
Land use mapping is important for evaluation, management and conservation of natural resources of an area and the knowledge on the existing land use is one of the prime pre-requisites for suggesting better use of land. In this study, three mapping approaches (unsupervised, supervised and GIS post processing) were used to identify, demarcate and map the land use/ Land cover categories in the Uppar Odai Sub-Watershed, Tamil Nadu, India. The following land cover classes were discriminated: Evergreen forest, Deciduous forest, Rabi only, Kharif only, Current fallow, Scrub / Degraded forest and Built-up. The results showed that the cultivated land still covering about 39 % of the Uppar odai sub watershed. While current fallow covers 35 % of the total sub watershed. The Uppar odai sub watershed land cover map confirmed the intensive agricultural activities. This paper also showed that Landsat-like sensors can provide feasible land cover maps of Uppar odai sub watershed, although ancillary data are required to help image interpretation.