Abstract
Land use/land cover (LULC) information is essential for the selection, planning and implementation of management strategies to meet the increasing demands for basic human needs and welfare of the ever growing population. This paper illustrates the status of land use/land cover in the Tirupati area of Andhra Pradesh state using an integrated approach of remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). The National Land use/Land cover classification developed by National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) divides the land in the study area into five Level I classes, 11 Level II classes, and fifteen Level III classes. From this three-level hierarchic based classification, it was found that the Forest is the major LULC category in the Tirupati area covering 227.46 km2 (58.55%), followed by Agricultural land, Wastelands, Built-up land and water bodies contributing to 70.36 km2 (18.11%), 43.92 km2 (11.31%), 32.71 km2 (8.42%) and 14.03 km2 (3.61%) respectively of the total geographical area. This study also reviewed the characteristics of urban sprawl and their impacts on quality of life, the evident driving forces and its impact on development activities. The study concludes that in Tirupati area forest land contributed the highest land cover (58.55%), while the lowest was contributed by water bodies (3.61%) and shows a significant impact of urbanization on the ecosystem.
Highlights
Human alterations of the environment over the past few decades have grown exponentially since industrial revolution took place
Being a very fast growing area Tirupati was chosen as a study area to quantify the LU/LC pattern for the year of 2012
The National LU/LC classification developed by National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) divides the land in the study area into 5 kinds of Level I class land type, 11 kinds of Level II class land type and 15 kinds of Level III class land type
Summary
Human alterations of the environment over the past few decades have grown exponentially since industrial revolution took place. In concert with available, enabling technologies such as GPS and GIS, can form the information base upon which sound planning decisions can be made, while remaining costeffective [3]. This has made remote sensing a valuable source of land cover and land use information. Historical land use and land cover and its changes that are being altered by human activities have a significant impact on the Earth’s landscape, perturbing energy, moisture, and chemical fluxes which impact the Earth’s climate. Earlier studies show the spatial land use/land cover changes and their implications on climatic variables [13]-[15]
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