An empirical geometric model for city expansion

The primacy of very large cities, the very wide dispersion in city sizes, the stability of the hierarchy between cities over decades or even centuries, and the role of urbanization in economic development are all particularly interesting qualitative features of urban structure worldwide.With the high urbanization trends, especially in the developing world, the spatial expansion of the urban built-up area and the dynamics associated with it has become a hotspot in the research community [1-9]. The spatial expansion characteristics of urban built-up area, in order to reveal its dynamic mechanism from socioeconomic and other aspects, requires the thematic information of urban construction land indifferent periods. [10-12]. New Economic Geography (NEG) models emphasize the current need for analysis in the support for cumulative causation argument. The importance of localization economies [13] has been observed like the jute and textiles industries of Kolkata and Mumbai, respectively.

It is therefore urgent that we try to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of the high rate of anticipated urbanization in India. We need to maintain/increase our high rate of economic growth, and at the same time we need to relook and plan development. For a comprehensive strategy at the regional scale that provides form for sustainable emergent systems, it is imperative to link economic planning with, spatial/regional planning [16]. In view of this, development of a regional urbanization strategy linked to low – carbon development plans for cites is vital for a comprehensive look at urban planning and service delivery. We need to diffuse the population pressure and resultant infrastructure gridlock of our mega cities, and at the same time revitalize the small cities and towns and prepare it to absorb the wave of urbanization. It is also important to be cognizant of the land use conflicts between urban development, agricultural land, and environmentally sensitive areas. Long term comprehensive development planning must include whole urban regions and a comprehensive urban sector perspective rather than sector-bysector intervention. These should include innovative financing schemes such as public–private partnerships, domestic and foreign investments, new revenue sources through taxation reforms, levying of user charges, and new credit schemes.