Urban Compaction in Kollam Corporation Area as a Sprawl Management Strategy

One of the major reasons for the rural - urban continuum type of settlement in Kerala is urban sprawl. The issues due to sprawl in Kerala include negative growth rate of core areas, higher growth rate of fringes, uncontainable urban spread, under - utilized land pockets in the core, degradation of core, dilution of rural and urban economy and many others. As a result, it is important to tackle the problem of urban sprawl using appropriate planning mechanisms. The study proposes urban compaction as a strategy to curb urban sprawl in the study area of Kollam Municipal Corporation. The study area is selected based on its rapid urban spread and the high population density, which can provide ease to the compaction process. The study area is analyzed in detail for the trends in population growth and distribution. With the help of this analysis and sustainability goals, certain parameters are selected to measure the suitability of wards for urban compaction. Composite Functionality Index method is used for this purpose and the wards are grouped into first order, second order, third order and fourth order settlements. Then, strategies are proposed for the various order of settlements based on the issues faced by each of them.