Abstract
Rapid urbanization is resulting in the irreversible land use and land cover (LULC) changes, which is the prime driver of global warming and consequent climate changes. This communication investigates landscape dynamics assessed through spatio-temporal pattern analysis using free and open source softwares [FOSS, http://ces. iisc. ernet. in/foss]. Bangalore has been experiencing urbanization tide since globalisation era and is one of the fastest growing cities in India. Migration and policy decision of setting up major facilities and industries seem to be the reason for rapid urbanisation with impacts on the local ecology and natural resources. As the city centre has reached the threshold of urbanisation, intense sprawl has been noticed at outskirts. In order to understand the urbanisation and sprawl dynamics, spatio-temporal analysis has been done in the city administrative region with 10 km buffer. To understand the dynamics at local level with drivers, spatial metrics is computed for the study region, which is divided into eight zones (radial), 13 circles of 2 km incrementing radius. The results show that extensive land conversion to urban utility has occurred since 1992 within the city and from 2000 conversion started at periphery, especially by industrialisation activities. The land scape metrics exhibited remarkable spatial and temporal variations and urban sprawl. Overall changes in the land use from 1973 to 2012 shows the increase in the built-up (paved surface) area from 1.87% to 29.33% and decrease in vegetation cover from 62.38% to 33.68%. The landscape metrics depicts the city is more concentrated at center and fragmented towards its …