Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-6807-z
Land-use/cover change in Coimbatore urban area (Tamil
Nadu, India)—a remote sensing and GIS-based study
P. Prabu & Mithas Ahmad Dar
Received: 17 March 2018 / Accepted: 17 June 2018
# Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract The purpose of the present study was to ex-
plain land-use/cover changes in Coimbatore City Cor-
poration using Landsat ETM+ and Landsat 8 Operation-
al Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor
(TIRS) data for the period of 2003–2014. Two Landsat
images from years 2003 and 2014 were downloaded
from USGS Earth Explorer. Maximum likelihood meth-
od was used to classify the images into five classes:
urban fabric, vegetation, water bodies, agriculture lands,
and barren lands. Overall kappa accuracy measure is
about to 87.60 and 86.15% for the years 2003 and 2014,
respectively. The change detection analysis has been
performed for years 2003 and 2014 postclassified im-
ages. The results of the study have indicated that Coim-
batore City has experienced rapid modifications in
LULC, particularly in terms of urban/built-up area. Over
the past 11 years, urban/built-up areas have increased by
94.5 km2, resulting in a significant drop in the area of
agricultural land and vegetation cover. It is found that
(1) urban areas are increased 200% due to population
P. Prabu
Department of Geography, Nirmala College for Women (Aut),
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
M. A. Dar (*)
Department for Management of Science and Technology
Development, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
e-mail: mithas.ahmad@tdt.edu.vn
M. A. Dar
Faculty of Environment and Labour Safety, Ton Duc Thang
University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
growth cum rapid economic progress. (2) Vegetation
cover decreased 38.76% due to conversion into urban
features. (3) Water bodies in area increased to 15.78%
due to eradication of encroachment. (4) There is loss of
1.89% of agricultural lands due to demand for construc-
tion activities. (5) About 85.24% of barren lands were
converted into other uses, particularly 57.33% to urban
areas. (6) Urban growth has accelerated towards north-
eastern, northern, and eastern parts, where national high-
ways exist. The built-up areas were dropped from 85.32
to 22.28%, within 5-km distance from the city center.
Keywords Land use/cover . Landsat . Remote sensing .
GIS . Coimbatore City
Introduction
The growing density of population and changing eco-
nomic activities are determining factors of urban land-
use change. The main key in the process of land-use
change in the urban areas is economic and infrastructur-
al development. Coimbatore City Corporation, Tamil
Nadu, is a fast growing city once noted for cotton textile
industry and known as “Manchester of South India.”
The population from surrounding districts and southern
districts migrated and settled in Coimbatore City area
for employment. Population growth is considered as a
principal driving force of urban land-use dynamics
(Vitousek et al. 1997; Ma and Xu 2010; Rahman et al.
2012). Urban growth is interrelated with rapid economic
development, progress in human population, and
445 Page 2 of 14
physical environment. The rural lands were transformed
into urban features (Mundia and Aniya 2005; Dewan
and Yamaguchi 2009; Yin et al. 2011). Proliferation of
human settlements and its activities in urban environ-
ment has fetched about profound changes in urban land-
use/cover pattern (Deng et al. 2009; Weng 2001).
The changing in structure of land-use/cover pattern
affects socio, economic, and environmental conditions
(Mundia and Aniya 2005). Chowdhury and Maithani
(2010) applied digital image processing techniques to
extract urban features. Wakode et al. (2014) analyzed
urban growth of Hyderabad City, using multi-temporal
Landsat data to detect changes in land use/cover. Infor-
mation on land-use/cover changes in recent past re-
quired for the better planning and management of urban
areas in a sustainable way (Ramachandra et al. 2013;
Rawat et al. 2013). It can be very beneficial resource, for
urban planners and policy makers, to solve the crisis
evolved, from fast-growing urban areas. It is necessary
to create a spatial database of land use/cover, under-
standing magnitude of change, and land conversion.
Remote sensing and GIS technologies are effectively
used in urban studies to monitor dynamics of its growth
and structure (Bolca et al. 2007; Tan et al. 2010; Yin
et al. 2011; Billa 2013).
The main purpose of the present study is to investi-
gate spatial and temporal patterns of urban land-use/
cover change, happened between 2003 and 2014 with
following three objectives: (i) analyze the land-use/cov-
er pattern in 2003 and 2014, (ii) the rate of change of
land-use/cover transformation, and (iii) changing pat-
