Nagamani, K. and S.

Ramachandran “Landuse /Land Cover In Pondicherry Using

Remote Sensing And Gis” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T. Vasantha Kumaran,
eds., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Environment and Health,
Chennai, India, 15-17 December, 2003. Chennai: Department of Geography, University
of Madras and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Pages 300 – 305.

LANDUSE /LAND COVER IN PONDICHERRY USING

REMOTE SENSING AND GIS
K.Nagamani and S.Ramachandran
Institute for Ocean Management, Anna University

Abstract

Coastal areas are highly dynamic and undergoing rapid change. In view of this
fact, it is essential to review decisions made and developments undertaken pertaining to
the coast from time to time. The knowledge of landuse / land cover changes is very
important in understanding natural resources, their utilization, conservation and
management. In recent years remote sensing and Geographical Information System have
gained importance as vital tools in the analysis of temporal data at the district and city
level. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of high-resolution satellite data and
computer aided GIS techniques in assessing landuse / land cover change detection for the
period 1990 to 2002 within the study area, Pondicherry.

Introduction

Land use is obviously constrained by environmental factors such as soil

characteristics, climate, topography, and vegetation. But it also reflects the importance of
land as a key and finite resource for most human activities including agriculture, industry,
forestry, energy production, settlement, recreation, and water catchment and storage.
Land is a fundamental factor of production, and through much of the course of human
history, it has been tightly coupled with economic growth. Often improper landuse is
causing various forms of environmental degradation. For sustainable utilization of the
land ecosystems, it is essential to know the natural characteristics, extent and location, its
quality, productivity, suitability and limitations of various land uses. Landuse is a product
of interactions between a society's cultural background, state, and its physical needs on
the one hand, and the natural potential of land on the other (Balak Ram and Kolarkar
1993). In order to improve the economic condition of the area without further
deteriorating the bio environment, every bit of the available land has to be used in the
most rational way. This requires the present and the past landuse/ land cover data of the
area (Chaurasia et al., 1996).

Temporal changes in land cover have become possible in less time, at lower cost
and with better accuracy through remote sensing technology (Kachhwaha, 1985 and
 Sharma et al., 1989). The information being in digital form can be brought into a
Geographical Information System (GIS) to provide a suitable platform for data analysis,
update and retrieval. Improvements in satellite remote sensing, global positioning
systems and geographic information systems techniques in the past decade have greatly
assisted the collection of land cover data and the integration of different data types (Star
et al., 1997).

The present study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of data in and
around Pondicherry on 1:25,000 scale by using satellite data of LANDSAT (TM), IRS
1C, ID and Base information from Toposheet .

Study Area
Pondicherry district is located on the Coramandal coast between 11 52' 56" and 11
59' 53" of north latitude and between 79 45' 00" and 79 52' 43" of east longitude. It is
limited on the east by the Bay of Bengal and on the other three sides by the Cuddalore
district of Tamil Nadu State. The layout of Pondicherry district above which is enclave
within Tamil Nadu presents a peculiar picture of territorial jurisdiction perhaps the only
one of its kind in the world. The district headquarters is located at Pondicherry. The
physiographic map of the district presents more or less a flat land. There are no hills or
forests in this district. The main soil types met with in this district are red ferrallitic black
clayey and coastal alluvial. There are 2 main drainage basins, the Gingee River which
crosses diagonally from northwest to the southeast and the other, Pennaiyar which forms
the southern border of the district. Pondicherry attracts a large percentage of tourists
visiting India.

Data Used
Survey of India Topographical map on the 1: 50,000 scale for the year 1970, and
LANDSAT (TM), IRS LISS II and III FCC for the year 1990, 1998 and 2002 have been
used in the present study.

