Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) Based Classification to Assess the Change in Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) in Lower Assam, India

Abstract

The land use activities ultimately affect the land cover spatially and temporarily. The major factor responsible for the change in land use/land cover is to fulfill the growing demands of increasing population through agricultural intensification for food and clearing natural land cover like the forest for settlement and commercial activities. The change in land use and land cover also disturbs the other natural component soil fertility, soil erosion, ecology, biodiversity, air quality and water regime of the disturbed area. The remote sensing and GIS technology has been emerged as a good tool to analyze the change in land use and land cover of the area at spatial and temporal scale. In this study, the NDVI based classification has indicated about significant change in land use land cover between a year 1990 and 2014. The Major change has been found in the forest cover area where about 113 km2 (2.9%) of forest have been degraded and about 115.4 km2 area of wetland has been lost between year 1990 and 2014.