Dynamics of Per-Urban Land Alteration in and Around Siliguri City, India: A Geo-Spatial Study

Urban studies in more detailed form have emphasized zonal development and spatio-temporal transformation of cities. With the progress of time, the city expands outward, which gives birth to new urban areas. While areas within the administrative boundary of a city often goes through the process of planning, those, outside the administrative jurisdiction of the city often lack proper management and organization of land. This often results in haphazard urban growth and proliferation of semi-formal settlements within the peri-urban setting of developing nations. The present study was conducted for exploring the dynamics of peripheral urban land alterations in and around Siliguri city. For in-depth research, three buffer zones were delineated and supervised classification-based satellite images were incorporated to visualize the usage and coverage of land (LULC) based transformations of over the years. In addition, NDVI and LST were used to trace the changes in vegetation quality and surface temperature at the buffer zone level. The findings show a deterioration in vegetation health and an increase in surface temperature of the land in newly developed built-up and desolate regions. All three buffer zones showed a negative association the temperature of the land surface and the health of the vegetation. Furthermore, spatial extent of built-up land determined by remote sensing data was compared to population growth rates to calculate the Land Conversion Rate-Population Growth Rate (LCRPGR). The study emphasizes that peri-urbanization has accelerated the spread of built-up areas across the three zones, reflecting population constraints on land and yielding an overall LCRPGR value of 3.22. Importantly, the study demonstrated how the change-induced evidence of peri-urban dynamics has led to land transformation in the study area. Importantly, the study highlights how evidence of peri-urban dynamics reveals land changes in the studied area. It demonstrates how the rapid rise of people and development, along with limited available land space, drives the rapid alteration of peri-urban areas inside urban cityscape.