Spatio-temporal analysis of land use - land cover changes in Delhi using remote sensing and GIS techniques

Temporal land cover changes have a strong effect on the urban environment and its surroundings. In the present study, Delhi metropolitan area has been considered for the detection of land cover changes using Landsat images of 1989 and 2011. Emphasis has been given to identify the extent of urban expansion duly responsible for land cover changes. Remote sensing and GIS techniques have that potential to analyze this change for the time span of 22 years. Imageries have been classified digitally using Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) algorithm and have been validated through the process of accuracy assessment. Here the overall accuracy achieved for classified images is more that 80%. Areal change matrix and transitional probability matrix have also applied to identify the changes in land cover. It is found that urban area, fallow land and vegetation have changed drastically in Delhi.