Measuring urban sprawl of Srinagar city, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Urbanization, as such, is not perceived as a threat to the environment and development but it is unplanned urban sprawl that affects the accessibility to amenities and land-use of any region. It is thus imperative to study and bring out the intricacies and implications associated with the problem of unplanned urban growth ensuing into sprawl. The methods used to measure the sprawl of Srinagar City are modified versions of SCATTER (The Sprawling Cities And Transport: from Evaluation to Recommendations) and Cost of Sprawl: 2000 TRB (Transport Research Bureau, US). The analysis reveals that the largest urban center in the fragile ecology of Himalayas has haphazardly grown during the last forty years which has resulted in disproportionate distribution of various civic amenities, socio economic and environmental variables. This phenomenon of urban sprawl in Srinagar City has been observed as a threat to achieving sustainable urbanization.