Monitoring built-up area expansion led by industrial transformation in Delhi using geospatial techniques

Historically, industrialization has been a catalyst for built-up expansion generated by economic growth that transforms a landscape. In India, there is a paucity of exploration into how the economic shift transforms the cityscape. Therefore, the objective of current research work was to monitor built-up growth induced by industrialization using Landsat datasets and registered industry data. The k-means clustering technique was applied for assessing land use/land cover, Shannon entropy for sprawl, and Pearson for correlation between industrial growth and built-up expansion. The results manifest exponential trend in industrialization with 102-year registered industry record along with increase in built-up density from 0.30 in 1989 to 0.69 by 2019 and in the entire Delhi; it rose from 0.16 to 0.39. Furthermore, Shannon entropy confirmed the sprawl and the strong positive correlation was found among built-up of industrial areas and built-up of Delhi and registered industries. The striking chorological change in industrial as well as city's landscape was observed co-occurring with the dynamics of economic reforms. The outcome of current research could be utilized for the sustainable planning of industrial landscape in Delhi and cities with alike geographical conditions.