Structural Analysis of Land Use Pattern in Delhi India

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Structural Analysis of Land Use Pattern in Delhi
India Elizabeth A. Wentz School of
Geographical Sciences Arizona State University
Tempe AZ 85287-0104
INTRODUCTION Delhi India has a long history as a
major urban center. Delhi has been rebuilt
numerous times by various dynasties that have
ruled over the region creating a pattern of
development that is challenging to quantify. The
most recent rebuilding occurred in the mid 20th
century and was planned by British architect
Edwin Lutyens. The building and rebuilding of the
city influences the structure. The remnants of
the last dynasty before the British is very close
to the India Gate area or the most downtown like
part which is often called Old Delhi. The
objective of this research is to examine the
growth pattern of Delhi with the India Gate as
the central focus of growth. I evaluated the
structure of land use/cover by comparing the
areas of different categories in concentric
rings. I assessed the extent that Delhi fits the
neoclassical economic bid rent model (Von Thünen
1966). The theory suggests that people will make
economically rational decisions with respect to
residential and agricultural locations providing
the city is located on a flat plain
transportations costs are relative to distance
and the city has a central business district
(Thrall 1987). I evaluate this with respect to
the location of the urban (Urban High Density
Urban High Density and Asphalt/Concrete)
agriculture (fallowed and cultivated) water and
undisturbed classes of land use and land cover.
STUDY AREA The study area covers approximately
1500 km² of the metropolitan Delhi area and the
surrounding non-urban areas 76.96E 28.44N by
77.40E 28.76N (Figures 1). The metropolitan
area is in the northern part of India situated on
the Indio-Gangetic Plain along the Yamuna River.
The elevation of the city ranges between 213 to
305 meters. Delhi has hot summers and fairly cold
winters with summer time high temperatures that
can reach 45 ºC. Rainfall is dominated by
monsoonal weather patterns with rainfall
occurring from the middle of June to the end of
September.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The concentrations of each
land use category in concentric rings from the
India Gate are reported in Tables 1 and 2. The
Yamuna River located less than 5 km from the
city center limits mobility between the central
business district and the eastern side of the
river (Figure 2). As a consequence the east side
of the river retains much of its rural
characteristics (with cultivated agriculture and
pockets of low density urbanization). Over 9 of
the areas total agriculture is within 5 km of
the city center. The Yamuna River continues to
bisect the regions at 10 to 15 km from the core.
One the west side of the river where residents
are not impeded by river crossing urbanization
is much higher again demonstrating the impact
the river has on urban growth. The success of
agriculture near the river particularly on the
west side - is also likely due to fertile fluvial
soils.  
DATA AND ANALYSIS  The remotely sensed data were
classified using an expert system approach. I
used a Boolean decision rule that includes the
initial MDM land cover classification (VNIR bands
only) and Delhi land use ancillary data to
produce a final classification with 13 categories
(Figure 2). These 13 categories are Urban High
Density Urban Low Density Park Cultivated
Vegetation (crops) Asphalt/Concrete
Undisturbed Compacted Soil (fallow) Water
Airport Mines Fluvial Sediments Historical
Ruins and Golf Course. Three classes (Mines
Historical Ruins and Golf Course) were
explicitly designated by the land use map. Using
the classified image I calculated the percent
land use/cover in each category in concentric
rings from the the India Gate. Equation 1
represents the percent of each land use/cover
category per concentric ring. Equation 2
represents the percentage of the total land
use/cover category. Such that for each land
use type (i) the area within a given concentric
ring (j) is compared to the total area of all
land use/covers in that same concentric ring
(j).     Such that for each land use type
(i) the area within a given concentric ring (j)
is compared to the total area of that same land
use/cover (i) across the entire study area
(Figure 2).    
One might expect that the Urban High Density
class would occupy the greatest area in the
center of the city followed by the Urban Low
Density class. As you progress away from the city
core the Urban High Density class should
decrease and the Urban Low Density class should
increase. Instead the central core of the city
is dominated by Urban Low Density (24) followed
by Urban High Density (21) for a combined 45
urban cover. The combined urban cover peaks at
55 in the regions 5 to 10 km from the city
center and again between 15 km to the edge of the
data. Land use planning across the city favors
high-density construction for middle-class
residents. These are also the areas where there
are jobs and access to public transportation.
CONCLUSIONS While classical bid rent theory
cannot be perfectly tested because of data
limitations and Delhi fails to meet some of the
basic assumptions the methodology does allow us
to examine the structure of the city. We found
the river and historic land marks modified the
expected pattern of growth.
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REFERENCES Stefanov W.L. M.S. Ramsey and P.R.
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generation transport and deposition areas using
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Geoscience vol 9 p.p. 151-165 2003. Stefanov
W.L. and M. Netzband. Assessment of ASTER land
cover and MODIS NDVI data at multiple scales for
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center. Remote Sensing of Environment vol 99
p.p. 31-43 2005. Thrall G.I. Analysis of
Green Belts Comment. Town Planning Review
vol. 58 p.p. 199-201 1987. Von Thünen J. H.
The Isolated state an English edition of Der
isolierte Staat Translated by Carla M.
Wartenberg. Edited with an introduction by Peter
Hall Oxford New York Pergamon Press. 1966.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  I thank David Nelson and
Shoursaseni Sen Roy with their help in creating
the classified image. Funding provided by NASA
(NNG04GO57G).