Assessments Land Use Pattern Change of Geo-surface Using Remote Sensing and GIS at Kodaikanal Takuk, Tamil Nadu, South India

Mapping land use/land cover (LULC) changes at regional scales is essential for a wide range of applications, including landslide, erosion, land planning, global warming etc. LULC alterations (based especially on human activities), negatively effect the patterns of climate, the patterns of natural hazard and socio-economic dynamics in global and local scale. In this paper an attempt is made to study the land-use pattern change over a period of 46 years period (1969 to 2015) by using remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) technologies, in the Kodaikanal Taluk. The study has been done using the SOI (1969) and map generated from (IRS P6 L4 MX satellite imageries of May 2015). A supervised image classification was used in ERDAS image processing software to classify the Land use/Land cover of 2015 satellite image. Ground truth observations were also performed to check the accuracy of the classification. The result shows forest area that occupied about 70 per cent of the Taluk’s area in 1969 has decreased to 33 per cent in 2015. Agricultural land, Built up area, Harvested land and Waste land also have experienced change. Built-up lands (Settlements) have increased from 3 per cent to 21 per cent of the total area. Kodaikanal area is identified as one of the biodiversity area in India. Proper land use planning is essential for a sustainable development of Kodaikanal Taluk