A systematic review of urban sprawl studies in India: a geospatial data perspective

Abstract

This paper reviews articles published in the English language and using geospatial data in analysing the state of urban sprawl in India. India is not far behind in the unparalleled global phenomenon of urbanization, with it adding the highest number of urban dwellers by 2050. We review a total of 153 articles involving the use of remote sensing data for studying urban sprawl in India since it was first reported in the 1980s to the present. We find an exponentially increasing trend of urban sprawl studies since the year 2010 attributing to 72% of the total publications. This review helped in finding preferences as regards the most frequently studied city, platforms/sensors used, journals and the most active group carrying out urban sprawl studies. We then group the studies decade wise and report the major findings. Earlier studies mainly focused on the post-classification comparison of multitemporal data. With the advancement of geospatial technology along with the ease of availability of satellite data, there has been a significant spurge in the number and quality of urban sprawl studies in the recent decades and involves advanced methods like spatial metrics, artificial neural network, object-based classification, and different kinds of modelling for future prediction of sprawl. Our findings suggest that sprawl research has evolved significantly over the years. With the availability of a large number of studies and copious amounts of data, the governmental agencies and large organizations should actively formulate a nationallevel database and incorporate these studies in various urban planning decisions.