Determination of land-use dynamics in a lagoon watershed by remotely sensed data

Extensive use of land and water resources results in changes in land-use and properties; wetlands are drained, reservoirs are built, settlements extend, and forests are converted to farmlands. Such changes affect the hydrology and ecology of a watershed. Further effects are pollution of the environment and deterioration of habitats. To follow the temporal change of land-use and corresponding properties, extensive laborious studies include data gathering from various state offices and field surveys. Remote sensing (RS) supported analyses, on the other hand, reduce the necessary manpower. The aim of this study is to investigate the change of land-use and corresponding properties on an average- sized watershed with an area of 1000 km². Remote Sensing was used to classify the watershed into four classes: Agricultural areas, forests, bare soil, and river bed. Landsat 5 TM images belonging to 1984, 2000, 2003 and 2010 were used for classification analysis. GIS was used to generate the land use and land property maps, and to make interpolations for the years where remote sensing data is missing. Finally, a yearly set of land use and land property maps is obtained. These maps are useful for understanding the land use changes and for estimating the future probable trend of land use changes.