Land Transformation: An Outcome of Actor’s Role in Srinagar Local Area

Arshad Amin and Shahab Fazal

Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P, India

*Corresponding Author’s Email: prince4321@gmail.com

Accepted 15 August, 2013

Abstract

Land is an integrative variable which depends on natural as well as socio-economic parameters. Human environmental systems are complex adaptive systems in which land use emerge from the interactions among the various components of the entire system, which themselves feedback to influence the subsequent development of those interactions. Thus the understanding and prediction of human impacts on land use needs comprehensive theories and methods. The present study focuses on the role played by different actors in the process of land transformation in Srinagar local area. Using GIS and remote sensing tools it was found that, instead of city’s location in the ecologically fragile hill ecosystem and the surrounding physiographic limitations, it has rapidly expanded. Different actors have been identified who played direct/indirect roles in bringing the land transformation during the study period of 30 years (1981-2011).  Results reveal that the socio-economic development among the actors since past number of decades has resulted into the expansion of the city and significant interchange of land between different land use classes. The “conflicts” and “alliances” among these actors define the trend and the pattern of land transformations in the study area.

Keywords: Natural-Resource System: Human Action: Land Use: Land Transformation: Actors.