Abstract:
Land use and land cover is an important
component to understand basin level land status as it shows the
present as well as past status of the earth’s surface. The land
use/land cover pattern of a region is an outcome of natural and
socio-economic factors and its utilization gives information
about the human livelihood and development. Land use and
land cover are two separate terminologies which are often used
interchangeably (Dimyati et al 1994). Land cover is a basic
parameter which evaluates the content of earth surface as an
important factor that affects the condition and functioning of
the ecosystem whereas the land cover is a biophysical state of
the earth surface, which can be used to estimate the interaction
of biodiversity with the surrounding environment. Land use
and land cover is dynamic in nature and provides a
comprehensive understanding of the interaction and
relationship of anthropogenic activities with the environment
(Prakasam, 2010). As land is becoming a scarce resource due
to immense agricultural and demographic pressure, therefore
the information on land use/land cover and possibilities for
their optimal use is essential for the selection, planning and
implementation of land use schemes to meet the increasing
demands for basic human needs and welfare.
Bundelkhand region in Central India is in the limelight due to
continuous droughts leading to large scale out migration,
degraded forests and lands, high soil erosion, reduction in soil
productivity and crop yields and has one of the lowest socioeconomic
indicators in the country. The Ur river basin, a
major tributary of River Dhasan with a catchment area of
990.37 sq. km has been selected for the study. The land use
change detection has been performed based on the analysis of
the digital data of LISS III & IRS-P6 with a resolution of
23.5m pertaining to 2003-04 and 2011-12. It has been observed
that there has been a considerable change in the land use
pattern with an increase of 55.02 % in the area under kharrif
crop whereas the area under double crop has increased
drastically by 136.17%. The increase in area under kharrif
crop and double crop has been at the expense of land with
scrubs which had a decrease of 73.4%. Even though there is
slight change in the acreage under forest.
