Assessing the impact of urban expansion on carbon emission

Abstract

Urban expansion is not only a driving force for economic growth and development but also a perilous element for anthropogenic carbon emission coinciding with population growth, urban expansion, land use pattern, urban sprawl. The study compares urban expansion and its impact on the carbon emission pattern for Rajshahi, a city of Bangladesh where land cover data is an important determinant. At first, the study aims to evaluate the pattern of urban expansion and the second step quantifies the carbon emission trend. The satellite images are used for land cover detection of urban expansion and Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm is applied for its classification. Similar carbon emission data are examined to relate carbon emission quantification rate by remote sensing algorithm. It indicates that urban expansion significantly explains carbon emission by comparing with similar secondary data to extract carbon emission and energy consumption. After accentuating urban expansion and carbon emission rate, the spatiotemporal pattern is analyzed in 16 different directions revealing that the urban expansion and emission trend expands to north-western and north-eastern directions of Rajshahi, turning it into a low carbon absorbed city. The responsible landmarks are real estate housing complex, educational institutions, student dormitories, industrial areas, brickfields and mango wholesale business. In order to understand the effects of uncontrolled urban expansion, this study will assist policymakers and urban planners in developing a comprehensive and well-organized strategy.