tern with respect to direction as well as distance from
the city center.
Study area
The Coimbatore City Corporation is an important in-
dustrial hub of state Tamil Nadu, India. The Coimbatore
City is the headquarter of Coimbatore District. It was
established as a municipality with a population of
24,000 in 1866, cover spatial extent of 10.88 km2. The
study area extends between latitudes 10° 54′ 45″N to
11° 6′ 15″N and 76° 52′ 10″E to 77° 3′ 55″E. It covers
an area about 260.8 km2 including surface water bodies
of tanks (Fig. 1). The population of Coimbatore as per
census 2011 is about 10.6 lakh. In 2012, the Corporation
city boundary redrawn, nearby areas/villages were ag-
glomerated into Coimbatore City Corporation (CCMC),
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445
and area of the city increases more than two-fold from
105.6 km2.
Materials and methods
Data collections
The present study utilizes Landsat ETM+, image of 21
February 2003, and Landsat 8—OLI and TRS images of
18 May 2014 were downloaded from Earth explorer
website of USGS. Landsat ETM+ consists of eight
bands and is generally utilized for land-use studies.
Spatial resolution is 30 m, from bands 1–7, except band
8 (panchromatic), which is 15 m. Landsat 8 Operational
Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS)
images include of nine (1–9) spectral bands with two
(10–11) thermal bands. The characteristics of Landsat
ETM+ and Landsat 8 (OLI and TRS) sensor system are
presented in Table 1.
Image processing
The digital numbers (DNs) of individual bands of
Landsat ETM+ and Landsat (OLI and TRS) were con-
verted into numerical physical surface reflectance values
for further analysis. Many image-processing techniques
have been implemented including, on the other hand,
band 6 of ETM+ that is not used and excluded from
calibration. Afterwards, separate bands were combined
into single image. These images were projected into
UTM projection, zone 43°N, WGS 1984 datum.
Image enhancement
The image enhancement technique is used to discrim-
inate different features in the area of interest. The
principal aim of image enhancement technique is to
improve individually the satellite images for better
analysis. It includes manipulation of histogram, from
filtering to removing noise, and principal component
analysis.
Supervised classification
Supervised classification algorithm was executed to the
Landsat images based on the training samples and the
reference resources. Maximum likelihood approach is
used to classify the different land-use/cover categories
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445
Fig. 1 Location and extent of Coimbatore City Corporation
in the study area. The data, for 2003 and 2014, were
classified into five categories such as (1) urban fabric—
buildings, roads, and other manmade features; (2) veg-
etation; (3) water bodies; (4) agricultural land; and (5)
barren land.
Then, the classified images were overlaid to decipher
changes occurred in land-use/cover during the study
period. Furthermore, the overlay, buffer, zonal statistics,
and frequency analysis were done for the two images. In
this study, two open-source software are involved to
achieve aim and specific objectives, which are QGIS
(Quantum GIS v.2.4) and SAGA (System for Automat-
ed Scientific Analysis). Further information on the topic
of the classification results of Landsat images of 2003
and 2014 are discussed in the “Results and discussion”
section.
Accuracy assessment
Next to image classification, the accuracy assessment
was carried out for categorized images. Four methods
of accuracy were computed in are overall accuracy,
Page 3 of 14 445
user’s accuracy, producer’s accuracy, and kappa coef-
ficient. There are 250 stratified random sample points
that have been taken for the year 2003 and 260 for
2014.Confusion matrices used to evaluate classifica-
tion accuracy are briefed for two periods in Table 2.
For the 2003 land-use/cover maps, the results shows
that overall accuracy is about to 87.60%; overall mis-
classification rate is 12.40% and kappa coefficient is
0.83. All the categories show that producer’s accuracy
more than 89%, except water bodies, are only 52.08%.
This is mainly due to the confusion by vegetation that
covers surface water bodies. For the 2014 land-use/
cover maps, it is ascertained that overall accuracy is
about to 86.15%, overall misclassification rate is
13.84%, and kappa coefficient is 0.83. All the catego-
ries show that producer’s accuracy more than 82%,
except water bodies, are only 63.64%. According to
Landis and Koch (1977), kappa coefficient value >
0.80 denotes strong agreement or accuracy between
the classified data and reference information
(Rosenfield and Fitzpatrick 1986; Congalton 1991;
Sun et al. 2009).
445 Page 4 of 14 Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445

