163
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Rukhsana et al. (eds.), Habitat, Ecology and Ekistics, Advances in Asian
Human-Environmental Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49115-4_9
Chapter 9
Population Pressure and Urban Sprawl
in Kolkata Metropolitan Area
Rukhsana and Md Hasnine
9.1 Introduction
The study on urban sprawl is undertaken in developed countries (Batty et al. 1999;
Torrens and Alberti 2000; Barnes et al. 2002; Epstein et al. 2002), but nowadays, it
is taking place in developing countries such as China (Yeh and Li 2001; Cheng and
Masser 2003) and India (Jothimani 1997; Sudhira et al. 2004). Urban areas have
played a great role in changing the society throughout the human history. They have
been transformed for the setting of major economic, social and political alteration.
Though urban areas occupied a very small land in the world, rapid growth has drastically altered the natural landscape and created huge environmental and social
impacts (Berling-Wolff and Wu 2015; Grimm et al. 2000; Mundia and Murayama
2010; Weber and Puissant 2003). Nowadays, the built environment where we live is
suffering from excessive technological advancement beyond their judicial limit that
has been administered quickly. This increasing urban expansion by large mass
movement of rural peoples towards urban areas and technological innovations has
led to urban environmental degradation. This environmental degradation was caused
by urban sprawl. Many forces led to changes in land use and land cover (Rasool
et al. 2016). Moreover, much of the rich agricultural land was encroached and
declining day by day, resulting in lower productivity and increased food insufficiency for the vulnerable population. The land use/land cover pattern of a region is
the result of socio-economic and natural parameters and their consumption by
humans (Bhat et al. 2017). The unparalleled and uncontrolled rapid expansion
caused negative effects on the urban dwellers and their environment (Chadchan and
Shankar 2012). The built-up area is mainly considered as the parameter for quantifying urban sprawl (Torrens and Alberti 2000; Barnes et al. 2002; Epstein et al. 2002).
When there is population growth in a city, the boundary of the city expands to
Rukhsana · Md. Hasnine (*)
Department of Geography, Aliah University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Rukhsana et al. (eds.), Habitat, Ecology and Ekistics, Advances in Asian
Human-Environmental Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49115-4_9
Chapter 9
Population Pressure and Urban Sprawl
in Kolkata Metropolitan Area
Rukhsana and Md Hasnine
9.1 Introduction
The study on urban sprawl is undertaken in developed countries (Batty et al. 1999;
Torrens and Alberti 2000; Barnes et al. 2002; Epstein et al. 2002), but nowadays, it
is taking place in developing countries such as China (Yeh and Li 2001; Cheng and
Masser 2003) and India (Jothimani 1997; Sudhira et al. 2004). Urban areas have
played a great role in changing the society throughout the human history. They have
been transformed for the setting of major economic, social and political alteration.
Though urban areas occupied a very small land in the world, rapid growth has drastically altered the natural landscape and created huge environmental and social
impacts (Berling-Wolff and Wu 2015; Grimm et al. 2000; Mundia and Murayama
2010; Weber and Puissant 2003). Nowadays, the built environment where we live is
suffering from excessive technological advancement beyond their judicial limit that
has been administered quickly. This increasing urban expansion by large mass
movement of rural peoples towards urban areas and technological innovations has
led to urban environmental degradation. This environmental degradation was caused
by urban sprawl. Many forces led to changes in land use and land cover (Rasool
et al. 2016). Moreover, much of the rich agricultural land was encroached and
declining day by day, resulting in lower productivity and increased food insufficiency for the vulnerable population. The land use/land cover pattern of a region is
the result of socio-economic and natural parameters and their consumption by
humans (Bhat et al. 2017). The unparalleled and uncontrolled rapid expansion
caused negative effects on the urban dwellers and their environment (Chadchan and
Shankar 2012). The built-up area is mainly considered as the parameter for quantifying urban sprawl (Torrens and Alberti 2000; Barnes et al. 2002; Epstein et al. 2002).
When there is population growth in a city, the boundary of the city expands to
Rukhsana · Md. Hasnine (*)
Department of Geography, Aliah University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India