Land mapping and its change detection analysis in chitradurga taluk of Karnataka state, India using geospatial technology

Land is one of the non-renewable resources and mapping of Land Use/ Land Cover (LU/LC) is essential for planning and development of land, water resources of a region with suitable technology. There is a significant change in LC/LU across the globe due to the climatic changes, rapid increase in population and over demand of the growing economic resources. The present aim is to detect the changes in LU/LC patterns and its aerial extent due to different socio-economic factors in the study area. Efforts have been made to evaluate the LU/LC patterns using SoI topomap (1:50,000) with limited field visits; geo-coded FCC of IRS-1D, PAN+LISS-III multispectral, multi-temporal satellite images. Spatial, spectral and temporal analysis type of approach has greater importance in mapping of specific LU/LC patterns and its change detection over time and coverage areas calculated using ArcGIS v10. Supervised classification using Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) is applied to prepare LULC maps using NRSC guidelines (1995) through GIS software’s. Different classes of vegetation activities affect the surface flow of run-off water leading to maximize infiltration. The final results highlight the capability of geospatial techniques to bring out the real changes observed in LU/LC patterns and provide meaningful information in proper planning and developmental strategies for land sustainability.