Impact of Land-use Change on Agricultural Production & Accuracy Assessment through Confusion Matrix

Abstract

Land modification and its allied resources have progressively become a severe problem presently pulling the worldwide attention and now it rests at the central point of the conservation of the environment and sustainability. The present research aimed to examine the land-use changes and their impact on agricultural production using remote sensing and GIS techniques over the study area that comprised of Tehsil Shorkot, District Jhang, Punjab, Pakistan. Images were pre-processed by using the Arc GIS and ERDAS Imagine 15 software for stacking of the layers, sub-setting, and mosaicking of the satellite bands. After the pre-processing of the images, supervised image classification scheme was applied by employing a maximum likelihood algorithm to recognize the land-use changes which have been observed in the area under study. The area under water was occupied 9.6 km2 in 2010 that increased to 21.04 km2 in 2015 and decreased to 19.4 km2in 2020. Built-up land was 16.6 km2 in 2010 that increased to 19.4 km2 in 2015 and 26.8 km2 in 2020. The total area under vegetation was computed as 513.2 km2 in 2010 that increased to 601.6km2 in 2015 and further increased to 717.7 km2in 2020. Forest land use showed decreasing trend as the covered area in 2010 was occupied 90.8 km2 that decreased to 86.7 km2 in 2015 and further decreased to 61.84 km2 in 2020. In 2010, barren land use was occupied 528.54 km2 that considerably decreased to 429.64 km2 in 2015 further decreased to 333.1 km2 in 2020. Barren land drastically decreased into watered, built-up, and vegetation land uses. The findings of this study will be helpful for the future conservation of various land-use types, urban and regional planning, and an increase in agricultural production of various crops in the study area.