Tracing the Changes in the Pattern of Urban Landscape of Dehradun over Last Two Decades using RS and GIS

Abstract

Impact of population explosion is clear on urban landscape of not only metropolitan cities but also on small and medium towns of India. Dehradun, the interim capital of Uttrakhand state, India also witnessed tremendous developments over last two decades. It alters the landscape pattern of the city. In this study, changes in the landscape pattern of Dehradun city and surroundings has been explored using Landsat TM image of 1986 and IRS-1C/1D LISS III image of 1998 and 2011. For this purpose, the calculation of the metrics i.e., percentage of landscape (PLAND), number of patch (NP), mean patch size (MPS) have been carried out with public domain software– Fragstatsver 4.1. The results of the study highlights the three fold increase in the built-up area with drastic decrease in river/ water body and open spaces during 1986-2011. The built-up growth was higher between 1986-1998 in comparison to 1998-2011. Also, availability of built-up area available per 1000 persons has increased from 8.5 ha in 1986 to 11.5 ha in 2011. It may be due to the people interest to invest in property as a safe means because of weak economic conditions.