Land use/land cover change detection using remote sensing and gis based techniques for solani river basin, uttarakhand

Abstract

Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) change detection was performed in the Solani river watershed area using multi-temporal remote sensing images (Landsat 8 ETM+ image of year 2014 and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager/Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI/TIRS) image of year 2021). Image classification and change detection were carried out for both images using Arc Geographic Information System (GIS) 10.1 and Earth Resources Data Analysis System (ERDAS) Imagine 2016 software. High-resolution Google Earth imagery and Land Remote-Sensing Satellite (LANDSAT) images were used for the accuracy assessment of the classification. The results showed major increments of agricultural fallow land and build-up land of 25.19% and 20.69%, respectively, with the highest decrease in forest cover of 29.27%. Also, to analyze the impact of varying spatial resolution on the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), two digital elevation models (DEMs) of different spatial resolutions (SRTM, 90m, and Cartosat, 30 m) were used. The results of the study indicated that the mean TWI value increases with an increase in grid size.