Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing (September 2019) 47(9):1567–1576

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-019-00994-8
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Urban Sprawl and Its Impact on Generation of Urban Heat Island:

A Case Study of Ludhiana City
Ripudaman Singh1 • Dheera Kalota1

Received: 8 March 2018 / Accepted: 1 May 2019 / Published online: 17 May 2019
 Indian Society of Remote Sensing 2019

Abstract
Rapid urbanization is transforming the land-use patterns in developing world very fast. Swelling population is altering
agricultural land into industrial, administrative or cultural land uses, which is resulting in growing environmental problems
and has also degraded the quality of life in cities. Ludhiana, the largest city of Punjab, has been urbanizing significantly in
the post-independence period. This industrial city is facing various environmental and related problems due to urban sprawl
and unplanned growth. Here, an attempt is made to study the problem of urban sprawl in Ludhiana city with the application
of remote sensing and GIS techniques. The research is undertaken through the use of satellite imageries and topographical
sheets from 1955 to 2015 periods. Thematic layers related to urban sprawl and heat island have been extracted from
satellite imageries. Patterns of built-up area, annual growth rates and the urban sprawl are calculated and examined.
Consequently, patterns and trends of urban sprawl and its impact on city’s environment and urban heat island are evaluated.
Data analysis reveals that haphazard and unplanned urban growth in Ludhiana has resulted in exponential growth of urban
built-up areas; thus, the creation of urban heat island during the study period has caused severe deficits in urban infras-
tructure, escalation of pollution and occurrence of unhealthy living environment in the industrial city.

Keywords Geographical information system  Landscape metrics  Remote sensing  Urban heat island  Urban planning 
Urban sprawl

Introduction sprawl. Developing countries are witnessing this phe-

Increasing population and unintended growth have caused
degradation and destruction of natural environment and
milieu. Accelerated population growth requires more
houses, schools, hospitals, transportation and other facili-
ties, and also more and more areas are put to urban land
uses. This urban expansion exerts pressure on agricultural
land. Transportation Research Board (2002) defines urban
sprawl as a peripheral urban growth and expansion which
is unlimited and non-contiguous moving outward from the
built-up core of a metropolitan area. Basawaraja et al.
(2011) and Li (2012) described the process of unplanned
urban growth, uneven utilization and increase in built-up
areas along urban and rural fringes that turn out to be urban
& Ripudaman Singh
ripudaman1@hotmail.com; ripudaman.17178@lpu.co.in
1
Department of Geography, Lovely Professional University,
Punjab, India
nomenon and expansion more. India is no exception to this,
and it has to search for practicable solutions to tackle the
problems related to urban sprawl and unplanned urban
growth.
India has the second largest population (1.21 billion in
2011 Census) in the world and is bound to surpass China in
a decade or so. Around 32% of its population is registered
as urban, and pace of its urbanization is increasing. Being a
developing economy, its growth rate is among the highest
in the world. Urban sprawl is a common phenomenon
noted by its unplanned urbanization where rural farmlands
are being converted into urban land uses. Built-up areas are
encroaching the urban–rural fringes where scattered and
mixed land uses, commercial structures, squatter settle-
ments and slums, traffic congestions, etc., are major
problems and resultant urban sprawl. Issues and problems
of urban sprawl through the case studies of various Indian
cities have been analyzed using different methodologies.
Major studies include urban sprawl in Varanasi (Singh

