A comparative study of three decadal LU/LC maps of Sabarmati river basin

Abstract

India is a country of heterogeneous land uses/ land covers. And each LU/LC plays an essential part in maintaining and conserving our natural environment. Land use is created by human beings for the betterment of human beings which includes built-up areas, agricultural areas, industrial areas, recreational areas, etc whereas land cover is the natural environmental cover present on the earth surface such as vegetation cover, forests, water bodies, wetlands etc. The main objective of the paper is to compare the three LU/LC (1985-1995-2005) maps using remote sensing and ArcGIS software to detect change analysis. In order to achieve the objectives a case study of Sabarmati river basin was taken to identify key parameters that causes flood and to determine the maximum- minimum changes happening during 1985 to 2005. The results indicate that during the last two decades, crop land and built-up land have been increased by 1.59 % (60238 km²) and 0.46% (17508 km²), while there is a steep reduction in deciduous broadleaf forest, shrub land, fallow land and waste land by 0.47% (-17643 km²), 0.53% (-20049 km²), 1.11% (-41925 km²) and 0.79% (-30071 km²) respectively. Final result shows that the urbanization increases flood situations every time monsoon hits Gujarat.