Land use/land cover change detection: a case study of Usilampatti Block, Madurai District, Tamil Nadu

Land use/land cover change detection study over the year 1990-2001 have been carried out for the study area of “Usilampatti Block” in Madurai district. For this study, the multi-temporal data sets of the years 1990 and 2001 from LANDSAT-5 TM and LANDSAT-7 ETM+ were used. Different land use/landcover features havebeen identified using visual interpretation techniques. The findings are, major part of the study area is Agricultural land, which covers about 105.352 sq. km in 1990 and 115.5683 sq. km in 2001; natural vegetation covers about 86.5 sq. km in 1990 and 67.288 sq. km in 2001; wasteland covers about 68.371 sq. km in 1990 and 76.233 sq. km in 2001, built-up covers about 1.976 sq. km in 1990 and 2.68 sq. km in 2001.