N these land-cover-change maps, Shannon’s entropy (Hn ) has verified its GS-626510 Inhibitor usefulness and reliability in quantifying the degree of compactness and GLPG-3221 Epigenetics dispersion of urban growth in absolute scale [4,9,113]. On the other hand, landscape metrics or spatial metrics [14], although initially emerging inside the field of `landscape ecology’, are also increasingly becoming applied to quantify and monitor patterns of physical urban growth on a relative scale [15,16]. Nevertheless, the usage of a single metric may not reflect the actual reality, as every single metric tends to have particular limitations. Researchers often use Hn in combination with other landscape metrics to establish and explain the results with higher certainty [4]. The Hn as well as other distinct landscape metrics have been applied at a variety of spatial and administrative levels inside city systems to analyze urban growth. Some studies take into consideration a total city-system as the unit of evaluation [4,17]. Others have regarded as smaller sized components of your whole city as units of analysis, like ward level within a city [4,18,19], arbitrarily created sub-zones within a city technique [4,12,20], or concentric circles of particular width(s) encircling a city center [3]. Moreover, zonal and city-level units are normally regarded in the very same time for you to investigate urban development efficiently [4,21]. The Kolkata Metropolitan Region (hereafter KMA) depicts a really diverse structure. Metropolises in India consist of statutory urban areas in the central component and rural or peri-urban places outdoors with the statutory urban places. Such central and peripheral regions within exactly the same metropolitan system have distinctive administrative bodies, financial structures, population composition, and so on. Notably, the raise in size and population development varies substantially in the urban core for the rural periphery [4]. Therefore, it truly is essential to analyze, quantify and monitor such built-up development dynamics at rural and urban levels within precisely the same metropolitan system to achieve the inclusive and sustainable urbanization target as defined by the United Nations in Sustainable Improvement Objective (SDG) 11.three and to create urban organizing more realistic [22,23]. The present study attempts to quantify the urban development dynamics with the KMA, India, employing an integrated RS-GIS application, and to prepare suggestions for inclusive and sustainable urbanization (SDG 11.three). For this objective, a zoning strategy has been utilized to examine the urban growth dynamics of KMA at three various spatial levels, namely KMA, KMA-urban, and KMA-rural [4,24]. Multispectral and temporal Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Operational Land Imager (OLI) imageries had been thought of over 20 years, i.e., between 1996 and 2016. Post-classification comparison was applied as a alter detection approach for analyzing spatiotemporal dynamics of land cover within the metropolitan area driven by rapid built-up development [25,26]. The Hn was employed to quantify the degree of compactness and dispersion from the physical growth of KMA on an absolute scale. Furthermore, a set of other landscape metrics were applied to analyze the pattern, fragmentation, and heterogeneity of your physical growth in KMA and their dynamics over time on a relative scale. Ultimately, a set of policy recommendations and measures has been proposed for reaching SDG 11.three. The existing study represents a special contribution to urban landscape heterogeneity evaluation and urban development dynamics regarding the proposed zoning approach, areal coverage under theRemote Sens. 202.