Table 1 Spectral characteristics of Landsat 7 and 8

Bands Wavelength (μm) Resolution (m)

Enhanced Thematic Mapper Band 1 0.45–0.52 30

Plus (ETM+) Band 2 0.52–0.60 30
Band 3 0.63–0.69 30
Band 4 0.77–0.90 30
Band 5 1.55–1.75 30
Band 6 10.40–12.50 60* (30)
Band 7 2.09–2.35 30
Band 8 0.52–0.90 15
Landsat 8 (OLI) and (TIRS) Band 1 0.43–0.45 30
Band 2 0.45–0.51 30
Band 3 0.53–0.59 30
Band 4 0.64–0.67 30
Band 5 0.85–0.88 30
Band 6 1.57–1.65 30
Band 7 2.11–2.29 30
Band 8 0.50–0.68 15
Band 9 1.36–1.38 30
Band 10—(TIRS) 1 10.60–11.19 100* (30)
Band 11—(TIRS) 2 11.50–12.51 100* (30)
*
TM Band 6 was acquired at 120-meter resolution, but products processed before February 25, 2010 are resampled to 60- meter pixels.
Products processed after February 25, 2010 are resampled to 30-meter pixels.

Change detection 24.81% (64.71 km2) under agricultural lands, and

Afterwards, for the years 2003 and 2014, change detec-
tion algorithm was used to define change in land use/
cover. The postclassification method offers “from-to”
transformation facts, and the kind of land-use transfor-
mations that have occurred can be easily considered.
Then, cross tabulation investigation was performed to
analyze the spatial distribution of various land-use clas-
ses and land-use changes.
Results and discussion
Land-use/cover analysis has been carried for the years
2003 and 2014 (Fig. 2a, b). The data were classified into
different land-use categories such as (1) urban fabric—
buildings, roads, and other manmade features; (2) veg-
etation; (3) water bodies; (4) agricultural land; and (5)
barren land.
In 2003, the Coimbatore City Corporation concealed
by 18.07% (47.16 km2) of the area, 24.9% (65.22 km2)
under vegetation, 0.58% (1.52 km2) under water bodies,
31.52% (82.24 km2) of the area with barren land. The
same land-use/cover categories, in 2014; were found
54.32% (141.74 km2) under urban fabric, 15.3%
(39.14 km2) under vegetation, 0.67% (1.76 km2) under
water bodies, 24.09% (62.86 km2) under agricultural
lands, and 5.59% (14.16 km2) of the area with barren
land.
Figure 3a–e and Table 3 show that, in Coimbatore City
Corporation, urban fabric areal coverage changed from
18.07 to 54.32%, with an area of 36.25% (94.58 km2).
The vegetation cover decreased about 25.28% (9.60 km2),
which was 65.22 km2 in 2003 and 39.94 km2 in 2014. The
water bodies are increased from 1.52 km2 in 2003 to
1.76 km2 in 2014, with an increase of 0.24-km2 areas.
The increase in surface water area is attributed to the
efforts to eliminate the encroachments taken by the local
governing bodies and non-governmental organization.
Agricultural land areas are decreased from 64.75 km2 in
2003 to 62.86 km2 in 2014, with an area of 1.89 km2.
Spatial change in barren land shows that 67.64-km2 area
of barren land lost from 2003 (31.52%) to 2014 (5.59%),
with an area of 67.64 km2 (25.93%).
Table 2 Confusion matrix of the land-use classification in 2003 and 2014

2003 Reference data

Urban fabric Vegetation Water bodies Agriculture Barren land Sum User’s accuracy (%) Error’s commission (%)
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445