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1968) and Delhi metropolitan region of national capital
territory (Nangia 1976). More recently, studies on Hyder-
abad (Lata et al. 2001; Gandhi and Suresh 2012); Aligarh
(Farooq and Ahmad 2008); Raichur (Basawaraja et al.
2011); Kolkata (Sen 2011); Gorakhpur (Dubey and Kumar
2013); Jaipur (Sankhala and Singh 2014); Nagpur
(Kotharkar et al. 2014); Mumbai (Ramachandra et al.
2014), Haora (Das et al. 2016); and Chennai (Amirtham
2016) are undertaken. Most of the studies used survey
techniques and remote sensing and GIS for identifying and
analyzing the urban sprawl in their respective urban cen-
ters. Kalota (2015) has assessed the case of urban sprawl in
Ludhiana city and present research to elaborate it further
and also include the generation of urban heat island in the
industrial and economic capital of Punjab.
Urban agglomeration of Ludhiana is the largest
metropolitan city of Punjab, which is described as the
Manchester of India (BBC 2006). Since the foundation of
the city of Lodhiana in 1480 AD during Lodhi dynasty,
Ludhiana has expanded thereafter during British period and
particularly after independence. Growth of Ludhiana city is
elaborated in Fig. 1. The city has grown more than ten
times during 1951 to 2011 periods. The partition of Punjab
saw the increased flux of refugees from West Punjab, and
these sturdy people started their industrial ventures and
resulted into the industrial growth and expansion of the city
(Duggal 2009). Consequently, the enlarged employment
opportunities also pulled more and more people into the
city. Decadal population growth of the city during fifties,
sixties, seventies and eighties was above 50%. This
increased decadal growth resulted in higher urban sprawl
during these periods. Although the population growth has
declined in proportions during nineties, the sprawl and
congestion have increased further. Present research paper
assesses the urban sprawl in Ludhiana during 1955 to 2015
periods, and its impacts particularly during 2009 and 2015
through emergence of heat islands are analyzed.
Aim and Objectives of Research Paper
Present paper aims to:
• analyze the urban expansion of City of Ludhiana during
1951 to 2015 periods.
• evaluate urban sprawl in Ludhiana by growth compar-
ison of built-up areas viz a viz its population growth.
• assessing the impact of urban sprawl on its environ-
ments through the generation of heat island.
Study Area
Ludhiana is located at 40560 N and 75480 E on an altitude
of 244 m (798 ft.) above MSL on the right bank of river
Sutlej. It covers an area of around 310 square kms (Fig. 2).
The map shows the boundaries of municipal corporation of
Ludhiana and network of major roads and railway lines
passing through it.
Ludhiana is the most central and the industrial/economic
hub of the Punjab, lying on the NH1 and the Railway line
that connects New Delhi with Amritsar. Chandigarh is
connected through NH95. It is the largest city of Punjab
and has the distinction of being its economic capital.
Materials and Methodology
To acquire data for six points of time, viz., 1955, 1979,
1989, 1999, 2009 and 2015, various data sources including
1955 topographical sheets prepared by US Army Map
Service, India–Pakistan Series U502 (NH43-7) have scale

Fig. 1 Urban population in

Ludhiana City (1951–2011)

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Fig. 2 Location map of

Ludhiana Municipal
Corporation

of 1: 250,000 and LANDSAT imageries for 1979, 1989,
1999, 2009 and 2015 for extracting built-up areas of the
Ludhiana city. Especially for the extraction of built-up
area, 1979 and 1989 MSS imageries (WRS I and WRS II,
respectively); 1999, 2009 TM imageries and 2015 WRS II
imageries have been acquired (Table 1).
Ludhiana municipal corporation boundaries are clipped
using SLC-on images for 1979, 1989 and 1999 periods and
SLC-off images of 2009 and 2015 from LANDSAT and
gap filled through ENVI 4.7. The false color composite
(FCC) for 2009 and 2015 has been created and overlay
analysis in ArcGIS 10.1 used for extracting built-up area.
City’s population figures were acquired from 1951, 1961,
1971, 1981, 1991, 2001, 2011 censuses and 2021 projec-
tions. Annual growth rate method was used for
interpolating the populations for the intermediate years of
1979, 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2015 by using the following
formula:
  
1=n
Annual growth rate ¼ F=I 1
where F = final value of population, I = initial value of
population, n = number of years.
Urban heat island generation for the city is calculated by
measuring land surface temperature based on band 6
thermal infrared data of LANDSAT TM through ArcGIS
10.1. Spectral radiance scaling method is used to calculate
the radiance and convert it to DN (digital number) values
as given by Malaret et al. (1985):

Table 1 Spatial data sources, acquisition and resolution for Ludhiana City. Source: Derived from various sources of US Army Service and
LANDSAT
Year Path row Data sources Date of acquisition Spatial resolution/scale

