Analysis of Land Use Land Cover Changes in the Netravati Basin, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Analysis and mapping of land use land cover (LULC) are essential to improve our understanding of the human-nature interactions and their effects on land use changes. In this study, LULC maps of the Netravati river basin for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020 were obtained using maximum likelihood classifier on Landsat images. The classifier produced LULC maps of 2000, 2010, and 2020 with overall accuracy of 87.34%, 85.74%, and 86.3%, respectively. The results of this study showed that there is an increase in the spatial extends of the urban area (3.54–9.21%) and agriculture (18.2–21.09%) during the period 2000 to 2020. In contrast, forest (55.48–51.02%), bare soil (6.61–5.91%), water bodies (1.64–1.23%), and vegetation (14.53–11.54%) cover have decreased from the year 2000 to 2020. The results of this study can be used for proper LULC management in the basin. This study is a prerequisite for the prediction and management of future urban growth. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.