Urban Expansion and Loss of Agricultural Land: A Remote Sensing Based Study of Shirpur City, Maharashtra

Abstract

In present urban expansion is important field of geographic study. This is an attempt to study the urban expansion and land use pattern of Shirpur city of Dhule district (MS). For that purpose used land landsat images (1991, 2001 and 2011) of Shirpur city. These satellite images further processed and analyzed by GIS software. Shirpur city lies in Shirpur tehsil and administrative head quarter of tehsil. Total population of Shirpur city was 44246 in 1991 that increase up to 76905 in 2011. The total area of Shirpur city is 1113.36 hectares out of that 459.64 hectares area under built up in 1991 that increase 760.16 hectares in 2011. This expansion of city area responsible for loss of agricultural land there were 540.33 hectares in 1991 that has been decline 298.72 hectares in 2011. Finely it is concluded that the growing population and its increasing demands of land for non-agricultural activities responsible for turn agricultural land for built up area, industrial plants, roads and plotting for future growth of city.