Quantifying the dynamics of urban growth modes in Bengaluru, India

Abstract

This study focuses on the quantification of urban patterns during a 20-year period from 1996 to 2016 in Bengaluru, India. To assess the dynamics of the urban growth modes, a landscape metric is used called landscape expansion index (LEI). The study investigates the various growing processes in Bengaluru for four periods i.e, 1996–2001, 2001–2006, 2006–2011 and 2011–2016. The LEI metric determined three types of urban growth i.e, infilling, outlying and edge-expansion. During the first two periods i.e, from 1996–2001 and 2001–2006, edge expansion and outlying were predominant in the area, but in the next two periods 2006–2011 and 2011–2016, infilling growth type has been completely predominant and the urban areas which were spread across fringes in 1996–2006 were filled up during 2006–2016. Two distinct phases of urbanisation emerged, which follows the theory of urban growth and the diffusion–coalescence model. At an early stage from 1996 to 2001, urbanisation was found to be scattered known as diffusion type of growth and between 2001 and 2016, the growth was found to be merging of individual urban patches or infilling of open spaces within an urban complex, known as coalesced type of growth.