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Land use and land cover changes and their impacts in Pampa river basin in Kerala: A remote sensing based analysis

Increased rate of urbanization along with other human intervention factors have been cited as major challenges faced by river basins, which ultimately change the basin ecology and end up in serious natural havocs like floods and droughts. As far as a river basin is concerned, the spatio-temporal cha...

Fuld beskrivelse

Bibliografiske detaljer
Hovedforfatter: N.A. Mayaja and C.V. Srinivasa
Format: Printed Book
Udgivet: Journal of Geomatics 2017
Fag:
Online adgang:http://10.26.1.76/ks/008312.pdf
Beskrivelse
Summary:Increased rate of urbanization along with other human intervention factors have been cited as major challenges faced by river basins, which ultimately change the basin ecology and end up in serious natural havocs like floods and droughts. As far as a river basin is concerned, the spatio-temporal changes in land use have direct influence on its hydrological realm. Deforestation and conversion of waterlogged wetlands into built-up areas directly affect the characteristics of the basin and natural water flow regimes and the obvious consequence is flood. Analyzing the spatial and temporal variations in land use and land cover (LULC) of river basin provides meaningful insight to these issues. The state of Kerala in general, and the Travancore- the central region in particular, is well known for high level of growth in terms of socio –economic factors, literacy, health care etc. The extensive socio-economic changes have led to increased rate of infrastructure and building construction and profuse landscape changes in this region during the last decade. Consequently, the basin characteristics of Pampa river - flowing through the heart of this region – has succumbed to terrific variations. Recurring flood and drought has become a predominant feature of this river, which is the lifeline of the region. In this context, this study attempts to evaluate the LULC changes that have taken place in Pampa river basin during the last three decades by employing the remote sensing based digital images for the period from 1985 to 2012. From the results derived by analyzing satellite images, the possible human intervention factors have been identified and discussed. The transformations in the land use pattern of Pampa river basin revealed in this study are 'strong negative changes', aggravating the havocs now being experienced due to recurring flood and drought situations
Fysisk beskrivelse:Vol 11 No. 1 April 2017