Objectives of the study :
The main objectives of this study area with respect to its problems are:
- To identify the urban sprawl by using remote sensing data
- To identify the available land for urban growth or satellite township
- To monitor the rate of land development and land use change
- To highlight areas which are close to reach saturation and require immediate attention from the concerned authorities
- To know the growth pressure with land use and zoning regulations into perspective from available data
- To identify areas which exhibit high rate of development and are faced with the problem of over densification and suffering from stagnation due to lack of adequate infrastructure.
- To assist the decision makers in laying the foundation for the growth of the Guwahati Metropolitan area
- To develop a Web based interactive Land Information System (LIS) for immediate and ready extraction of plotwise detailed information of the land.
The Study Area
The city of Guwahati, located at latitude 26°10'45" N & longitude 91° 45' 0" E in the district of Kamrup District is considered as the gateway to the seven northeastern states known as Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura of India. The city spreads about 10 km in north south direction and 27 km in east west direction. Naturally the city plays a vital role in the socio-economic development of the entire region. The first aspect of the city that strikes a visitor is the natural beauty of the place. It is ringed around on three sides by a chain of hills stretches to the horizon. The northern side is bounded by awesome Brahmaputra river. Major problem with the study area can be identifies as are (i) Rapid Growth of Population within the three decades till date and (ii) Unplanned growth of the city both horizontally in all direction and vertically so also.
There is a rapid growth of population in the city from 292029 to 1067400 within a period of 30 years from 1971 to 2001 (Census of India, 1991 and 2001). The rapid increase in population of the city coupled with its importance in terms of being the center of social, commercial, educational, political and industrial activities made the city to be the important center of the entire north eastern region of India. This has resulted in rapid expansion of constructed areas at a very fast pace almost beyond the control of the authorities entrusted with planning and development actions and regulation of the city works. Secondly, due to the unplanned growth of the city both in horizontal and vertical directions, there is a need for proper planning for the careful handling of this alarming situation.
Data used
There are three different datasets are used in this study. They are (i) Satellite data in digital format, (ii) Analog data in the form of maps and (iii) field data collected from various sources. The data sets used in the present study with their specific purposes are listed in table 1.
To support image classification and thematic information collection, several field trips have been realized to the study area. Information on land cover and land use has been collected by using a video recorder and Konica LandMaster GPS camera. The GPS camera with a built-in GPS chip provides information such as date and time, geographical co-ordinates and bearing captured on the film media together with image. This information combination represents an excellent tool for accurate data registration and enhances the efficiency of the in-house work.
Table 1 : List of data used in the present study.
| Name of Map |
Data Base |
Year |
Scale |
| Proposed Land Use |
DRG: TPO/GMP/83 – 84/ 01 dated 20/05/83 |
1983 |
1:30000 |
| Master Plan for Guwahati |
DRG/: GUO/TP/GMP/R/01 dated 10/05/79 Revised on07/05/79 |
1992 |
1:20000 |
| Land Use |
SPOT – 1 HRV 2PLA MLAPATH – D 238, ROW – 298;
78 N/12 NE,
78 N/16 SE
78 N/12 NW,
78 N/16 SW
Acquisition date: 18/10/90; SOI 78 N/12,78 N/16 |
1990 |
1:50000 |
| Population |
Ward map GMC, Census 1991
Survey of India, 78 N/12, 78 N/16 |
1991 |
1:50000 |
| Drainage and Flood Prone |
SPOT MLA P-238, P-298; Acquisition date:18/10/90
Landsat TM P-137, P-042 Acquisition date:10/06/88;
Survey of India, 78 N/12, 78
N/16 |
1990 |
1:50000 |
| Urban Sprawl |
SPOT MLA P-238, P-298; Acquisition date:18/10/90
Landsat TM P-137, P-042 Acquisition date:10/06/88;
Survey of India, 78 N/12, 78
N/16 |
1990 |
1:50000 |
| Land Suitability |
SPOT MLA P-238, P-298
Landsat TM P-137, P-042
Survey of India,78 N/12, 78
N/16 |
1991 |
1:50000 |