Abstracto

Geomatic based detailed study of landuse of Palar River Basin

Mithas A.Dar, K.Sankar, Imran A.Dar

Land use and land cover change is a major issue in global environment change, and is especially significant in rapidly developing regions in the world. Fast LULC change have resulted in degradation of its ecosystems and affected adversely the environment. It is urgently needed to monitor its LULC changes and to analyses the consequences of these changes in order to provide information for policymakers to support sustainable development. Land use practices are influenced by water and land availability, and land capability and suitability tempered by socio-economic conditions.Aerial photographs of 1980, Landsat satellite ThematicMapper (TM) data of 1998 and IRSIC satellite LISS sensor data of 2006 have been interpreted to generate the land usemap ofUpper Palar Basin, and data of 1988 and 1998 used for the total Palar Basin.While the classification scheme for the Upper Palar Basin study focussed on irrigation intensity (intensely irrigated, less intensely irrigated and dry crop) and forest density classes the total basin study focussed on mapping kharif, rabi and double cropped areas and forest types (evergreen, degraded, etc.). Such maps for different time periods enable detection of location and extent of land use changes, a necessary input to sustainable management.