1955 Topographical sheets prepared by US – Scale = 1:250,000

Army Map Service, India–Pakistan
Series U502 (KH43-7)
1979 159/33 LAND SAT 2 MSS imageries 18-3-1979 30 m
1989 148/39 LAND SAT 5 TM 14-9-1989 30 m
1999 148/39 LAND SAT 7 ETM 20-10-1999 30 m
2009 148/39 LAND SAT 7 ETM 15-10-2009 30 m
2015 148/39 LAND SAT 7 ETM 13-10-2015 30 m

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Fig. 3 Built-up area from 1955

to 2015

Fig. 4 Land use and master plan of Ludhiana

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Rk ¼ ððLMAXk  LMINk Þ=ðQCALMAX  QCALMINÞÞ K2

Tb ¼  
K1
 ðQCAL  QCALMINÞ þ LMINk ln Rk þ1

In the formula, R denotes the radiance of cell value,
QCAL the digital number, LMINk and LMAXk are the
minimum and maximum spectral radiance scales to
QCALMIN and QCALMAX, which are minimum and
maximum quantized calibrated pixel values, respectively.
After retrieving the radiance values, temperature values for
brightness (Kelvin) were derived using the equation given
by Weng (2001) as follows:
In the equation, Tb denotes satellite brightness temper-
ature (in Kelvin); K1 and K2 are band-specific thermal
conversion constants from the metadata; and Rk is radiance.
Then, the resultant brightness temperature is converted
from Kelvin to Celsius by given equation:
LST ¼ Tb  273

Result and Discussion

Table 2 Annual percent growth rates of built-up and population in
Ludhiana City. Source: Computed from Census of India (Government
Expansion of Built-up Area
of India 2011) and Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana data (GLADA
2011) Ludhiana, which is the largest city of Punjab, has seen a
Year Annual growth Annual growth phenomenal expansion since 1951. It is rapidly urbanizing
rate of built-up rate of population since the partition, as lot of migrants from Pakistan re-
area (percentage) (percentage) settled in city and it has also experienced rapid industri-
alization since then. Figure 3 depicts the expansion of
1955 – –
built-up areas in Ludhiana during 1955 to 2015 periods.
1979 10.19278 4.713895
Expansion of the built-up area is primarily in the south-
1989 6.318578 5.290883
western direction and is linearly inclined along NH1
1999 4.161043 3.470202
(Kalota 2015). Figure 4 gives the land use through master
2009 7.622809 1.763175
plan of Ludhiana city. It also depicts majority of areas in
2015 2.710468 6.647937
eastern and southeastern parts as industrial land use,
1955–2015 8.124661 4.294904
showing the industrial expansion and urban sprawl during

Fig. 5 Urban heat island of

Ludhiana City, 2009

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Fig. 6 Profile of different regions of the Ludhiana City, 2009

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Fig. 7 Urban heat island of
Ludhiana City, 2015
last three decades. Due to the influx of migrant labors
coming to this industrial city, since 1989, it has witnessed
disproportionate star-shaped expansion along other high-
ways in west and southwest directions also. During 1999,
more urban expansion was toward north, west and eastern
directions. However, largest expansion is noted during
2009 period in eastern and southeastern parts along the
National highways. 2015 witnessed dispersed urban
expansion toward all outer edges of the city along high-
ways. Urban sprawl is assessed through the proportion of
total population in a region measured to the total built-up
area of the region (Li 2012).
Table 2 depicts the annual growth rates of built up and
population in percentage during the time periods 1955,
1979, 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2015. Percentage of growth
rate of built-up areas was ten plus in 1955–1979 periods,
which declined to 6% and 4% in 1989 and 1999 periods.
2009 witnessed increase in growth rates to above 7% which
again declined to less than 3% in 2015. Average percent
growth rate of built-up areas was 8%. Contrast to it, annual
population growth rates were almost reverse of built-up.
Collectively, the annual percent population growth rate was
4% which was half the built-up growth rate, which indi-
cated the urban sprawl in the environs of Ludhiana city.
1573
Urban Heat Island
As the climate change is becoming a concern for envi-
ronmentalists, the attention of the research community has
been drawn to the urban heat island phenomenon. Lands-
berg (1956) has discussed the difference in climate
between built-up urban areas and the rural surroundings.
The nature of built-up area with emphasis on concrete
structures and negligence of open green spaces is the main
cause for the difference in temperature. However, this
phenomenon is of significance in affecting local level cli-
mate in urban areas, which are having expansion in the
urban built-up areas. Industrial expansion and excessive
automobiles are the dominant cause of pollution in urban
areas (CPCB 2009). Thus, the effect of urban heat island
can be seen in the rising surface temperatures and many of
the studies have confirmed that this is an important con-
sideration and is worthy of supplementary study.
Impact of urban heat island is explored in the present
study through the rising surface temperatures of Ludhiana
city. Land surface temperature of the city is calculated
using the thermal infrared band 6 of LANDSAT data for
years 2009 and 2015 for the months of October. The digital
number values of the band are converted to radiance and
then to temperature values (Malaret et al. 1985; Weng
2001). The spectral profiles of different areas of Ludhiana
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Fig. 8 Profile of different regions of Ludhiana City, 2015

