Assessing urban sprawl of Behrampore urban agglomeration of West Bengal, India by using geospatial techniques

In India, Urban centers have been experiencing rapid urbanization which leads to unplanned urban expansion around the urban centers. This unplanned urban expansion is not limited to large urban centers but small urban centers also experiencing it too. The monitoring such unplanned urban expansion is a crucial task to the planners for sustainable urban development. Therefore, this study mainly focuses on the spatio – temporal assessment of land use changes for the monitoring of urban expansion pattern in relation to urban sprawl in Behrampore Urban Agglomeration. Multi – temporal Landsat data have been used for the quantification of land use changes and urban sprawl. Built – up expansion, built – up density and Shannon’s entropy have been used to assess the urban sprawl and its spatial extent. The findings of the study reveal that the non-urban class (Vegetation, agriculture, water bodies, and open land) have been decreasing consistently with an increase in the built – up areas over time. The built-up area has increased by 345 per cent in the span of 30 years (1991–2021). The Change Matrix of other land use classes into Built-up areas shows that agricultural land and vegetation cover are the most vulnerable to built-up expansion as 57.22 per cent of total built – up area grown on the agricultural land and 34.41 per cent grown on the vegetation cover in the time span of 1991–2021. The results of Shannon’s entropy and built-up density confirm sprawling phenomena in the study area and mainly three types of sprawling identified i.e., low-density development, ribbon development, and leapfrog development. Overall, the study offers insightful information about the shifts in sprawling and urban growth in the Behrampore Urban Agglomeration. To promote sustainable urban development and enhance the quality of life for residents, it is important for stakeholders and the government to adopt better land use planning.