An examination of land use and land cover changes in muvattupuzha river basin using GIS

Abstract

Land is the most important natural resources as far as human beings are concerned. The utilization of land is changing due to the emerging growth of population. The consequences due to change in land use not only affect human beings but at the same time affect the ecosystem also. The emerging effect of change of land use due to urbanization results in flooding and drought condition. This study has been carried out to understand the land use and land cover changes using GIS in a semi-arid region, Kerala, India. For this, the study area has been selected as Muvattupuzha River Basin. Land use land cover changes studies are very much important for planners as well as economists for better land utilization. It has been concluded from the study that built up area has increased during the study period from 110.9 km2 to 504.42 km2, which indicates that urbanization is the main factor which causes the bi-variational changes of land and flood occurrence.