Land Use and Land Cover Change of Santijan Beel, Assam (India): A Geographical Analysis Using Geospatial Tools and Techniques

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation is to unravel the cause of changes in land use and land cover pattern in the Santijan Beel, Assam (India) covering an area of 81.96 sq km. An analysis has been made to draw the attention to concerned authorities for better understanding in terms of the pattern and magnitude of the changes in LULC along with examination of the interlinkages of such changes with wetland environment and socio-economic set-up of the native land. This research obtained geospatial techniques for scrutinizing land use land cover change in the study area. Satellite images from the years 2013 to 2020 have been utilized to recognize the areal changes. The LULC classifications of the study area are comprises with six classes like vegetation cover, agricultural land use, culturable waste land, built-up area, water bodies and fallow land which indicate the drastic change of the wetland environment. Notably there have been decreased agricultural land, water body, vegetation cover by 1%, 10% and 1% respectively. On the other hand, there have been seen built up area, culturable waste land, fallow land by 7%, 1% and 4% which lead to indicate the human interventions in the natural environment. Remote sensing data and techniques and Geographical Information System (GIS) provide efficient methods for analysis of land use and land cover aspects and tools for LULC planning and modelling. This type of analysis therefore is useful for managing and conserving the wetland environment.