Monitoring Urban Expansion of Thoubal, Manipur

Abstract

The rapid increases in the size of the built up due to increasing population pressure and economic growth have faced Landuse/Landcover change by encroaching the surrounding area which lead to loss of forest and agricultural land etc. To examine the pattern of urban growth and measure the Landuse/Landcover change in the study area i.e. Thoubal Town in Manipur, Shannon entropy is used by the integration of Geo-spatial technique. For which, three time period data is used to detect the changes that has been taken place in 24 years (Thematic Mapper (TM) acquired in 1988, Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) acquired in the 2000 and IRS data (LISS III) acquired in 2012). These data were manipulated by using image processing software of ERDAS Imagine version 2014 and Arc GIS version 10. Secondary data like census data, District handbook etc. are also used. Hence, to check the pattern of the growth, town is divided into two zones i.e. North zone and south zone. This division is based on the Thoubal River which flow at the heart of the town. North zone connect the Imphal city which is the capital of the state while NH.No. 39 passes from the centre of South zone and it connects the Indo-Myanmar border. The study show that the Thoubal town has grown manifold over the study period but the highest growth is recorded during 1988–2000. For, the area under settlement increased by 79.35% during the years 1988–2000, and 36.43% occurred during 2000–2012. The Shannon entropy revealed that the north zone recorded an increasing trend whereas the south zones a declining trend of value.