Assessment of land use and land cover changes through satellite remote sensing: a case study of purbasthali-i&ii blocks, burdwan district, West bengal, india

The landscapes on the earth are more or less sculptured with the foot points of human civilization. The anthropogenic activities changed the natural landscape significantly with the passage of time. Presence of human being on earth and his use of land had profound effect on the natural environment and vice versa; which results into an observable change in the land use and land cover over time. Information of land use land cover in the form of maps and data is very important for spatial planning, management and utilization of land. Land use land cover scenario in India has undergone a radical change since the onset of Green Revolution. Remote sensing provides scientific and systematic information for change detection and monitoring of human uses and bio-geographical coverage of land. The present study attempts to identify the spatio-temporal changes of land use land cover in Purbasthali region over the time span of 86 years, using the topographical maps and satellite images of the years 1918, 1973, 1990 and 2004. We have adopted digital and visual land use land cover classification method to produce series of land use land cover maps. The study reveals that agricultural land use has dominance over the other Land use Land cover categories and it covers almost half of the study area but, very recently it is decreasing at a slow pace. Vegetation cover of the region is almost wiped out; Built-up land is extending quite usually with growing population pressure. But recently, due to river bank erosion of river Bhagirathi along the eastern margin of the region it has been shifted to some other areas. The major negative changes occurred in current fallow category due to proficiency in agricultural practice, farm mechanization, and other socio-economic causes.