Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Land Use / Land Covers Changes Using Remote Sensing and GIS: A Case Study from Bijoy River Basin, Tripura, India

Abstract

Better understanding of land use / land covers changes in the transformation at the local, regional, and the national level provides guidelines for planning, management and monitoring developmental programs. The study area namely; Bijoy river basin is located from Northeastern part of the Tripura State in India, is mostly pretentious by LULC changes including deforestation, settlement encroachment swampy land filled, Jhum cultivation, rubber plantation etc., The increase or decrease of the geographical areal unit of each land use / land cover categories are analyzed. Mapping the spatial and temporal aspects of land use/land cover changes for the period of 20 years at five years interval from 2003 to 2023 is carried out using Landsat TM 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 OLI/TIRS satellite data with the aid of QGIS software.  The LULC are delineated that built-up area is steadily increased, signifying the growth and development of residential, commercial, and industrial regions from 1.573101 to 6.662455. The area under agricultural lands declined affectedly, indicating a conversion of agricultural lands to other land uses, such as urbanization or industrialization and rubber plantation from 34.37884 to 24.16139, and the forest cover declined from 35.83747 to 27.46631, indicating that factors such as agricultural development, urbanization, or illicit logging have contributed to deforestation. There has been a significant rise in the area covered by rubber plantations from 4.084427 to 25.86129, suggesting that commercial rubber cultivation has spread throughout the region. The area covered by water bodies is decreased from 7.012693 to 5.835399. The area under open ground dropped from 9.66931 to 7.395732, which could be a sign that different development activities are using open areas. The amount of barren land fell from 20.44768 to 2.479626, most likely as a result of various land uses such as urban expansion, agriculture, and plantations, and the area under brick chambers increased from 0.028178 to 0.137806, indicating a rise in infrastructure development and construction activity. Significant changes in land use / covers brought out by industrialization, urbanization, infrastructure growth, and the agricultural expansion. Increased rubber plantations, and building extension activities are caused a decrease in agricultural land, forest cover, water bodies, and open bare grounds.