Geospatial analysis of land use dynamics and urban growth characteristics in Tinsukia District, Assam, India

Land use change driven by urbanization alters the landscape, transforming natural habitats into built surfaces, which impacts ecological balance and socio-economic development. The present research tries to investigate two components of landscape dynamics in the Tinsukia district of Assam, India: (i) LULC change (2003–2023) and (ii) assessment of urban growth. The LULC maps for the years, 2003, 2013, and 2023 were prepared through support vector machine (SVM) techniques using Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7, and 8 OLI/TIRS imageries with 88.88 %, 86.60 %, and 80 % overall accuracy and 0.87, 0.85 and 0.89 kappa coefficient values for 2003, 2013, and 2023 respectively. The urban sprawl assessment used the LecoS tools, Landscape Expansion Index (LEI), Area-Weighed Mean Expansion Index (AWMEI), and Shannon’s entropy method. The result revealed a significant shift in various LULC classes with a notable expansion of plantation areas from 16.69 % (637.30 sq. km) to 32.98 % (1259.51 sq. km) and the built-up areas increasing from 1.54 % (58.96 sq. km) to 6.33 % (241.72 sq. km) in 2003 and 2023, respectively. The urban sprawl studies between 2003 and 2023 revealed urban expansion, mostly characterized by edge expansion types and scattered patterns. The highly dispersed pattern of urban growth was validated through Shannon’s entropy values of 2.77 and 2.14 between 2003–2013 and 2013–2023, respectively. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of using GIS-based indices combined with statistical applications for urban growth assessment. The findings of the research will promote sustainable urban planning and contribute to environmental conservation in the region.