Coastal land use and land cover changes in parts of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

The study of land use and land cover changes (in coastal or noncoastal areas) is an essential contributing factor in coastal area management. These studies have become important in recent years due to explosive growth in the population and economy. Change detection studies were carried out in a GIS environment. To map the land use and land cover, visual interpretation technique was used with collateral data from Survey of India toposheets. IRS 1D LISS-III (2002) and IRS 1D P6 (2004, 2004 and 2005) satellite data were used for Tsunami water inundation mapping. Visual interpretation were carried out for Pondicherry and Nagapattinam using satellite data of IRS LISS II (1990) and IRS 1D P6 (2004) imagery showed that in 1990 crop land, for Pondicherry which occupied 55 km2 and it further increased to 75.44 km2 in 2004. 46.25 km2 of crop land in 1990 was reduced to 13.34 km2 in 2004 and for Nagapattinam which occupied 149.96 km2, was decreased to 135.04 km2 in 2004. Visual interpretation were carried out for Tuticorin using satellite data of IRS LISS II (1990), and IRS 1D P6 (2004) imagery showed that in 1990 scrub land, occupied 42.48 km2 and in 2004 it was decreased to 34.63 km2. 27.05 km2 of saltpan in 1990, increased to 30.68 km2 in 2004. Tsunami had caused many changes in the land use/land cover and shoreline changes of Pondicherry, Nagapattinam and Tuticorin. However the worst affected area was Nagapattinam. In Pondicherry, the total water inundated area by the December 2004 tsunami was calculated as 7.14 km2. In Nagapattinam, the total water inundated area by the December 2004 tsunami was calculated as 10.21 km2. In Tuticorin, the total water inundated area by the December 2004 tsunami was calculated as 1.15 km2. For three areas (Pondicherry, Nagapattinam and Tuticorin) socio economic impacts (secondary data) on fisheries, agriculture, settlement, population, livelihood and economic impact have been identified which could lead to changes in coastal economic value. newline