Azamgarh City A Study in Urban Land Use and Planning

Abstract

Land is one of the most crucial physical resources for human existence. More elaborative definition of land has been given by Lloyd (1962) as a delineable area encompassing all attributes of the biosphere immediately above or below the earth s terrestrial surface, including the soil, terrain, surface hydrology, the near-surface climate, sediments and associated groundwater reserve, the biological resources, and the human settlement pattern and infrastructure resulting from human activity. It is non-flexible (inelastic) in nature, hence, its use changes with passage of time to accommodate changing needs of the growing population. Land use denotes human use of land which refers to spatial distribution of different human activities and functions, i.e., residential, industrial, agricultural, etc. Many geographers have defined land use in different ways. Stamp (1962) asserted that the land as whole must be so used as to satisfy as many possible of the needs and legitimate desires of the people of the nation as a whole. Land use is broadly categorised into rural and urban land use in which urban land use is dominated by a number of non-agricultural activities (functions). The concept of urban land use is very much different from the rural in many aspects including types, intensity, and pattern. The occupancy of the land by man changes dynamically in space and time. This requires a scientific analysis of the urban land use, so that the land resources may be utilized efficiently for a sustainability of the future and smart city. newline