International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
Landuse/Landcover Change Mapping In and Around Chennai
City Using Remote Sensing and GIS
K. Ilayaraja*, Mardee Kordor Lamin
Department of Civil Engineering
Bharath University, Selaiyur, Chennai- 600 073. INDIA
ABSTRACT
Land use land cover mapping serve as a basic inventory of land resources throughout the
world. Whether regional or local in scope, remote sensing and GIS offers a wide means of
acquiring and presenting land cover data in timely manner. The land use/land cover pattern in
and around Chennai city were studied using Survey of India Toposheet No. 66C/4 for the year
1970 and LANDSAT Thematic Mapper Image(TM+) for the year 1991 and 2006. The land
use/land cover patterns were visually interpreted and digitized using ArcGIS 9.3 software. The
maps were compared and changes were attributed and show that there is a drastic change in the
land use profile. It revealed that the built-up area has increased from 22.2% (1970) to 58.05%
(2006), forest area has decreased from 17.36% (1970) to 4.48% (2006), water body has
decreased from 10%(1970) to 3.74%(1991) and increased to 8.51% (2006). It is also seen that
the agricultural land has decreased from 33.344%(1970) to 2.75%(2006) and waste land has
decreased from 38.39%(1970) to 20.27%(2006). The study recommends the use of satellite
image for future environmental monitoring studies and suggested that some remedial measures
should be taken to control the changes.
Keywords: Landuse, Landcover, environment and urban development
1.
Introduction
A modern nation, as a modern business, must have adequate information on many
complex interrelated aspects of its activities in order to make decisions. Land use is only one
such aspect, but knowledge about land use and land cover has become increasingly important as
the Nation plans to overcome the problems of random, uncontrolled development, deteriorating
environmental quality, loss of prime agricultural lands, destruction of important wetlands, and
loss of fish and wildlife habitat. Land use changes are altering human and natural systems
globally and regionally (For eg., Turner and Meyer, 1994; Solecki, 2001). Land use data are
needed in the analysis of environmental processes and problems that must be understood if living
conditions and standards are to be improved or maintained at current levels. Singh et al (1997)
has done detail study on the impact of coal mining and thermal power industry on land use
pattern in and around Singrauli coalfields and inferred that there is an loss in agricultural and
forest land which was due to rapid industrialization of the area. Ololade et al (2008) have worked
on land-use/cover mapping and change detection in the Rustenburg Mining Region using
Landsat images and carried out using remote sensed data; showed that in the last three decades
open cast mines, tailing dams; mine dumps and return water ponds have increased extensively in
the Rustenburg region with rapid decrease in vegetation; woodland and grassland have been
changed to cultivated land. Consequently, the landscape became highly disturbed due to
increased mining and agricultural activities. Nobi et al (2009) revealed using the satellite
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
imagery ,confirm that Pondicherry and its surroundings still retain more agricultural land when
compared to all other land use/land cover features, though the rate of conversion of agricultural
land for other purposes like industries and building construction were increased. The aim of this
study is to identify the land use and land cover changes in and around Chennai city for about
thirty five years using satellite images and GIS. The present study also initiate that remote
sensing coupled with GIS can be effectively used for real time and long term monitoring of the
environment. The objectives which will have to be done in order to achieve the aim are (i) to
classify visually and categorizing all pixels in an image into land use/land cover classification
scheme. (ii).To prepare various thematic maps and to assess the cause and effect of the changes
responsible for the alteration of geoenvironmental condition.
2. Study Area
The study area is bounded by Buckingham canal flowing from north to south direction,
Coovam and Adyar river flowing towards the east direction. The South Chennai coast includes
Kovalam creek, the backwaters of Muttukudu boat house and also it consist of historical tourist
spots, theme parks, hotel resorts, Aquaculture ponds, houses, fishing and navigation activities are
main activities in this region. The total area to be studied and analysed is 547.374 sq.km .The
study area lies between the coordinates 79⁰59’59.239”E 13⁰2’31.221”N; 80⁰16’58.033”E
13⁰2’24.862”N; 80⁰0’1.385”E 12⁰53’0.001”N; 80⁰16’59.717”E 12⁰52’34.041”N (Figure 1) and
its in and around Chennai City .To the east is the coastal area whereas to the North-West lies the
great Chembarambakkam Lake and to the South is the Indian Air Force Station.
3. Methodology
The detailed methodology adopted in this project to achieve the above objective is
described in this study. For the present study, multispectral, multi-temporal LANDSAT satellite
data of Chennai were collected for two years namely, 1991 and 2006. All the LANDSAT image
have been taken from Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF), a NASA-funded member of the Earth
Science Information Partnership at the University of Maryland. The GLCF develops and
distributes remotely sensed satellite data and products that explain land cover from the local to
global scales and these primary data and products are available free of cost by the GLCF. The
thematic mapper image of 1991 and 2006 has a resolution of 30 meters. All the satellite images
were brought to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection in zone 44N. Topographic
sheets or base maps for the year 1970 scaled 1:50000 and sheet no. 66 C/4 were also collected.
Table 1 show the list of data collected with their date of production, resolution and source.
ArcGIS 9.3 is used to displaying and geo-referencing the images. By visual interpolation the
image is classified into different categories which helps in generating land use and land cover
map. The steps involved in this study are given in Figure 2.
