Impact of Population Density on Land Use Change in Varanasi District

The paper aims at analyzing the impact of population density on land use change during 1981–2011 in Varanasi district. The population density is considered as the main driving force of land use change. However there are some other factors which do affect the land use of any region. In this paper Varanasi district has been selected as the study area to provide a better standing of the impact of impact of population density on spatio-temporal patterns of land use change. The results obtained herein are quite satisfactory and reliable. The results showed that the area under forest, cultivable waste land, net sown area and non-agricultural use can be well modelled using quadratic equation. The percentage area of non-agricultural use increased constantly with the increase in population density. The blocks having population density more than 1400 persons per sq. km mostly witnessed more change in non-Agricultural uses. The area under forest decreased considerably with increasing population density in all the blocks. The area under cultivable waste land also increased with increasing population density due to involvement of some other factors. The results showed that the relationship between degree of land use and population density can be well modelled using logistic regression model. Moreover, the land use dynamics increased linearly with the change in the population density. In addition, the land use relative change is proportional to the regional changes in population density.