Assessment of wetland dynamics in terms of status and temporal changes using RS &GIS in Aligarh District, UP, India

Abstract

Wetland is an effective ecosystem but its resources are influenced in varying degrees by global economic development and expansion of potential survival of human life. The accurate mapping of wetland types and monitoring their dynamic changes provide the scientific foundation for wetland conservation and restoration. Aligarh district had many wetlands but due to legal and illegal encroachment, they are shrinking. No wetland mapping has been done before to compare the past and present situation of wetlands. Therefore under this study, an attempt has been made to understand the status of wetlands in Aligarh district in terms of their number and areal extent and also assess the temporal changes during 2002-2017 using the multi-temporal Landsat imageries. Supervised Classification with the Maximum Likelihood algorithm was used to classify the wetlands. There was a 1826.67 ha area covered through wetlands that is 0.5% of its total geographic area. The maximum number of wetlands was point wetlands (having less than 1 ha area. In the last 15 years, the area of wetlands decreased by 57%. The overall accuracy of the supervised image produced was 87.50% with a kappa value of 0.75.