Urbanization in India: Population and Urban Classification Grids for 2011
Deborah Balk 1,2,*
, Mark R. Montgomery 3,4, Hasim Engin 1, Natalie Lin 1, Elizabeth Major 1 and Bryan Jones 1,2
, Mark R. Montgomery 3,4, Hasim Engin 1, Natalie Lin 1, Elizabeth Major 1 and Bryan Jones 1,2
1
CUNY Institute for Demographic Research, City University of New York, New York, NY 10010, USA
2
Baruch College Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, City University of New York, New York, NY 10017, USA
3
Population Council, New York, NY 10017, USA
4
Stony Brook University, New York, NY 11794, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Data 2019, 4(1), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/data4010035
Received: 6 December 2018 / Revised: 15 February 2019 / Accepted: 21 February 2019 / Published: 26 February 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial Denominators: Modeling Population and Demographic Distributions)
Abstract
India is the world’s most populous country, yet also one of the least urban. It has long been known that India’s official estimates of urban percentages conflict with estimates derived from alternative conceptions of urbanization. To date, however, the detailed spatial and settlement boundary data needed to analyze and reconcile these differences have not been available. This paper presents gridded estimates of population at a resolution of 1 km along with two spatial renderings of urban areas—one based on the official tabulations of population and settlement types (i.e., statutory towns, outgrowths, and census towns) and the other on remotely-sensed measures of built-up land derived from the Global Human Settlement Layer. We also cross-classified the census data and the remotely-sensed data to construct a hybrid representation of the continuum of urban settlement. In their spatial detail, these materials go well beyond what has previously been available in the public domain, and thereby provide an empirical basis for comparison among competing conceptual models of urbanization. View Full-TextKeywords:
India; urbanization; population; census; built-up area; Global Human Settlement Layer; grid; raster
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Balk, D.; Montgomery, M.R.; Engin, H.; Lin, N.; Major, E.; Jones, B. Urbanization in India: Population and Urban Classification Grids for 2011. Data 2019, 4, 35.
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