Application of geo-spatial indices for detection of growth dynamics and forms of expansion in English Bazar Urban Agglomeration, West Bengal

In India, urban sprawl of metropolitan cities and other large cities is a widespread concern for planners and policy makers. Modeling urban sprawl of small and medium size towns is completely bypassed urban research of India. This study attempted to fill-up the gap by addressing the three urban growth types of infilling growth, outlying growth and edge-expansion growth of EBM which is a medium size town of West Bengal. In this study, an integrated approach of remote sensing and GIS along with spatial landscape matrices have employed to identify and distinguish between three urban growth types of EBM which helps planners to better identify, understand and address the sprawl of small and medium size towns of developing countries. Result shows that the proposed methods successfully identifies and visualize different urban growth types of EBM. Infilling growth is the dominant expansion type. Edge-expansion is concentrated at suburban areas. Outlying growth mainly occurs relatively far from the urban core. The analysis shows that initially the urban area expands mainly as edge-expanding growth during the different temporal periods. Next, growth shows gradual increasing of the area under outlying growth from phase 1 (1991–2001) to phase 3 (2011–2016) with area cover of 2.04 km 2 –3.25 km 2 . Growth filled in vacant non-urban area inwards, resulting into a more compact and aggregated urban pattern. The study shows an improved understanding of urban growth, and helps to provide an effective way for urban planning.