Exploring Multiscale Influence of Urban Growth on Landscape Patterns of Two Emerging Urban Centers in the Western Himalaya

Sonali Sharma (), Pawan Kumar Joshi () and Christine Fürst
Additional contact information
Sonali Sharma: School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110 067, India
Pawan Kumar Joshi: School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110 067, India
Christine Fürst: Department of Sustainable Landscape Development, Institute for Geosciences and Geography, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Von-Seckendorff-Platz 4, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-23

Abstract: The Western Himalaya are experiencing and epitomizing growing urbanization trends due to rapid population and tourism rise across the Indian Himalayan region. The pace and process of urban development in these regions are largely unplanned and unregulated; consequently, the altered landscape composition and configuration are influencing key ecological processes and functions supporting human wellbeing. Existing urbanization research addressing this issue has mainly focused on large urban centers, underrepresenting the potential role of medium-sized cities in sustainable landscape planning. Thus, this study attempted to quantify land use/land cover and landscape pattern dynamics in response to urban growth and expansion in and around two emerging urban centers—Dharamsala and Pithoragarh, Western Himalaya, over the past two decades. The study was split into three temporal periods, and intensity analysis was used to characterize transformational patterns in the city and outer zone of each landscape. The results indicate that, during the T2 and T3 period, the overall LULC dynamics was highest in Dharamsala and Pithoragarh, respectively. The urban development in Dharamsala occurred at the expense of cropland followed by vegetation and forest, while, in Pithoragarh, it occurred at the expense of cropland followed by vegetation loss dominated. Furthermore, the landscape pattern results highlighted the aggregation and homogenization at the city level, with a higher degree of disaggregation, fragmentation, and heterogeneity in outer zone. This paper highlights the importance of transformational patterns based on intensity analysis and landscape patterns to sustainable landscape development and planning. In addition, considering the past to present urban development trajectories, this study purposes a framework for sustainable landscape development in Himalaya for urban planners and policymakers.

Keywords: landscape metrics; urbanization; Western Himalaya; sub-watershed; Dharamsala; Pithoragarh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/12/2281/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/12/2281/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:12:p:2281-:d:1001766

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().