Classified data Urban fabric 50 0 0 3 1 54 92.59 7.41

Vegetation 0 89 0 0 0 89 100.00 0.00
Water bodies 0 23 25 0 0 48 52.08 47.92
Agriculture 0 1 0 25 2 28 89.29 10.71
Barren land 0 0 0 1 30 31 96.77 3.23
Sum 50 113 25 29 33 250 Overall accuracy: 87.60%
User’s accuracy (%) 100.00 78.76 100.00 86.21 90.91 Overall misclassification rate: 12.40%
Error’s commission 0.00 21.24 0.00 13.79 9.09 Kappa coefficient: 0.83
2014 Reference data
Urban fabric Vegetation Water bodies Agriculture Barren land Sum User’s accuracy (%) Error’s commission (%)
Classified data Urban fabric 81 0 0 0 0 81 100.00 0.00
Vegetation 0 42 0 0 0 42 100.00 0.00
Water bodies 3 25 49 0 0 77 63.64 36.36
Agriculture 5 1 0 28 0 34 82.35 17.65
Barren land 2 0 0 0 24 26 92.31 7.69
Sum 91 68 49 28 24 260 Overall accuracy: 86.15%
User’s accuracy (%) 89.01 61.76 100.00 100.00 100.00 Overall misclassification rate: 13.84%
Error’s commission 10.99 38.24 0.00 0.00 0.00 Kappa coefficient: 0.82
Page 5 of 14 445
445 Page 6 of 14
Fig. 2 Land-use/cover classification for a 2003 and b 2014
Land transformation during the period of 2003–2014
Land transformation analysis was carried out in this
present study. The change detection matrix was pre-
pared to find out which land-use class was converted
into other (Table 4). The process of urbanization is
always associated with economic development, transfer
of people from rural to urban, and increasing urban
infrastructure to the outskirt of the urban area. In Coim-
batore City Corporation, the city limit has changed, and
redrawn in the year 2010, due to urban growth. The city
corporation decided to enhance the urban facility to the
outer areas of the city.
Land-use/cover change—from vegetation (2003
to 2014)
The vegetation cover, in the Coimbatore City limit, has
converted into different land-use categories. In 2014,
about 38.49% (9.73 km2) of the vegetation cover has
changed into urban fabric from 2003 (Fig. 4a). The
maximum of vegetation cover areas are devoted to
urban fabric. Next, conversion of vegetation cover into
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445
agricultural land accounts for about 14.18% (3.58 km2).
Due to appropriate action taken by the local authorities
and NGOs, the some patches of vegetation cover near
surface water areas are cleared to store maximum water.
About 0.23-km2 areas of vegetation cover changed into
surface water area from 2003 to 2014.
Land-use/cover change—from water bodies (2003
to 2014)
Surface water area increased in 2014 to 1.76 km2 from
1.52 km2 in 2003, with a positive change of 0.24-km2
area (Fig. 4b). The changes in spatial distribution of
water bodies are contributed from urban fabric
(16.96% or 0.04 km2), vegetation cover (25.57% or
0.06 km2), and agricultural land (55.34% or 0.13 km2).
Land-use/cover change—from agriculture (2003
to 2014)
Agricultural lands were primarily converted into urban
fabric class followed by barren land, vegetation cover,
and water bodies. Spatial distribution of land converted
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445 Page 7 of 14 445

Fig. 3 Land-use/cover changes from a urban fabrics, b vegetation, c water bodies, and d agriculture. Land-use/cover changes from e barren
land
445 Page 8 of 14 Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445

Fig. 3 continued.

from agriculture to urban fabric is about 43.12%, which to other land-use categories, urban and barren land, to be
accounts 0.81 km2of agriculture land in the year of 2003 exact, predominantly takes place in southeast, south,
(Fig. 4b). About 0.23-km2 area of agriculture lands was and southwest from the city center.
transformed into barren land, which accounts about
12.21% of the total area of agriculture land in 2003. Land-use/cover change—from barren land (2003
The main issue which controls the transformation of to 2014)
agricultural lands into other land-use classes, chiefly
urban fabric and barren lands, is increase of land values The barren land transformed mainly to urban fabric
in urban core which attracts the people of low-income areas with an account of 57.33% (3.81 km2) to the total
group into outskirt. In the long run, the pressure on land master plan area of Coimbatore City Corporation, in the
increases and forces the land transformation. Figure 6 year 2003. In sum, more than 50% of the land were
clearly exhibits that conversion of land from agriculture transformed into urban area; about 30.61% of the area
were transformed into agriculture land (Fig. 4b). The
Table 3 Land-use/cover change in 2003 and 2014 increase in agricultural land, from barren land, is about
2.03 km2, predominantly happened in the edges of west,
Land use/ Area in km2 Area in % north, northeast, and eastern directions. The colossal
cover
2003 2014 Change 2003 2014 Change
development in real-estate business paved a way to the
expansion of urban features.
Urban fabric 47.16 141.74 94.58 18.07 54.32 36.25
Vegetation 65.22 39.94 − 25.28 24.9 15.3 − 9.69 Directional analysis of land-use/cover conversion
Water bodies 1.52 1.76 0.24 0.58 0.67 0.09
Agriculture 64.75 62.86 − 1.89 24.81 24.09 − 0.72 To decipher the direction of conversion, directional
Barren land 82.24 14.6 − 67.64 31.52 5.59 − 25.992 analysis has been carried out in this study. The master
plan area of the city was divided into eight principal
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445 Page 9 of 14 445

