Monitoring Land Use/Land Cover Changes in a River Basin due to Urbanization using Remote Sensing and GIS Approach

Abstract. Faster pace of urbanization, industrialization, unplanned infrastructure developments and extensive agriculture result in the rapid changes in the Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) of the sub-tropical river basins. Study of LU/LC transformations in a river basin is crucial for vulnerability assessment and proper management of the natural resources of a river basin. Remote sensing technology is very promising in mapping the LU/LC distribution of a large region on different spatio-temporal scales. The present study is intended to understand the LU/LC changes in the Upper Bhima river basin due to urbanization using modern geospatial techniques such as remote sensing and GIS. In this study, the Upper Bhima river basin is divided into three adjacent sub-basins: Mula-Mutha sub-basin (ubanized), Bhima sub-basin (semi-urbanized) and Ghod sub-basin (unurbanized). Time series LU/LC maps were prepared for the study area for a period of 1980, 2002 and 2009 using satellite datasets viz. Landsat MSS (October, 1980), Landsat ETM+ (October, 2002) and IRS LISS III (October 2008 and November 2009). All the satellite images were classified into five LU/LC classes viz. built-up lands, agricultural lands, waterbodies, forests and wastelands using supervised classification approach. Post classification change detection method was used to understand the LU/LC changes in the study area. Results reveal that built up lands, waterbodies and agricultural lands are increasing in all the three sub-basins of the study area at the cost of decreasing forests and wastelands. But the change is more drastic in urbanized Mula-Mutha sub-basin compared to the other two sub-basins.