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
Figure. 1 Base map of the study area
Table 1. Data Source
Sl.
No.
Data type
Date of
production
Scale
Source
1
Topographic sheet (66 C/4)
1970
1:250,000
Survey of India
2
LANDSAT image (TM)
25-08-1991
30m
3
LANDSAT image (TM)
07-02-2006
30m
Global Land Cover
Facility (GLCF)
www.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu
Global Land Cover
Facility (GLCF)
www.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
Figure 2. Methodology Flowchart of the present study
4. Result and Discussion
Land use/land cover map for the year 1970, 1991 and 2006 have been created using
ArcGIS. The steps followed for the analysis are: (i) Digitization of different classes using cut
polygon tools. (ii) Displaying all the different classes in the same layer, (iii) Calculating the area
of each class and, (iv) Generating land use/land cover map for the year 1970, 1991 and 2006.
The results of these thematic maps are shown in figures 3, 4 and 5 respectively. From the study it
is seen that the forest, agricultural land and barren land have tremendously reduced. During the year
1970 to 2006, dense forest areas have reduced by 71.132 sq.km., a percentage decrease of 12.88%.
The agricultural lands have decreased by 18.273sq.km. which is 3.36% .Waste land have reduced
from 38.39% to 20.27% which is a total of 99.107sq.km (Table 2). However, of all the major
attributes, built-up areas have increased almost three folds since 1970. This increase of built-up areas
occurred at the fate of other land use and land cover. This may result in disastrous affect on the
physical, ecological and biological environment. The figure 3 shows the land use and land cover for
the year of 1970. During this year the built-up regions covers an area of 121.115sq.km. which is
22.2% of the total area. During this year the waste land covers the largest area of 38.39% of total
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
study area which is a total of 210.154sq.km. whereas the water bodies is 10%. The figure 4 shows the
land use and land cover for the year of 1991. During this year the built-up regions covers an area of
216.256sq.km. which is 39.51% of the total area. During this year the waste land covers an area of
34.62%. This shows that the waste land have reduced and the built-up areas have doubled. The forest
areas have reduce from 17.36% to 10.47% of the total study area. The figure 5 shows the land use
and land cover of the year 2006. Here it is seen that the built-up areas have tripled, while agricultural,
forests and water bodies have reduce tremendously.
Figure 3.
Landuse/Landcover during the year 1970
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
Figure 4. Landuse/Landcover during the year 1991
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
Figure 5. Landuse/Landcover during the year 2006
5. Conclusions
From this study it is inferred that the waste land that is used as pasture land in the southeast region of the study area (Solinganalur, Medavakam and Velachery ) have decreased due to
increase of built-up areas in that region. Built-up areas in Mudichur and Vandalur region have
also increased invading the agricultural lands, forest lands and pasture lands. Agricultural lands
in Chembarambakkam, Nandambakaman, Minimangalam region (western region of the study
area) have been reduced to built-up areas. The water bodies in Porur, Malalayambakkam,
Karabakamand and Kovur region (northern region of the study area) have decreased or
completely vanished. This may be due to environmental pollution caused by these developing
places or leveling the land and building structures like roads, industries, etc. The study found out
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
that the built-up area has increased from 22.2% (1970) to 58.05% (2006), forest area has
decreased from 17.36% (1970) to 4.48% (2006), water body has decreased from 10%(1970) to
3.74%(1991) and increased to 8.51% (2006). It was also observed that the agricultural land has
decreased from 33.344% (1970) to 2.75% (2006) and waste land has decreased from 38.39%
(1970) to 20.27% (2006). From this study we can conclude that the built-up areas are increasing
rapidly whereas agricultural lands, forest and barren land are decreasing gradually. This may be
due to rapid growth of population and development. The study recommends the use of satellite
image for future environmental monitoring studies and suggested that some remedial measures
should be taken to control the changes like giving suggestions to Urban Planning to control the
degradation of various form of land.
REFERENCES
E.P. Nobi, R. Umamaheswari, C. Stella and T. Thangaradjou (2009) ’Land Use and Land Cover
Assessment along Pondicherry and its Surroundings Using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite and
GIS’ American-Eurasian Journal of Scientific Research, 4 (2): 54-58, (2009).
Ololade O, Annegarn H.J, Limpitlaw D, Kneen M.A (2009) ‘Abstract of landuse/ cover mapping
and change detection in the Rustenburg mining region using landsat images’ IGARSS ,(2008).
Singh N.P, Mukherjee T.K and Shrivastava B.B.P(1997) ’ Monitoring the impact of coal mining
and thermal power industry on landuse pattern in and around Singrauli Coalfield using remote
sensing data and GIS’ Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Vol. 25, No. I, pp. 61-72,
(1997).
Solecki, W.D. (2001) The role of global-to-local linkages in land use/land cover changes in
South Florida. Ecological Economics. 37, 339–356.
Turner, B.L., Meyer, W.B., 1994. Global landuse and land-cover change: an overview. In:
Meyer, W.B., Turner, B.L. (Eds.), Changes in Land Use and Land Cover: A Global Perspective.
Cambridge University Press, England, pp. 3–10.
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