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are generated, and it is compared to the urban expansion in
the various parts of the city along five sections (Figs. 6, 8).
For two time periods (2009 and 2015), the surface
temperature maps (Figs. 5, 7) have been generated. The
increase in the intensity and areal expansion of surface
temperature, corresponding to the urban expansion regions,
is shown in the earlier sections. The increase in intensity is
observed with the rise in temperature in the later time
period, i.e., in 2015. The temperature ranges from 22 to
35 C in the year 2009 (Fig. 6), whereas in the year 2015,
an increase in the temperature range is seen with rise in
3 C of temperature in the upper limits. In 2015, the range
of temperature is from 22 to 38 C (Fig. 8). The areal
expansion in the surface temperature of the city is also
observed in the northwestern parts of the city limits. In
2009, the area had temperatures in the range of 22–27 C;
however, the same area in 2015 displayed increase in
surface temperature (Fig. 7).
The profiles along the major sections in the city also
depict the generation of a heat island structure in the city
regions. However, some dips or low-temperature regions
are displayed in the profiles as these are the regions of
green spaces or parks.
The results show rise in the intensity and areal expan-
sion of the area under high land surface temperature. This
shows that the increase in urban area in the city has resulted
in the rise in surface temperature. If the profiles of the city
along the different sections are considered, the highest
surface temperatures are recorded along profiles C and D,
which are passing through the industrial area in south-
eastern zone along Chandigarh road and National Highway
1 toward Delhi (Figs. 6, 8).
The short-term rise in the surface temperature can be
attributed to various causes with increase in urban area
being one of the major causes. However, the long-term rise
in surface temperature may have huge implication in
changing the microclimate of the region permanently.
Nevertheless, if this trend continues for longer periods of
time and for larger areas, a major change in the climatic
conditions of the region can occur.
Main Findings
Unplanned urban growth and disorganized urban sprawling
affect the temperature of the city. On the one hand,
growing cities swallow the surrounding cultivation lands;
on the other hand, increasing industries and automobiles
causes more and more air, noise, soil and water pollutions.
Urban sprawl and haphazard growth of industrial city of
Ludhiana have been witnessed during 1955 to 2015 peri-
ods. Rapid influx of migrants has caused exponential
growth of built-up areas leading to occurrence of urban
1575
sprawl. Shortage of infrastructure and increasing pressure
on urban services result in increasing congestion furthering
the haphazard urban growth. It is found that the population
growth in the city was accumulating increased built-up
areas. Occurrence of urban heat island has been observed in
the built-up environs of Ludhiana city, where more and
more expansion has been noted toward its south eastern
parts, along National highways linking to Delhi and
Chandigarh. Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana has
envisioned through its master plan the future developments
and expansion of the city. As the new industrial units
coming to the city’s industrial belt, it will further influence
the rise in the surface temperature of the city. Moreover,
increasing population is also causing increase in number of
automobiles and the resulting pollution, furthering the
temperature effects.
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