Land use land cover change detection of Patani micro-watershed of Madhya Pradesh using remote sensing data

Abstract

This study investigates Patani micro-watershed situated in Majhagawan block of Satna District (M.P.). The watershed characterization was carried out using RS and GIS techniques. The major aim of this study is to prepare land use land cover and their change detections. In this study IRS-P6 Sensor, LISS-III satellite images of the dates 19th October, 2008 and 5th January, 2008 were used to detect the seasonal (Kharif and Rabi) changes in land use land cover of the Patani Micro-watershed. First the images were geo-referenced and land use land cover maps were prepared by image processing techniques. To differentiate the changes in land covers, and vigour of the vegetation, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used as an important indicator, NDVI maps were generated for both images of the dates 19th October, 2008 (Rabi) and 5th January, 2008 (Kharif), values of NDVI in the watershed varies from -0.42 to 0.15 for 19th October, 2008 and 0.99 to 0.24 for 5th January, 2008 respectively. The land use land cover classes identified in the watershed were forest, wasteland, agricultural land, open (Currently fallow), and water body. Maximum area (69%) of the watershed was under forest, 2% under wasteland, most of which was at hill top; there were no seasonal changes exhibited in forest and wasteland. Changes were detected in water body, agricultural and open land. Agricultural land was decreased by 2.87% from Kharif to Rabi season and open land was increased by 3.28% respectively. Most of the agricultural land is under rainfed and land with higher slopes and poor soil depth is kept fallow during the Rabi season. Reduction was also observed in the water body by 0.41% in Rabi season; this is due to use of water from water harvesting ponds for irrigation and losses as evaporation and seepage. Key words: RS, GIS, land use land cover, NDVI, Change detection.