GIS AND REMOTE SENSINGBASED RECONNAISSANCE OF VEGETATION ANDAGROFORESTRY AREAS IN SOUTH 24 PARGANAS, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Accessing the advantages of combining GIS with remote sensing could be better utilised for specifying vegetation cover including agroforestry systems in South 24 Parganas district with farm lands and ponds historically shaped out of mostly swampy lands covered with jungles and the Sundarbans crisscrossed with creeks and rivers in the south-easternmost part of West Bengal state in India by image processing based on updating of data or information in the form of maps or attributes. Such analysis for this district was performed mostly at the intervals of five years from 2005 to 2019.Changes in expanse of vegetation areas were classified in land coverage under deforestation and revegetation. Such changes are distinguishable through NDVI image values in the form of maps of the district and subdivisions, created on the Arc GIS 10.8 and ERDAS Imagine 2015 platforms by retrieving data of Landsat 4 - 5 TM Level 1 and Landsat 8 OLI/ TIRS Level 1 imageries as retrieved from USGS website. Healthy vegetation including agroforestry were sorted out through demarcation of highest indices of NDVI data. Areal extents of less than 10 ha of healthy vegetation were sorted out as areas either under new plantation or horti-agri or agroforestry. Individual agroforestry systems were found out with the help of Google Earth Pro. Monitoring of vegetation cover as well as agroforestry will be helpful to achieve SDG 15 and, thereby SDG 2 and 8 as defined by the UN for conservation of life on land as well as zero hunger including decent work and economic growth.