Detection and analysis of badlands dynamics in the Chambal River Valley (India), during the last 40 (1971–2010) years

Abstract

This article reports major land use changes in India’s worst badland incised area. India, being an agriculture dependent economy, suffers a great economic loss to badlands. Strategically, it is important to know the state-of-the-art status on the dynamics of badlands. Furthermore, it is equally important to assess the processes and factors which contribute most towards it. This study, therefore, assesses the dynamics of badlands that have occurred from 1971 to 2010 using CORONA and GeoEye-1 satellite images. The study design includes 24 study plots of 1 km2 each, covering all the dimensions of the study area. Change detection analysis which was also verified on ground revealed that the areas covered by badlands are reducing at a greater rate than badland encroachment. Badlands were reduced by 20 % in the last ca. 40 years. Factors influencing the reduction of badlands cover were studied using a logistic regression model. Five factors found to significantly influencing the reduction in badlands area are (1) distance to Chambal River, (2) distance to river channels, (3) distance to settlement, (4) slope and (5) Contributing Area. The fitted model was validated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. This study failed to find a model with good discriminative power for badland encroachment. The statistical evidence in the light of field studies indicated that badlands in populated areas are increasingly transformed into cropland.