Abstract
Today, the pace of spatial growth and the subsequent need of planning interventions in the developing nations is unmatched. One such case is India which currently has one of the highest level of urbanization. Indian mega-cities are growing at incredible rates and witnessing substantial changes in the land-use patterns of their peri-urban region. One major reason for these unplanned and disordered patterns of growth is the location of big infrastructural projects like highways, ring-roads, special economic zones, information technology parks, industries, etc. and airports are one of them. Airports have always been a catalyst for urban sprawl in India and the resultant expansion of the cities. This is because mostly the airports are placed outside the cities and gradually the city grows to the airport. This growth has been majorly unplanned and haphazard. To address the matter, airport-oriented development (AOD), a subset of transit-oriented development (TOD), comes into the picture. Airport-oriented development is a newer spatial phenomenon where related spatial development occurs in the immediate surroundings of the airport and farther locations are efficiently connected with the airport. Airports attract certain land uses to their immediate vicinity and discourage others. Neighboring land-use also affects airport’s ability to expand. Today, airport presents a combination of localized dis-benefits and greater regional benefits. Thus, the interaction between air transport planning and land-use remains a crucial area to explore. This research aims to understand and quantify this landscape dynamics using spatial metrics for Tier-II Indian cities with their airports and explore whether AOD is a potential way for these cities or not. Tier-II Indian cities, with an approximate population of 0.5 to 5 million, are actually experiencing the highest rates of urban growth and are the current economic hot-spots. They are emerging as new business locations and investment destinations due to the availability of land, opportunities, and government support. The study focuses on the Tier-II cities having medium-hub international airports (1 – 0.25% of the annual national traffic). To analyse this relationship between air transport planning and land-use, traditional methods are expensive and time-consuming. Remote sensing offers high spatial resolution and allows for visual, temporal, and quantitative analyses of LULC (Land Use and Land Cover) patterns. LULC maps for the region around the airports of selected cities are prepared for the year 2000, 2010, and 2017 using maximum likelihood classifier and validated by Kappa’s accuracy assessment. Then, analysis are conducted to know the intensity and direction of urban growth by estimating NDVI Index, gradient and zonal analysis, and Shannon’s Entropy. Further, spatial metrics are calculated for the three years to capture the dynamics of the land surface with respect to the airport. The analysis will help to understand the growth pattern of the city and its relationship with the airport. Accordingly, it will help in classifying this growth pattern into one of the six proposed AOD models in literature - Airfront, Decoplex, Airport City, Airport Corridor, Aerotropolis, and Airea. The results are expected to show the high level of growing urbanization and the direction of growth towards the airport. The study can be easily replicated to other medium-sized cities of developing nations. The study shall provide an understanding of the urban structure at local levels with respect to airport which is necessary for efficient planning as the current regime treats airport as an alien entity. The study helps in development of innovative policies for coordinated and cooperative infrastructure and land-use plans for the greater benefit, moving away from the current isolated decision making processes.
