Effects of Transport Corridor Advancement on Agglomeration and Industrial Relocation – a Case Study of Disctrict 3 in Dallas

Abstract

Cities serve as hubs for various activities that necessitate comprehensive transportation connectivity. This study examines the decadal urban agglomeration patterns from 2001- to 2020 and critically assesses the relationship between freeway developments, industrial relocation, and population density in the DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) metropolitan area. Landsat satellite imageries, US census, and open-source GIS datasets have been utilized in the study. Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) algorithm helped generate the vector database, using which Land Use/ Land Cover (LULC) variations were assessed. The calculated overall accuracies of the classified images for 2001, 2011, and 2020 were 93.12%, 91.87%, and 93.12%, and their corresponding kappa coefficients were 0.90, 0.89, and 0.90, respectively. Eventually, buffer generation techniques and summary statistics helped detect potential boom hotspots. Our results indicate that the highway advancement project lures industries, leading to population migration. The LULC variations suggest that the increase in highway infrastructure resulted in a surge in built-up and a decrease in open spaces in District-3 of DFW.