Urban change in Goa, India

Abstract

Sustainable management of urban regions in coastal areas has become vital particularly in developing countries. Uncontrolled urban sprawl has the potential to be detrimental to coastal regions, irreversibly damaging vulnerable and valuable natural landscapes. This paper analyzes spatiotemporal trends in urban development of four municipalities in Goa, India. Landscape metrics were conducted based on urban land use classification. In the last decade, Goa has experienced rapid urbanization, which has been closely linked to their paralleled expansion in the tourism industry corresponding to the largest sector of the state's economy. Tourism development and policy in Goa largely focus on coastal regions, leading to a decline in tourist activity further inland. This has accelerated urban development and put pressure on the coastal landscapes. Current planning policies implemented by the state suggests that proper attention is given to mitigation of anthropogenic activity, however the dynamics of the urban sprawl continue to be uncontrolled and sporadic. Thus, sustainable development is crucial to the continued welfare of the state, and particularly within the reach of economic drivers such as tourism in Goa. The methods and techniques adopted in this paper, combine spatial metrics along with urban footprints, to obtain a complex understanding of the impacts urban development has on potentially vulnerable coastal stretches. The increase of urban areas has been predominantly found along the existing historical urban areas of Goa and the implementation of landscape metrics has allowed to shape an objective vision of the consequences of Goa's urbanization processes along its vulnerable coastal stretches.