Spatio-temporal assessment on land use and land cover (LULC) and forest fragmentation in shifting agroecosystem landscape in Ukhrul district of Manipur, Northeast India.

Abstract

The information on land use and land cover (LULC) plays a critical role in understanding the interactions between human activities and the natural environment. The changes in LULC have a significant impact on the ecological integrity of forests, biodiversity, and natural resources, which in turn trigger global environmental change. Forest fragmentation is an important conservation challenge that includes interdependent forest loss components and spatial shift patterns. Over the years, Northeast India has experienced major changes in LULC and forest fragmentation. There are limited information and data regarding the change in LULC patterns and causes of forest fragmentation. The present study was carried out with an attempt to analyze the change in LULC and forest fragmentation using satellite data of three different time series: 1991, 2005, and 2020 for Ukhrul district, Manipur, Northeast India. Different LULC classes were classified using the supervised method, viz., maximum likelihood algorithm in ERDAS Imagine 2014 and generated thematic maps in ArcGIS 10.4 software. Considering the classified forest class, fragmentation in the forest area was grouped into different categories of fragmentation using the Landscape Fragmentation Tool (LFT v 2.0). The distribution of the perforated category has tremendously increased in 2020 from 1991. The outcome of the present study will help to understand the inherent forest vulnerability and to adopt sustainable management strategies for forest and agriculture ecosystems in the hill landscape.