Spatio-temporal Changes of Land Use Land Cover in Bolpur Municipality: A Study in Urban Geography

Abstract

This research aims to explore the changes that have occurred in the landscape of Bolpur Municipality regions because of rapid urbanization, population growth, and development in the period from 1950 to 2025. By using the combination of Remote Sensing and GIS, it analyzed the changes in the land use of the region by satellite images taken at various times. The results show that there is a trend – in the past thirty years, a large area of agricultural land and forests has been transformed into residential and developed land. The only category of land use that is truly increasing is land under buildings, but this is at the cost of agricultural land and natural beauty. The growth is driven by the development of infrastructure that is a result of policies aimed at economic freedom, the development of the tourism and education sectors (which is associated with Santiniketan), and the consequent movement of people into the area from the surrounding rural areas. The study indicates that to reduce the negative effects of the changes in the use of land and achieve balanced development in the future, it is important to have proper urban planning that is centered on environmental sustainability.