land in and near the BPA will be converted to
built-up land within next 10 years.

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Table 8: Population Statistics in Each Buffer Zone in 2011.

Zone No. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Population in 199013 231832 41166 23854 9231 3336
2011
α-Pop Den2011 21610 20897 19753 19978 19231 19062

β-Pop Den2011 15904 6433 934 593 630 1119

Table 9: Relation between the Causal Factor of Sprawl (x) and the Percentage of built-up
Land (y)

Causal Relation Type

Factor
Linear Quadratic Logarithmic Power
(y=ax+b) (y=ax2+bx+c) (ln y=aln x+ ln b) (y=axb)
y = 2.48×10-4 y= -2.74×10-9x2-8.89×10- 4x- ln y=13.72ln x-119.8 y=0.022x0.6
1.Population

x+ 2.11 8.50 R2=0.545 R2=0.674

2011

R² = 0.667 R2=0.747

y=0.03x-552.4 y=2×10-5x2-0.727x+7113 ln y=576.9ln x -5692 y=9×10-

Population

R2=0.826 R2=0.996 R2=0.812 10 23.3

x
Density

R2=0.851
2.α-

y=0.005x+1.4 y= -10-8x2+0.005x+1.2 ln y=20.60ln x-139.3 y=0.013x0.9

Population

R2=0.999 R2=0.999 R2=0.900 R2=0.994

Density
3.β-

y= - y=1.6x2-29.14x+130 ln y= - 43.6ln x y=251.9x-1.7

4.Distance

6.73x+70.24 R2=0.969 +101.3 R2=0.862

Centre
Urban
from

R2=0.653 R2=0.863

Table 10: Regression Statistics

Coefficients Standard Error

Multiple R 0.999992697 Intercept -7.95 13.33
R2 0.999985393 Distance -0.12 0.107
Adjusted R2 0.999926965 Population 1.87×10-7 2.97×10-7
Standard Error 0.266213386 α-POPden 5.37×10-4 6.5×10-4
Observations 6 β-POPden 4.95×10-3 4.41×10-5

Table 11: Population Statistics in Each Buffer Zone in 2021.

Zone No. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Population in 2021 235795 286366 57764 34451 13235 4799

β-Pop Den2021 18844 7946 1310 856 903 1610

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Table 12: Estimated Percentage of Built-up Area in 2021 in Each Zone of BPA

Zone No. Pbuilt-up in 2011 Pbuilt-up in 2021 Change in Pbuilt-up Urban cover in
Km2 in 2021
1 82.06% 97.44% +15.38% 12.19
2 34.66% 43.17% +8.51% 15.56
3 6.66% 8.91% +2.25% 3.93
4 4.76% 6.15% +1.39% 2.48
5 4.10% 6.32% +2.22% 0.93
6 6.54% 10.46% +3.92% 0.31

5. Conclusion

Identification, characterization and quantification of sprawl are very important for better
urban planning and land resource management. In this study attempts have been made to find
the present land cover status in BPA to identify, characterize and quantify the sprawl by the
use of GIS and RS techniques. The study finds a moderately dispersed built-up land
development in BPA in 2011. It is predicted to be getting more dispersed in 2021 with a
24.6% increase in built-up land. This is going to put pressure on the existing agricultural land,
water bodies, and natural vegetations in and around the municipal area by next 10 years.

Acknowledgement
Authors would like to express gratitude to the department of environmental science, the
University of Burdwan for providing GIS laboratory facilities and also like to express sincere
gratitude to Prof. Jayanta Kumar Dutta, Dr Apurba Ratan Ghosh and Dr. Naba Kumar
Mondal for their constant moral support and valuable comments.

6. References
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6. Li F., (2009), Applying remote sensing and GIS on monitoring and measuring urban
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Volume 3 Issue 3, 2013