Impact of urban land use on land value: Kurseong Town

Urban land use is the surface utilization devoted to fulfilling one or more functions or types of utilization, used either intensively or extensively, ultimately satisfying the needs of the urban residents (Northam, 1975). Therefore, land use is a spatial feature of the types of human activities on a piece of land to meet numerous human needs such as residential, commercial, industrial and so on. The land use planning in an area expresses the interactions between the land acquisitions and land quality on the one hand and its regional relationship and land use on the other. There has always been a need for land because of its resilience and investment. Land, which is one of the most basic and limited resources for human existence, is open to annihilation and exploitation due to the growing demand and rapid population growth in Kurseong Town. Almost everywhere, different types of land uses are associated with different land values. Rapid urban sprawl and continuous population growth in Kurseong Municipality have resulted in an increase in land prices in recent years as is evident from field research and information gathered from the second data. The current paper attempts to unravel the changes occurring in the patterns of various land uses of Kurseong Municipality over a period of 13 years and their impact on land value. The analysis was undertaken by taking a number of indicators into account and focusing on the use of GIS tools and statistical methods. The study shows a sharp decline in vacant land and an increase in the developed area. In addition, there is a strong positive correlation between the price of the land and a range of existing urban facilities and population density in different wards of Kurseong town.