Spatially explicit simulation and forecasting of urban growth using weights of evidence based cellular automata model in a millennium city of India

The present study focuses on quantifying and simulating the future urban growth based on the land use/land cover (LULC) data created from the Landsat images of the year 1999, 2011, and 2022. These LULC maps help in analysing the expansion of urban areas over the years and forecast their potential growth in the future. The spatio-temporal processes of urban growth are quantified, and future patterns are simulated and forecasted using Weights of Evidence based Cellular Automata model built in Dinamica EGO (Environment for Geoprocessing Objects) platform. The process of urban growth was manifested through prominent contributing factors of infill expansion namely, distance to built-up areas, distance to main roads, population density, and public services etc. The model's performance was evaluated using Kappa statistics and the percentage of correct prediction (PCP) based two-way comparison method. For this purpose, the simulated map was first compared with the observed information of year 2022 using Kappa indices followed by the PCP value (90.40%) exhibiting high predictive ability of the model. These findings corroborate that the model can forecast the future urban growth scenarios effectively with reasonable accuracy. Based on the outcomes, the forecasting of future urban growth scenarios for years 2033 and 2044 was accomplished. Analysis of the LULC changes displays that urban land use will experience the highest increase. Growth in the study area is predicted to increase by 23.5% and 26.7% in year 2033 and 2044 respectively where new urban settlements can appear. The results demonstrated that an integrated geospatial model provides essential information about the pattern, simulation, and prediction of urban growth associated with various driving variables.