Table 4 Transformation matrix of land-use/cover change in 2003 and 2014

Land use/cover Urban fabric Vegetation Water bodies Agriculture Barren land

Area in %
Urban fabric 87.5632 2.5419 0.0802 8.7880 1.0267
Vegetation 38.4976 45.5265 0.9397 14.1862 0.8500
Water bodies 16.9522 25.5759 55.3455 2.1264
Agriculture 43.1280 7.0416 0.1585 37.4583 12.2136
Barren land 57.3347 4.9846 0.1992 30.6125 6.8690
Area in km2
Urban fabric 82.8173 2.4041 0.0759 8.3117 0.9711
Vegetation − 9.7322 − 11.5091 − 0.2376 − 3.5863 − 0.2149
Water bodies 0.0407 0.0614 0.1328 0.0051 0.0000
Agriculture − 0.8151 − 0.1331 − 0.0030 − 0.7080 − 0.2308
Barren land − 38.7812 − 3.3716 − 0.1347 − 20.7063 − 4.6462
No change

The bold values depict the landuse change.

cardinal directions from the origin point. The intensity Built-up (urban fabric)
of transformation of land-use/cover change with respect
to directions was analyzed and presented in Table 5 and In Fig. 6, the land transformation with respect to direc-
portrayed in Fig. 5. tions was analyzed. The degree of transformation is very

Fig. 4 Land-use/cover transformation from a vegetation and water bodies and b agriculture and barren land
445 Page 10 of 14 Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445

Table 5 Land-use/cover change with respect to direction from the city center in 2003 and 2014

Land use/cover Year Direction

North North-east East South-east South South-west West North-west

Urban fabric 2003 12.00 13.95 5.73 1.56 5.18 1.05 2.58 5.18
2014 27.59 43.03 19.13 6.18 14.33 5.41 7.51 20.15
Change 2003–2014 15.59 29.08 13.39 4.63 9.15 4.35 4.93 14.96
Vegetation 2003 8.91 10.11 13.15 6.60 2.83 7.13 7.25 9.19
2014 4.45 6.01 7.61 4.70 2.14 5.28 4.21 5.00
Change 2003–2014 − 4.46 − 4.10 − 5.54 − 1.89 − 0.69 − 1.85 − 3.04 − 4.19
Water bodies 2003 0.08 0.05 0.80 0.02 0.37 0.05 0.07 0.05
2014 0.05 0.05 0.53 0.01 0.40 0.38 0.27 0.05
Change 2003–2014 − 0.02 0.00 − 0.27 − 0.01 0.03 0.33 0.21 0.00
Agriculture 2003 10.00 17.76 5.58 3.19 12.74 8.20 2.84 3.59
2014 16.67 17.34 2.84 2.49 6.61 4.61 5.14 6.55
Change 2003–2014 6.67 − 0.42 − 2.74 − 0.70 − 6.14 − 3.59 2.30 2.96
Barren land 2003 18.61 27.58 6.54 2.64 4.52 2.71 5.06 15.06
2014 0.84 3.01 1.70 0.62 2.17 3.47 0.66 1.32
Change 2003–2014 − 17.77 − 24.57 − 4.85 − 2.02 − 2.35 0.75 − 4.40 − 13.74

