Land Use/Land cover Change Detection using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System

In the present study an attempt was made to analyse the spatial pattern of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) and their changes using modern spatial technologies of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS). A micro level geo-hydrological unit of Bajel watershed, Almora district, Uttarakhand was selected as an area of study. In this study Land sat 5 TM image of year 1990 and Land sat 7 ETM+ image of year 2015 were processed in ERDAS Imagine 13.1 and Arc GIS 10.3 software to map out LULC and to detect changes in the study area. Maximum Likelihood Classification algorithm was applied for image classification. Five LULC classes were identified and mapped in the study area viz. Forest, Fallow land, River, Agriculture and Settlement. It reveals that, in the year 1990 the forest was the major LULC category in the Bajel watershed covering 31.34 km2 (80.37%) area followed by fallow land, River, agriculture and settlement contributing 1.35 km2 (3.46%), 0.58 km2 (1.48%), 5.27 km2 (13.51%) and 0.45 km2 (1.15%) respectively. In the year 2015 the forest occupied 31.46 km2 (80.68%) area of the watershed whereas fallow land, River, agriculture and settlement observed on 0.36 km2 (0.92%), 0.39 km2 (1.00%), 5.99 km2 (15.36%) and 0.79 km2 (2.02%) area respectively. In order to detect changes in LULC class in the study area, pair wise comparison of both LULC maps were performed in ERDAS Imagine. The study also demonstrates the usefulness of RS and GIS techniques in LULC mapping and monitoring.