Monitoring land use changes associated with urbanization: An object based image analysis approach

Land use/land cover (LULC) change occurs due to natural and anthropogenic causes. In developing countries, rapid industrialization and urbanization imposes a major threat to natural environment. Present study was carried out to monitor the LULC changes due to urbanization in a rapidly changing river basin, India. The purpose of choosing the river basin was to analyze past changes and predict possible consequences within a defined natural boundary. Multi-temporal images acquired from Landsat and Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites between 1992-2009 as well as a digital elevation model was used to generate historical and current LULC pattern in the basin. An object based image analysis technique was employed for precise classification of multi-temporal images followed by GIS-based change detection studies. The study reveals that the built up area has increased significantly and added 288 km(2) between 1992 - 2009. Increase in built up area is attributed to decrease in wastelands and agricultural land. The expansion of built up area along major transportation networks, specifically after the year 2000 shows the rapid rate of urbanization in the basin.