Abstract
Abstract. In this present world, due to the increasing adverse effect of anthropological activities on the natural environment causes a large scale environmental degradation which directly reduces the suitable natural environment for human habitation. As a consequence, in recent years, human realised the need for a favourable natural environment which is adoptable for habitation. In this present study, some of the following five criterions such as Land Surface Temperature (LST), vegetation coverage, impervious surface, wetness and water condition derived from the remotely sensed data were used to evaluate the Natural Human habitation Environment Suitability Index (NHESI) along the coastal taluks of Tamil Nadu. Landsat-7 (ETM+) images and Landsat-8 (OLI/TIRS) images with a spatial resolution of 30m have been used to derive the evaluation factors of NHESI for the year of 2000 and 2018. Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) based Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and fuzzy linear membership has been used in this study to evaluate the weighs and ratings of each criterion and its classes. The best NHESI is seen in 2000 where a total area of about 13902.9 km2 comes under the habitable region, against an area of 7726.9 km2 in 2018. The study area is further classified into moderately habitable, marginally habitable and uninhabitable regions. This study clearly indicates the degradation of the natural environmental conditions for human habitation. This kind of habitability study will help the researchers, decision makers and government agencies in creating awareness and adopting policies in the spatial planning of human land utilization for habitability.
Highlights
The study of human settlements gained interest with the ideas of Greek Scholar Doxiadis, as his concept of “Ekistics - Science of human settlement” was a subject undergoing intense study in the fields of architecture, geography, planning and other subjects (Doxiadis, 1968; Choguill, 1996). Doxiadis (1970) stated that the quality of man’s relationship with the natural environment will increase the psychological and mental health of the society, and influences their socioeconomic development
This study utilises the five band ratio factors retrieved from the 30m × 30m resolution Landsat data (ETM+ and OLI/TIRS) to analyse the suitable natural environment for human habitation for people in the coastal taluks of Tamil Nadu by using a Natural Human habitation Environment Suitability Index (NHESI) model based on the selected five criteria which were considered as the natural environment habitability indicators
The resultant from the study of NHESI in the coastal taluks of are as follows, 1) There is a decrease in the amount of suitable natural environment for human habitation based on the factors considered in this study
Summary
The study of human settlements gained interest with the ideas of Greek Scholar Doxiadis, as his concept of “Ekistics - Science of human settlement” was a subject undergoing intense study in the fields of architecture, geography, planning and other subjects (Doxiadis, 1968; Choguill, 1996). Doxiadis (1970) stated that the quality of man’s relationship with the natural environment will increase the psychological and mental health of the society, and influences their socioeconomic development. The development of sustainable human settlement is made only by improving the social, economic and environmental quality of human settlements and, the living and working environments of all people, in particular the urban and rural people (UNO, 1992). This made the researchers and the scientists of this decade to concentrate mainly on the sustainability and environmental suitability of the human settlements by evaluating the quality of the natural environment in which the people habitat. Human habitability analysis in china was assessed using a “Human Settlement Environment Development Index”, which utilises the habitability indicators such as vegetation coverage, Land Surface Temperature (LST), impervious surfaces, slope, wetness and water conditions in analysing the suitable natural environment condition for human habitation (Jishuai et al, 2016)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
