Abstract
India is a rapidly urbanizing country and has experienced profound changes in the spatial structure of urban areas. This study endeavours to illuminate the process of urbanization in India using Defence Meteorological Satellites Program - Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) night time lights (NTLs) and SPOT vegetation (VGT) dataset for the period 1998-2008. Satellite imagery of NTLs provides an efficient way to map urban areas at globaland national scales. DMSP/OLS dataset however lacks continuity and comparability; hence the dataset was first intercalibrated using second order polynomial regression equation. The intercalibrated dataset along with SPOT-VGTdataset for the year 1998 and 2008 were subjected to a support vector machine (SVM) method to extract urban areas. SVM is semi-automated technique that overcomes the problems associated with the thresholding methods for NTLsdata and hence enables for regional and national scale assessment of urbanization. The extracted urban areas were validated with Google Earth images and global urban extent maps. Spatial metrics were calculated and analyzed state-wise to understand the dynamism of urban areas in India. Significant changes in urban proportion were observed in Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Kerala while other states also showed a high degree of changes in area wise urbanproportion.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 49-61 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
Funding
PKJ acknowledge Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. The experimental and computational facilities of TERI University have been used; support to this research is greatly acknowledged by authors. Authors also acknowledge anonymous reviewers for constructive comments and suggestions to improve quality of manuscript.
Funders | Funder number |
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National Science Foundation | 1229429 |
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India | |
Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan |
Keywords
- Intercalibration
- Landscape metrics
- Night time lights
- Support vector machine
- Urban growth