Fig. 5 Land-use/cover with respect to direction for the year a 2003 and b 2014
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445
Fig. 6 Land-use/cover change with respect to direction for the years 2003 and 2014
high in north-eastern, northern, and eastern parts. In north-
eastern part, the area of urban feature increased from
13.95 km2 in 2003 to 43.03 km2, which accounts about
an area of 29.08 km2. The ratio of transformation of urban
feature is decreasing from north to south and from north-
west to south. The factor influencing the city growth in
aforementioned direction is primarily due to the existence
of National Highway 67, 209, and 47. As a consequence,
the town has been stretched from the city center towards
north-eastern, northern, and eastern directions.
Vegetation
In the study area, vegetation cover is found in east,
south-east, south-west, and west and north-west direc-
tions (Fig. 6). About 5.54-km2 area of vegetation was
lost in eastern direction. Next to eastern part, the degree
of transformation of vegetation was taken in north
(4.46 km2) and north-east (4.10) directions. Develop-
ment in real-estate business, private township, and
Page 11 of 14 445
construction of individual and apartment buildings are
act as catalyst for urban expansion.
Agriculture
Agricultural lands were mainly transformed into built-
up area during the period of investigation. In general, the
agricultural areas were decreased from the year 2003 to
2014. On the other hand, north, north-west, and west
directions show positive change (Fig. 6). About 6.67-
km2 area was turned into agricultural lands, which was
10 km2 in 2003 and 16.67 in 2014. The agricultural
lands were lost about 6.14 km2 (south), 2.74 km2 (east),
3.59 km2 (south-west), and 2.74 km2 (west). Slight
extent of area has been altered from agricultural land
in north-east and south-east.
Barren land
The degree of transformation observed in barren land cate-
gory is relatively high with other land-use/cover classes.
445 Page 12 of 14
Fig. 7 Concentric circle buffer zone map from the city center for a 2003 and b 2014
In the investigation period, this land-use category was most-
ly affected by anthropogenic activities. Barren land was
primarily considered for the transformation into urban fea-
tures. Mainly, the shrinkage of barren land area is found in
north and north-east. Nearly, in all the directions, barren land
areas were declined, except south-west (Fig. 6).
Land-use change with respect to distance from the city
center
Buffer analysis has been carried out to decipher the
amount of land transformation to outwards from the city
center. From the city center, around 31 concentric circles
with intervals of 500-m distance were created using
multiple ring buffer tools in GIS environment (Fig. 7).
These concentric zones were intersected with land-use
maps of 2003 and 2014. Afterwards, areal coverage, in
percentage, of each land-use/cover type in each zone is
computed and presented.
Figure 8 reveals the differences in area percentages
of urban fabric with distance. In 2003, the urban
features were highly distributed within 3.5 km from
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445
the center. Its areal extent dropped from 85.32 to
22.28%, within 5-km buffer zone, and fell down to
10.46% within 5–8.5-km buffer, afterwards almost
fixed with a lower percentage away from 8.5-km
buffer area. The area percentage of vegetation spread-
ing is about 4.76% within 0.5 km, increased to 45.7%
from 18.53, within 1–4.5-km buffer zone. Then, its
percentage decreases from 36.23 to 9.65% with in-
creasing distance from 5- to 11-km buffer area. Water
body area percentage was very negligible and is found
within 0.5- to 12-km buffer zone.
Less than 15.85% of agricultural land area percentage
were observed with 0.5–4.5-km buffer. Its areal coverage
percentage was gradually increased from 26.1 to 52.23%,
within 4.5–14-km segment. Beyond 6-km buffer area, the
barren land became the predominant type of land cover,
with an average of 46.53% in each buffer region.
In 2014, the proportion of urban area increased prom-
inently, with an average of 50.97% against 20.70% in
2003. As a general rule, areal distribution of urban fea-
tures has decreases with increasing in distance. However,
the degree of decreasing rate is much slower than in 2003.
Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:445
Fig. 8 Land-use/cover change with respect to distance from the city center for the years 2003 and 2014
Conclusion
This study implemented a combined approach of multi-
temporal remote sensing image interpretation and GIS
spatial analysis to quantitatively portray the dynamics of
urban growth and land-use/land cover change in Coim-
batore City Corporation area, during 2003–2014.Spatial
information on urban land-use/cover information are an
indispensible tool to better understand urban evolution,
for sustainable management of urban land resources.
Information related to urban land-use/cover, rate of
change, progress direction, and distance from the core
are supporting urban planners to take better decision.
Page 13 of 14 445
Remote sensing-based data and GIS technologies were
extensively applied in the study. The land-use/cover
transformation, in Coimbatore City Corporation, is ac-
companied by economic growth and population growth.
The study concludes that urban fabrics increased from
18.07% in 2003 to 54.32% in 2014 due to fast growing
settlements. Mostly, barren lands were converted into
urban area, about to 57.33 (38.78 km2). In last decade,
the construction of new settlements, such as individual
houses and apartments, increased drastically. Agricul-
tural and barren lands to settlement conversion is com-
mon everywhere. Agricultural lands and vegetation
covers cleared and dedicated to the economic activities.
445 Page 14 of 14
Urban growth is found predominantly in north-eastern,
northern, and eastern parts due to existence of National
Highways. It is also recommended that to decrease
negative impacts of urbanization, policy makers, town
planners, and stake-holders should take suitable adapta-
tion. Most of all, the existing development system
should change from “economic progress first” to “sus-
tainability first.” Urban growth should be controlled on
or near the surface water bodies and vegetation and
environmentally sensitive areas (Yin et al. 2011).
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