A Geographical Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics in Lolab Watershed of Kashmir Valley, Western Himalayas Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

This study is an attempt to analyze and highlight the present state of land use/land cover in Lolab watershed of Kashmir valley in western Himalayan environment. Land use/land cover determines the structure, functions and dynamics of most landscapes. The rampant changes in land use/land cover at regional watershed scale have wider ramifications on the environment. The land use/land cover is under tremendous anthropogenic pressure. Rapid and extensive modifications of land use/land cover due to accelerated human activities especially in fragile mountainous ecosystems like Kashmir valley have wider environmental ramifications. Watershed is an ideal spatial management unit for analyzing land dynamics and for initiation of holistic integrated conservation strategies. The present study carries out the land use/land cover change detection studies were from the year 2002 to 2014. A total of seven categories were delineated and during the study period, the forests showed a decrease from 45.31 percent in 2002 to 44.61 in 2014 i.e., 0.7 percent decrease while as horticulture showed an increase from 8.05 percent in 2002 to 9.91 percent in 2014, thus registering an increase of 1.86 percent. Agriculture has decreased to 1.04 percent during the study period. The overall, scenario presented by the study reveals that the land use/land cover change is quite visible throughout the study area.