Population Growth and Land Use Change: An Evaluation Based on the Physiographic Divisions of Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala using Remote Sensing and GIS

The increasing population and its effect on land always remained an important topic of discussion. Thiruvananthapuram, being the state capital and the seat of administrative activities along with the added advantage of being an important IT centre, the influence of population is considerably increasing. The study made use of census data from 1971 to 2011. Land use data for the period was obtained from topographic sheets and satellite imageries. The work revealed that lowland area remained the zone of preference of population in the district along with the midland areas. Majority of the built up land is seen along the midland and lowland areas while the forest area is concentrated along the highland portion of the district. Land use underwent substantial changes in the district and during the period conversions between different types of land uses took place frequently. The major factors which can be attributed to these changes are mainly population growth, increasing construction activities and government policies.