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Volume XIX |

Delineation of rural-urban fringe: a case study of Uluberia municipality, Haora district, India

Abstract: In India, most urban centres are expanding very rapidly both spatially and demographically. This expansion refuels the process of urbanization and spreads urban characteristics to peripheral regions. As a result, the rapid growth and expansion of urban areas to its surrounding rural hinterlands fosters unplanned and haphazard development and makes the area even more complex. Over time, the distinction between rural and urban gradually disappears, so that a new type of structure would emerge in city outskirts which is characterized by mixed forms of land-use, socio-economic activities and termed as rural-urban fringe. The paper delineates rural-urban fringe of Uluberia municipality based on selected indicators of demographic structure and economic services. Urbanity Index and Composite Urbanity Index have been used for the delineation of rural-urban fringe. Four fringe zones of Uluberia municipality have been identified and termed by applying the Mean±Standard Deviation technique.