Urban Growth and Its Impact on Cityscape: A Geospatial Analysis of Rohtak City, India

Abstract

Rohtak is one of the eight priority towns (Regional Centres) of National Capital Region (NCR) Regional Plan 2001. It lies 70 kms north-west from Delhi, the National Capital of India. Located at 28?41'1'' North latitude and 76?12'42'' East longitude in the NCR region of Haryana state on National Highway No. 10, it spreads over 100.57 km 2 . Its population was projected to grow to 500,000 by 2001. Despite its nearness to the national capital it did not attract investment and the rate of urbanization remained low. Rohtak city grew slower than the state of Haryana in the three decades ending in 2001. On being declared as Municipal Corporation in 2010 urban growth of Rohtak took place in the form of extension in territorial jurisdiction and inclusion of urbanized eight villages. The new economic environment demands sustainable land management. Spatial information of land use/land cover types and their change detection in time series are important means for city planning and undertaking development activities. The present work is undertaken in that spirit. It has analyzed the relationship between urban growth and land use changes and their impact on Rohtak city. The period of focus is from 1983 to 2010. Both primary and secondary sources of data have been used for the present study. Secondary sources of data—guide map, topographical sheet and high resolution satellite imageries have been used to detect land use/land cover changes from the study area whereas primary source of data include ground truth and photographs from the field.