Impact of Rapid Urbanization on the City of Bhubaneswar, India

Rapid and unplanned urbanization of cities has been a cause of great concern world over. Increased urbanization has immensely altered the Land Use pattern of several Indian cities, thereby altering the physical properties of the land surface. The pronounced effect of urban heat island (UHI) apart from the acute stress on limited natural resources are consequences of this rapid urbanization. UHI effect manifests as unexpected rise in city temperatures when compared to their surrounding areas, thus making them unfriendly for habitation over time. The present work analyses the effect of UHI on Bhubaneswar, an Indian city undergoing rapid urbanization in recent times, utilizing land use and land cover (LULC) change data from Landsat over a 25 km radius about the city and MODIS land surface temperatures (LST) at 1 km(2) spatial resolution for a period of 15 years (2000-2014). From the study, significant changes in LULC through over-exploitation of natural resources and the related spatio-temporal variations in LST has been identified as one major factor responsible for changes in the UHI effect over Bhubaneswar. Owing to rapid urbanization (83% increase in 15 years), the city has undergone major changes in LULC aggregating to a massive similar to 89% decrease in dense vegetation and similar to 83% decrease in crop fields over this time period. Analyses of the changes in the urban energy balance and resulting UHI effect across many such Indian cities undergoing rapid urban growth is quite essential for mitigating the negative impacts of urbanization for a long-term sustainability.