English  Français

Does urban land expansion affect the village’s development? A geospatial study of 615 peri-urban villages of Gujarat, India

Ankit Sikarwar, University of Minnesota
Aparajita Chattopadhyay, International Institute for Population Sciences, India
Ritu Rani, International Institute For Population Sciences

In the process of urbanization, villages are becoming parts of the cities, and are almost irreversibly transformed as a result. The social and economic development of rural areas largely depends on the basic infrastructure facilities. Since peri-urban areas experience a complex interplay of urban and rural characteristics, it is critical to address the question: Does the land development induced by metro cities transform the peri-urban infrastructure or not? This study attempts to analyses the trends and patterns of key infrastructure facilities in 615 peri-urban villages and to link it with the land consumption rate from 1991 to 2011. We have integrated village-level census data with high-resolution remotely sensed data. The possible linkages are being studied by applying various geospatial techniques. The results indicate that there has been huge land development that took place in the studied region but the status of infrastructure facilities has not improved up to the mark. Surprisingly, more than half of the villages have witnessed a negative change in infrastructure. The villages which are away from the city, major towns and major road networks are identified as the most deprived and they need immediate policy attention.

Keywords: Urbanization and urban populations, Remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Spatial analysis/regression

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session P23.