Characterization of urban development in Coimbatore corporation using GIS, GPS and remote sensing

Abstract

The double fold population growth is evidenced in Coimbatore city, South India in the last decade. It has considerable influence on land structure planning, socio economic planning, transportation, market, industrial planning and management. An attempt to study the said stress was made in this research to bring out the solution. The study is aimed for the management modeling of the urban development of Coimbatore Corporation using Geographic Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS) and Remote sensing. The objectives are to evaluate and use / land cover map of Coimbatore for the years 1995, 2000 and 2002, from remote sensing data, to explore the changes in urban land use / land cover during the above periods, to conduct GPS survey and capture urban features to be used for GIS Network analysis, to analyse the road network to identify shortest path, closest facility and service area for the study area, to carry out correlation studies to explore out the reasons for the changes in the land use, to identify the areas suitable for urban development within the corporation limits based on a GIS model. The results delivered from network analysis clearly finding out the shortest path between any destinations which will be more useful for public, sales man, etc.. This also gives the minimum impedance path through network. The said detailed research work gives a clear picture on the Land use / Land cover distribution changes occurred during 1995, 2000 to 2002. The correlation analysis reveals that population versus Residential/Commercial /Industrial area has a strong positive correlation. Population versus Mixed urban, other Urban area also indicate a strong positive correlation. Population has a strong negative correlation with Crop land, Plantations and Land with Scrub.