Spatiotemporal Change Detection Analysis of Land Cover and Land Use using Multi-Temporal Remote Sensed Imagery and Landscape Metrics: A Sub-Catchment Level Case Study of the Bhagirathi-Hugli River, West Bengal, India

Abstract

To analyse and characterise land use-land cover (LULC) change, remote sensing (RS) data and geographic information system (GIS) approaches are required. The landscape metrics are also extensively used to explain the structure and pattern of the spatial landscape. This case study has been conducted in the area of the Bhagirathi-Hugli River banks in West Bengal. The study area’s satellite image data from various periods (1989-2017) were used to analyse the spatiotemporal variation of LULC change. The LULC fragmentation was analysed using a total of six landscape measures. Landscape metrics such as Number of Patches (NP), Largest Patch Index (LPI), Landscape Shape Index (LSI), Mean Shape Index (MSI), Contagion (CONTAG), and Shannon’s Diversity Index were used to determine the changes over four different periods. The main features of land use change were the continuous expansion of built-up area (9.30 km2), vegetation (189.14 km2), and the decrease in agricultural fallow land and water bodies from 1989 to 2017. The landscape pattern in the study area has also changed significantly. The landscape metrics indicate that the studied region had a highly fragmented landscape during the study period. The proposed technique is easy to use and can address more than one metric while selecting the appropriate setting can prove problematic.