dedicated to (Late) Prof. M.N. Chatterji who motivated me to attempt perfection and to (Late) Prof. N.S. Saini who motivated me to be practical ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ir. C.A. de Bruijn initiated the process of offering me a place and fellowship for pursuing this research. It was rather unfortunate that I could not receive much guidance from him due to his extreme health conditions. While I am thankful to him for putting his trust in me, I hope the present work reaches somewhere near his expectations. I am thankful to the ITC, The Netherlands and the DGIS, The Netherlands, for providing necessary institutional and financial support for this research. My sincere thanks are due to my employers, SPA, New Delhi, for providing me necessary permission and leave to complete the research at the ITC. At the ITC, I received supervision from Prof. Dr. Dirk Bolt, Professor and Head of the Division of Urban Planning and Management. It was always a rewarding experience to discuss with him any part of the work, no matter how- minor or crucial. I was rather lucky to have the consent of Prof. Dr. H.F.L. Ottens, Dean of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Utrecht, to be my Promoter. He was always so readily available for any discussions, the traditional gap between the candidate and the promoter was bridged soon. His frankness and openness to new ideas played an important role in shaping this research. While I am specifically thankful to him, I am also thankful to the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, for making the promotion possible. I am very much thankful to Prof. Dr. J . D . G . F . H o w e , Dr. Yousif Ali Hussin, Prof. Dr. A . M . J . Kreukels, Prof. Dr. IT. H.A. Luning and Prof. Dr. M.L. Vellinga for going through the manuscript and making useful comments. Many learned people in India contributed useful thoughts in the initial and intermediate phases of this research. I specifically acknowledge the contributions made by Prof. Jamal H. Ansari, Mr. S. Arunachalam, Dr. (Mrs.) Atiya Habib Kidwai, Dr. Satish K. Kulshrestha and Prof. (Col.) Prabhakar Misra. I offer my sincere thanks to the Library of the ITC, without which I could not have completed this work. I was bothering the staff of this library every now and then, and I was always met with the same smile, courtesy and promptness. I also tender my gratefulness to the Library of Instituut Kern, Indologisch Instituut der Rijksuniversiteit at Leiden and the Library of the University of Utrecht. In India, I made exhaustive use of the libraries of the SPA, New Delhi; JNU, New Delhi; ITPI, New Delhi; and the IIRS, Dehradun. I am very thankful to the all these libraries. I also acknowledge the numerous researchers and scholars whose work have been referred to extensively in this research, for they provided the base for this work. I am thankful to the offices of the NCR Planning Board, New Delhi; DDA, New Delhi; State Departments of T&CP at Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh; Regional Office-NCR of the HUDCO, New Delhi; TCPO, New Delhi; NRSA, Hyderabad; Registrar General of India, New Delhi; and the NIC, New Delhi, for providing a huge amount of data and information used in this research. A large number of people spent their valuable time by participating in the discussions and site visits during the field work for this research. These discussions and visits were made more fruitful by the participation of Mr. R.C. Aggarwal, Prof. Jamal H. Ansari, Dr. Sreemay Basu, Mr. Amit Bhargava, Prof. Dr. Dirk Bolt, Mr. B.K. Jain, Prof. Kavas Kapadia, Prof. Dr. H.F.L. Ottens, Mrs. Poonam Prakash, Mr. R.P. Rastogi, Dr. Shovan K. Saha, Prof. N.D. Sharma, Mr. Baldeo Singh Sokhi, and Dr. (Mrs.) Parvatham Venkatachalam. I am thankful to them for their contribution in the research. Dr. Ashok Kumar and his "lunch group' kept my morals high during the field work. Yet another large number of people showed extraordinary kindness by sparing their time and efforts. I could always fall upon them in case any data was required to be sent to the Netherlands or there was a cross reference was to be checked. These kind hearted friends have won me for ever. They include Mrs. Sheeba Ali, Mr. J.B. Kshirsagar, Mr. Sunil K. Mehra, Mr. Rajendra Pandita, Dr. Shovan K. Saha, Mr. Vinod Sakle, Ms. M. Zarina Singh and Mr. S. Surendra. An equally large number of people went beyond their normal official duties and extended help by discussing some complicated issues involved and helping solve some of the technical problems. Included in them are Mr. MirzaM.A. Baig, Dr. S.P. Bansal, Mr. J.N. Barman, Mr. F.H.M. van den Bosch, Drs. Petra E. Budde, Mr. S.K. Jena, Dr. S.P.S. Khushwaha, Drs. R.A. Knippers, Ms. Shilpam Pandey, Dr. Christine Pohl and Mr. G. Reinink. I am very grateful to the staff of the Division of Urban Planning and Management at the ITC, who contributed to the research by making useful