Articles

• Urban dynamics and urban spralw in hill stations of India: a case study of Shillong city

  1-10

  F Phibawanlang Kharpran

  Subrata Purkayastha

  Views:

  23

  The hill stations of India are remnants of colonial past built by the British where the scenic landscape and climate similar to Britain attracted the British to set up cantonments and sanatoriums for the British troops and their families. Shillong City whose origin dates back to the 19^th century, was the British capital of Assam Province, the administrative seat of undivided Assam after India’s Independence and at present the capital of Meghalaya. The city’s growth resulted from the continuous influx of population to fulfil the changing socio-economic and political dynamics of the city.  This hill station was built by the British with a vision to house a population of less than one lakh. It was then a cluster of a few scattered hamlets, which at present has grown tremendously with 12 contiguous urban units forming the Shillong Urban Agglomeration (SUA). With the help of RS -GIS using Shannon entropy technique as a landscape metric, the urban sprawl of Shillong has been measured from the year 1991 to 2001.The rapid growth has led to an urban sprawl which poses various challenges to the city’s environment.

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• Coastal landuse land cover change and transformations in-between Cuddalore and Nagore, south east coast of India using remote sensing and GIS

  11-24

  Kongeswaran Thangaraj

  Sivakumar Karthikeyan

  Muruganantham Arumugam

  Prabakaran Kulandaisamy

  Perumal Velmayil

  Agastheeswaran Vellaikannu

  Bangaru Priyanga Sundaram

  Muthuramalingam Rajendran

  Views:

  34

  This study was conducted to assess the Land use and land cover (LULC) changes in a dynamic coastal zone; this is also an essential factor of studying the relationships between the human activity and coastal environment. The study region has been suffered from various natural hazards such as cyclone impacts, coastal erosion and rarely tsunamis. LULC changes was studied and reported for the period of 4 decades from 1980 to 2020. The overall accuracy assessment and Kappa coefficient values shows the substantial results of LULC maps. In the study area LULC changes has been classified in the six classes. The result shows reduction in plantations, coastal wetland and fallow land. Whereas improvement found in barren land, built-up land and water body of the study area from 1980 to 2020. Immediate attention is required to the increase the mangrove forest to be as a natural protection from the calamities in coastal wetlands. The information resulting from this study can be used in forthcoming management plans for urbanization and towards the sustainable development of the region. This study can be adapted to the world’s any coastal region to establish a strategic plan of action to protect the coastal communities and the environment.

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• A remote sensing and GIS-based analysis on the impact of dam construction towards the land use land cover pattern of Bakreswar Watershed, India

  25-42

  Arpita Bhandary

  Poushali Roy

  Views:

  10

  The present study evaluates the impact of the dam construction on land use and land cover (LULC) pattern of the Bakreswar Watershed in the Birbhum District, West Bengal, India during 1990-2020. Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI data were used to analyze the LULC pattern during the pre- and post-dam construction periods. Supervised image classification using the maximum likelihood algorithm was done to generate LULC and change detection maps in ArcGIS. LULC dynamic attitude and transfer matrix were prepared based on the LULC maps of four years. The results show that the dam construction significantly influenced the LULC pattern of the region. The highest rate of increase is seen in waterbody (86.37%) during 1990–2000 due to dam construction. Cultivated land also increased by 12.31% during this period. After the dam construction, the conversion rate from fallow land to cultivated land is higher in the downstream area rather than the upstream area. The area under barren land decreased by 53.28% in 1990–2000 and by 41.23% during 2009–2020 due to its conversion to built-up area. The built-up area rapidly increased during the past 20 years, by 34.57% and 45% during 1990–2000 and 2009-2020, respectively. Major change is seen along the Panagarh–Morgram Highway which connects two urban centers, Suri and Dubrajpur. Settlement concentration is also high around the Bakreswar Thermal Power Plant (BkTPP) and BkTPP Township. This study provides a useful approach to understanding the impacts of dam construction on cultivated area change and how transportation facility influences urban agglomeration.

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• Urbanization induced land use/land cover change and its impact on land surface temperature in Bhubaneshwar city, India

  43-62

  Kiran Kumari Singh

  Madhusmita Parida

  Garima Jasrotia

  Views:

  36

  The study was conducted in Bhubaneswar City, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. The impact of the increase in surface temperature on the city was studied by retrieving LST, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDBI) values of Bhubaneswar using Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 data for 2001, 2011, and 2021. The surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect was also studied to identify temperature changes and hotspots in the city. There was a rise of 3.93℃ and 1.55℃ in the maximum and minimum LST in Bhubaneshwar city from 2001 to 2021. The heating effect of the built-up and cooling effect of vegetation was ascertained through correlation analysis between LST and NDBI (positive) and between LST and NDVI (negative). The results of this study will help the government and urban planners to identify heat stress and vulnerable areas, thereby contributing to better monitoring and future planning of the city. Thus, this will lead to efficient heat strategies and action plans such as developing green spaces in and around the city.

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• Trend analysis of temperature over the Meghalaya Plateau: A case study of Ri Bhoi District

  63-76

  Andy T.G Lyngdoh

  Subrata Purkayastha

  Views:

  26

  Climate change is a reality in the present world, and most nations are fighting this menace by bringing in mitigation measures to check our carbon footprint and developing measures to make ourselves more resilient to hazards associated with climate change and global warming. These necessities measure the nature and degree of change in the climatic elements, viz., temperature, rainfall, etc. Located on the northern slopes of the Meghalaya plateau, the Ri Bhoi district is characterized by a complex climatic condition owing to its altitudinal differences. The district is divided into two distinct zones: the Highland zone, located closer to Shillong, and the Lowland zone, lying closer to the Brahmaputra plains. The economy of Ri Bhoi district is agrarian in nature, where most of the rural populations live close to nature, following subsistence agriculture with fewer technological innovations; hence, awareness of temperature changes becomes essential for carrying out their livelihoods. In this context, the present paper attempts to analyze both the minimum and maximum average monthly, seasonal, and annual temperatures over two decades (1999–2019) in both zones. The Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test and Sen’s slope estimate were employed to find the nature of the temperature trend and its magnitude in the two zones of Ri Bhoi District. The findings suggest an erratic behavior of both the maximum and minimum temperature has been observed in the Highland and Lowland zones of Ri Bhoi district over the past two decades, impacting agriculture and agro-based livelihoods.

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