ASSESSING THE RELATION BETWEEN LAND USE / LAND COVER CHANGES AND ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS FOR CHENNAI CITY, TAMIL NADU: A REMOTE SENSING AND GIS APPROACH

Abstract. Land use land cover changes in coastal regions are prone to many factors like rapid urbanization and industrialization, tourism, and tideline changes etc. Chennai city, a coastal city of TamilNadu, India has witnessed tremendous changes in land use land cover over the past two decades due to rapid urbanization and industrialization. Remote sensing and GIS technologies can efficiently help in analyzing these changes. In this study, changes in land use land cover patterns of Chennai city from 2005 to 2016 were assessed using IRS P6 LISS III remotely sensed satellite images. Post classification comparison-based change detection method was used to identify the changes in LU/LC. The study shows an increase in compact built-up and industrial areas by 15.36 % and 7.22 % respectively and a decrease in agricultural land, wetlands, and water bodies by 3.66%, 1.73%, and 5.24% respectively over the past decade. The obtained LU/LC changes were correlated with environmental parameters like Land surface temperature (LST), annual average rainfall and average groundwater level to establish a relation. Observations have shown that the temperature in Chennai metropolitan city has increased by 6̊c from 2005 to 2016 and the rainfall has reduced by 100mm from 2005 to 2016. This study demonstrated the relation between LU/LC changes over the past decade and the variations in environmental parameters like increased LST, reduced rainfall and groundwater.