Urbanization and its Impacts on the Agricultural Land of Taluka Khairpur, Pakistan

Abstract

Urbanization is a process of urban sprawl, caused by human population. Urbanization is also a main driving force of Land Use Land Cover Changes (LULC). Recent research has shown that urban development is replacing fertile agricultural land, which is the main cause of the shrinkage of the arable land in the vicinities of cities. The social and economic, factors are responsible for urbanization. The resident of small cities and villages believe that urban dwelling is more profitable than agricultural land, so they believe that economic success is more likely to happen in cities, which leads to urban migration and cities expansions, consequently, a significant loss of cultivated land occurs. The study shows that half of the migrants have selected agricultural land for housing, while most of the people opted for freshwater, a good built-up area and a better environment. The urban growth rate of Taluka Khairpur is 23 % annually, with 262.3 acres of agricultural land converted into housing societies. An important issue that significantly affects the growing urban population is an increase in literacy.