Application of multi-influence factor (MIF) technique for the identification of suitable sites for urban settlement in Tiruchirappalli City, Tamil Nadu, India

The assessment of the suitability of a region for urban development is crucial. It is necessary to make appropriate decisions for urban and regional development by considering essential criteria. Remote sensing and GIS techniques can be used to provide spatial information when assessing the suitability of a region. The aim of this study was to identify a suitable site for urban settlement in Tiruchirappalli. This study incorporates the GIS-based multi-influence factor (MIF) technique to identify land-use suitability for future development in Tiruchirappalli. Open land and agricultural land were the primary land-use classes in the study area. The evaluation process for land suitability analysis was based on 11 criteria including land-use/land-cover (LULC), road and rail network, industrial area, settlement, soil map, slope, population density, surface water bodies, groundwater level, and water quality. The site suitability map for urban settlement was divided into four regions: I-restricted, II-less suitable, III-moderately suitable, and IV-highly suitable. The results indicated that 15.46% of the study area was highly suitable for urban settlement, 41.38% was moderately suitable, 39.33% was less suitable, and 3.82% was restricted for urban settlement. Most of the suitable area was located in the central zone of the city, where the existing urban land was located. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) was applied to validate the model, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.837, suggesting that the model was efficient. The current study is thus proposed to be an effective tool for sustainable land-use planning and development in Tiruchirappalli.