Leveraging Google Earth Engine and Landscape Metrics to Assess Implications of Urban Expansion on Ecological health of Rourkela City, India

Leveraging Google Earth Engine and Landscape Metrics to Assess Implications of Urban Expansion on Ecological health of Rourkela City, India | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Leveraging Google Earth Engine and Landscape Metrics to Assess Implications of Urban Expansion on Ecological health of Rourkela City, India SUDHAKAR PAL, Dhanajay Patra, Arabinda Sharma This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7630476/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in GeoJournal → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The current trend of urban growth is adversely affecting quality of life by imposing significant environmental impacts on local ecosystems, land resources, and urban structures and patterns. This study evaluates the impact of urban expansion on land use patterns and ecosystem health (EH) in Rourkela City from 2011 to 2021, using landscape metrics and EH analyzers. The Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform was employed to prepare the LULC maps used in this study, leveraging its robust computational resources for analyzing satellite imagery. A Vigor-Organization-Resilience approach was utilized to estimate EH quality in Rourkela, integrating LULC and landscape metrics to capture spatiotemporal variations over the past decade. Results show that the rapid expansion of built-up areas caused significant losses in other LULC classes, including approximately 12% of agricultural land, 9% of open land, and 3% of vegetated land converted into urban areas. Landscape metrics reveal that natural land covers experienced increased fragmentation, while built-up areas became more connected due to continued urbanization from 2011 to 2021. The EH of the city was consistently in the weak or relatively weak category, with the mean EH value decreasing from 0.306 in 2011 to 0.270 in 2021. The spatial variation of EH over the study period highlights a worsening physical ecology in Rourkela. These findings emphasize the urgent need for precautionary urban planning based on optimal spatial land resource patterns to enhance ecosystem health. The comprehensive evaluation presented here offers valuable insights for developing efficient and sustainable urban landscape strategies. Urban growth LULC change landscape metrics spatial pattern ecosystem health GEE Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in GeoJournal → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7630476","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":516845727,"identity":"6465a7e5-0a68-4975-9f73-1a3200c74827","order_by":0,"name":"SUDHAKAR PAL","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Priyadarshini Indira Degree College","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"SUDHAKAR","middleName":"","lastName":"PAL","suffix":""},{"id":516845728,"identity":"d1c54596-ba08-48e0-a097-81de386d8924","order_by":1,"name":"Dhanajay Patra","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDCCG2CSDUQwPgASPHykaGE2AGlhI1ILRJ8EXDc+wHe7+dmDnzv45A1u5JhVfs2xk2FjYH746AYeLZJ3jpkb9p5hM9wA1HJbdlsy0GFsxsY5eLQY3Egwk+BtY2PccOaM2W3JbcxALTxs0vi1pH+T/NvGZg/SUiy5rZ4YLTlm0kBbEjcc7zFj/LjtMGEtkjdyyqRl29iSZx5vK5Zm3Hach42ZgF/4bqRvk3zbdsy27zDzxo8/t1Xb87M3P3yMTwsUHGNQOACMSx4Qm5mwchCoYZBvAKaYH8SpHgWjYBSMghEGAKa3SSY0RwsAAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Pune Institute of Business Management","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Dhanajay","middleName":"","lastName":"Patra","suffix":""},{"id":516845729,"identity":"cea93c21-b692-4141-88c6-ed590b04f597","order_by":2,"name":"Arabinda Sharma","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Gangadhar Meher University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Arabinda","middleName":"","lastName":"Sharma","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-09-16 12:38:22","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7630476/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7630476/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-026-11582-y","type":"published","date":"2026-02-19T15:59:29+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":103251258,"identity":"4fb10f87-834b-4f31-9249-192afd6392af","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-23 16:07:29","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2102711,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"EcosystemhealthGeojournal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7630476/v1_covered_f07a4780-d2cc-4553-a595-0c39f2cba83c.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Leveraging Google Earth Engine and Landscape Metrics to Assess Implications of Urban Expansion on Ecological health of Rourkela City, India","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Urban growth, LULC change, landscape metrics, spatial pattern, ecosystem health, GEE","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7630476/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7630476/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe current trend of urban growth is adversely affecting quality of life by imposing significant environmental impacts on local ecosystems, land resources, and urban structures and patterns. This study evaluates the impact of urban expansion on land use patterns and ecosystem health (EH) in Rourkela City from 2011 to 2021, using landscape metrics and EH analyzers. The Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform was employed to prepare the LULC maps used in this study, leveraging its robust computational resources for analyzing satellite imagery. A Vigor-Organization-Resilience approach was utilized to estimate EH quality in Rourkela, integrating LULC and landscape metrics to capture spatiotemporal variations over the past decade. Results show that the rapid expansion of built-up areas caused significant losses in other LULC classes, including approximately 12% of agricultural land, 9% of open land, and 3% of vegetated land converted into urban areas. Landscape metrics reveal that natural land covers experienced increased fragmentation, while built-up areas became more connected due to continued urbanization from 2011 to 2021. The EH of the city was consistently in the weak or relatively weak category, with the mean EH value decreasing from 0.306 in 2011 to 0.270 in 2021. The spatial variation of EH over the study period highlights a worsening physical ecology in Rourkela. These findings emphasize the urgent need for precautionary urban planning based on optimal spatial land resource patterns to enhance ecosystem health. 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