Multidecadal Land Use Patterns and Land Surface Temperature Variation in Sri Lanka

Agricultural land conversion due to urbanization, industrialization, and many other factors is one of the significant concerns to food production. Therefore, analyzing the temporal and spatial variation of agricultural lands is an emerging topic in the research world. However, an agrarian country like Sri Lanka was given weaker attention to the temporal and spatial variation of the land use, including the agricultural lands. This study presents an extended analysis of temporal and spatial variation of land use patterns in Sri Lanka, specifically looking at the agricultural land conversion and land surface temperature (LST) change. Remote sensing techniques and geographic information system (GIS) were used for the presented work. The satellite images from three Landsat’s were analyzed for 2000, 2010, and 2020 to identify the potential land use conversions. In addition, LSTs were extracted for the same period. Significant and continuous increases can be seen in the agricultural lands from 33.94% (of total area) in 2000 to 43.2% in 2020. In contrast, the forest areas showcase a relative decrease from 38.51% to 33.82% (of total area) during the analyzed period. In addition, the rate of conversion from agriculture to settlements is higher in the latter decade (2010–2020) compared to the earlier decade (2000–2010). Only general conclusions were drafted based on the LSTs results as they were not extracted in the same months of the year due to high cloud cover. Therefore, the results and conclusions of this study can be effectively used to improve the land use policies in Sri Lanka and lead to a sustainable land use culture.