Landuse & Land Cover Changes of Drought Prone Anantapur District Using Geo-Spatial Technology

Land use/land cover is an important tool for the various planning authorities with responsibilities for the management of territory at a regional level (Marcal et al., 2005). Using Land use/land cover tool allows for the identification of the major processes of change and, by inference, the characterization of land use dynamics. The knowledge of land use/land cover map is very important to understand the drought prone environment, utilization, conservation and management. Land use relates to the human activity or economic function associated with a specific piece of land (Lillesand et al., 2004). Land cover relates to the composition and characteristics of land surface elements (Cihlar, 2000). The term land cover originally referred to the kind and state of vegetation, but it has broadened in subsequent usage to include human structures such as buildings or pavement and other aspects of the natural environment. The knowledge of land use/land cover changes is very important in understanding natural resources, their utilization, conservation and management uses. Land use is a product of interactions between a society's cultural background, and its physical needs on the one hand, and the natural potential of land on their (Achard, 2002). In this context, an attempt is made here to study the landuse & Land cover change detection in the drought prone Anantapur District for the years 2005, 2012 and 2015. The same is mapped and classified using RS & GIS Technology.