City witnessing sharp rise in urbanisation, study finds

A study of remote-sensing data of Greater Bengaluru between 1999 and 2014 has shown that urbanisation in Bengaluru has increased tremendously with a rise in the built-up area by 125 per cent, a decrease in vegetation by 62 per cent and that of water bodies by 85 per cent.

The study was conducted by a team of scientists from the Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru.

Bharath Aithal, post-doctoral senior research associate, IISc, one of the members of the team who studied the spatial development of Bengaluru, found that Greater Bengaluru was experiencing unprecedented urban growth at the rate of 4.6 per cent per year in recent years.

“There has been an extreme growth in the industrial sector (IT sector) in the last couple of years and migration of people to these places for housing and work has brought severe pressure on the environment. Further, we lack efficient transportation and thus we see people craving to stay close to their workplace adding to dependency on private vehicles,” said Aithal. The study has found that due to these factors, the outskirts of the City, towards Northeast and Southeast, show numerous urban patches and irregular shapes. These areas are the IT hubs.

The land use classification was algorithmically computed and categorised as urban (buildings, roads and paved surfaces), vegetation (parks, botanical gardens and grasslands such as golf course), water bodies (lakes, sewage treatment tanks) and others (playgrounds, quarry regions and barren land).

“Our study aimed to bring out the lacunae in our planning system and to help policymakers in understanding the entire landscape. It also benefits citizens of the City to voice their opinions and obtain basic amenities as promised under our Constitution. It also forms a basis to provide solutions to their elected representatives,” added Aithal.
The team has shared their findings with various decision-makers and hope to engage them in discussion and thinking.