comments at various stages. I am particularly thankful to Drs. Victor F.L. Polle\ for very critical discussions on fractal analysis, urban density coefficients and image interpretation. While I am at the pleasing job of thanking, I would like to tender my apologies to my neighbour in the office. Mr. R. Ackermann had to bear Indian music at odd hours. I hope, he does not start missing the music now. The Netherlands is a very lovely country with friendly people. At ITC, I had the support of the staff of the Deptt. of LARUS, student affairs, restaurant and the security and environment. I was made at home by the extraordinary people like Mrs. Aurora Heghes, Mrs. Wilma Grootenboer and Mrs. Nita Juppenlatz; and the Best Western Dish Hotels b.v. One of my great well wishers once told me that pursuing research is a long and lone struggle. In this long struggle, fortunately, I was not alone. Not only we shared the same office for more than three years, and a couple of paragraphs in our respective theses, we also shared a lot of tensions, pressures, emotions, moments of depressions and jo y , ideas and v i e w points. Credit for some of the very fine arguments in this work go e s to this finest friend of mine, M s . Sahar Al-Amir. My son, Lakshit, is too young (he was only two, when I left him) to understand why his father was not with him for last three years. I hope he forgives me when he does understand. To my wife, I can not say sorry for what she missed. Nor I can say 'thank you' for what she sacrificed. What I wish to say is, 'Usha, I love you more!'. My parents have played a great role in moulding my life. I simply can not pay back the care, affection and blessings that they always have for me. I am thankful to God, for having blessed me with such exceptional parents, family, teachers, friends and well-wishers. Mahavir June 21, 1996 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CBA Continuously Built-up Area CCD Charge Couple Device CCT Computer Compatible Tape CFI Composite Functionality Index CI Connectivity Index CSR Complete Spatial Randomness DDA Delhi Development Authority, New Delhi, India DEM Digital Elevation Model DMA Delhi Metropolitan Area, India Eurostat Statistical Office for European Community FAR Floor Area Ratio FCC False Colour Composite FSI Floor Space Index GISs Geographic Information Systems GPS Global Positioning System GSD Ground Sample Distance HRV High Resolution Visible HUDA Haryana Urban Development Authority, India HUDCO Housing and Urban Development Corporation, New Delhi IDSMT Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns IIRS Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, India ILWIS Integrated Land and Water Information System IRS Indian Remote Sensing Satellite ISRO Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore, India ITC International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences, Enschede, The Netherlands ITPI Institute of Town Planners, India, New Delhi JNU Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi LISS Linear Image Scanning System MCD Municipal Corporation of Delhi, India MS Multi-Spectral MSS Multi-Spectral Scanner NCR National Capital Region of Delhi, India NCT National Capital Territory of Delhi, India NCU National Commission on Urbanisation, Government of India NDC National Data Centre of the NRSA NDMC New Delhi Municipal Committee, India NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations NIC National Informatics Centre, New Delhi NNRMS National Natural Resource Management System, India NOIDA New Okhla Industrial Development Area, India NRSA National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, India PAC Polarised Activity Centre PAN Panchromatic PCA Principal Component Analysis PI Proximity Index PRL Physical Research Laboratory, Ahemadabad, India RNN Reflexive Nearest Neighbour SAC Space Application Centre, Ahemadabad, India SPA School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India SPOT Systeme Pour VObservation de la Terre SWIR Short Wave Infra-Red T&CP Town and Country Planning TCPO Town and Country Planning Organisation, Government of India, New Delhi TM Thematic Mapper TRL Terrain Research Laboratory, Ministry of Defence, Government of India UN United Nations UNCHS United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), Nairobi, Kenya UNCRD United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Nagoya, Japan U.P. Uttar Pradesh UPS Uninterrupted Power Supply URIS Urban and Regional Planning Information System WIFS Wide Field Sensor Het Modelleren van Nederzettingspatronen voor Grootstedelijke Gebieden: Ondersteuning door Aardobservatie Het analyseren van nederzettingspatronen is nuttig bij de besluitvorming over de locatie van nieuwe investeringen en over de mogelijkheden om diensten en faciliteiten op nieuwe wijzen te groeperen. Het gaat daarbij om het vermogen van menselijke nederzettingen om regionale ontwikkeling te bevorderen.