Introduction -- -Background -- -Significance -- -Objectives -- -Research Questions -- -Methodological Overview -- Review of Literature -- -Urban Growth and Sprawl -- -Physical Patterns and Forms of Urban Growth and Sprawl -- -Temporal Process of Urban Growth and Sprawl -- -Remote Sensing for the Analysis of Urban Growth and Sprawl -- -Measurement and Analysis of Urban Growth and Sprawl -- -Administrative versus Natural Boundary for the Analysis -- -Determining the Natural Boundary of the City -- -Subdivision of Natural City Extent. -Similar Studies in India -- -Similar Studies on Kolkata -- -Scope of the Research -- Methodology -- -Data -- -Software Used -- -Image Registration -- -Encoding Hardcopy Map -- -Encoding Vector Maps -- -Image Classification -- -Assessment of Classification Accuracy -- -Subsetting of Remote Sensing Data -- -Determining the Natural Boundary of the City -- -Subdivision of Natural City Extent -- -Calculating the Built-up Area -- -Generation of KMC Boundary -- -Analysis Based on Administrative Boundary -- -Analysis Based on Natural Boundary -- -City of Kolkata -- Result and Discussion -- -Classified Imagery and Change Map -- -Results from Analysis—Based on Administrative Boundary -- -Results from Analysis—Based on Natural Boundary -- -Comparison of Sprawl Analyses -- -Degree of Freedom and Goodness -- -Boundary of the city -- -Application of the Results -- -Limitations of the Research -- Conclusions -- -Conclusions -- -Scope of Future Research.

This book documents research conducted on the analysis of urban growth and sprawl by using remote sensing data and GIS techniques. The research was conducted between 1980-2010 in the city of Kolkata, India. The aim of the research was to use metrics that were less demanding in terms of data and computation than normal metrics. However, it has been found that most of them were inferior in capturing insights of urban sprawl. For this book, some of these metrics have therefore been modified and new ones are proposed. The research focuses on problems associated with the analysis of urban growth by using remote sensing data from a technological perspective.