LAND USE/LAND COVER FROM 1970-2002

Land use Category Area in Sq Km Percentage

1970 1990 1998 2002 1970 1990 1998 2002

Barren land - 6.23 9.19 11.54 - 2.74 5.07 9.19
City Area 16.36 18.12 18.82 25.51 7.19 7.97 8.27 11.21
Crop land 92.74 19.53 18.04 14.01 40.76 8.59 8.17 6.39
Fallow land 1.55 8.72 8.12 6.36 0.68 3.83 3.57 2.80
Gully Erosion 1.31 1.12 0.39 0.25 0.59 0.49 0.17 0.11
Industrial Area - 0.22 0.34 0.70 - 0.10 0.15 0.31
Marshy Vegetation - - 0.09 0.15 - - 0.04 0.07
Mud 0.61 0.77 0.36 0.09 0.26 0.34 0.16 0.04
Plantation 10.46 32.08 15.91 17.56 4.59 14.10 6.99 7.72
Plantation with Settlement - 40.43 47.23 52.08 - 17.77 20.75 21.30
Rocky Coast - 0.29 0.25 0.53 - 0.13 0.11 0.23
Sand 3.82 2.75 5.43 2.13 1.68 1.23 2.38 0.94
Sand Dune - 0.41 0.40 0.39 - 0.18 0.18 0.18
Scrub 4.97 4.77 2.59 0.97 2.18 2.10 1.14 0.43
Settlement 9.20 10.54 10.63 12.21 4.04 4.63 4.67 5.37
Tank 4.29 4.49 3.95 3.34 1.89 1.97 1.73 1.47
Water body 0.48 0.29 0.84 0.29 0.21 0.13 0.37 0.13

Methodology

Satellite imagery in the Print form (1990) and digital data (1998and 2002) was visually
interpreted. The variation in the image characteristics like tone, texture, pattern etc. was
used to identify various land use classes. The information obtained from the imagery was
transferred to base map prepared from SOI topographical map. The digital data procured
for landuse land cover mapping was geo-referenced with Survey of India (SOI)
topographical sheets.
• In designing the database, the study area boundaries were determined from the
topographic as well as land use land cover maps.
• Spatial data were digitized using Calcomp 9100 digitizer table.
• Creation of topology is necessary to make the spatial data usable. Errors were edited
which included arc, label, move and intersect. The topology was constructed by using
CLEAN and BUILDS commands. The topology was reconstructed when errors were
found.
• This stage requires getting attribute data into ARC/INFO. Data file names were
assigned to all the files created. While the JOINITEM command was used to link
attributes from data file with the related coverage.
• In managing the database all coverage from digitizer units were converted to real
world co ordinates using UTM system.
• At this stage graphic analysis was carried out:
Ø Landuse and land cover 1990
Ø Landuse and land cover 1998
Ø Landuse and land cover 2002
Area of each category was calculated. The flow diagram indicating the methodology for
landuse/cover mapping is given in Fig 1.
 Fig 1: Methodology for coastal land use/cover change detection

DATA

GROUND TRUTH
SATELLITE DATA
TOPOGRAPHICAL
(LANDSAT MSS,
MAPS,REPORTS
IRS 1B,1D) MULTI- CLASSIFICATION AND OTHER
DATE SYSTEMS

IMAGE
INTERPRETATION

IMAGE ANALYSIS
1:50000 SCALE FCC

PRELIMINARY MAPS

FIELD CHECK

CORRECTION
MODIFICATION

BASE MAP FINAL MAPS

DETAILS FROM
TOPOGRAPHICA
L MAPS
AREA
COMPARISONS ACCURACY CALCULATION
OF MAPS ESTIMATION

AREA
TEMPORAL PERCENTAGE
CHANGE 1990,
98,02

COASTAL
FEATURE
EXTENT,
CONDITION AND
Results and Discussions

The results of land use/cover assessment based on visual interpretation for three
different years of satellite data between 1990, 1998 and 2002. It has a total area of about
227.00 sq km. and a total population of about 9,73,829 people. The dominant landuse
categories in 1990 were settlement with plantation, which occupied 17.77% of the study
area, plantation covering 14.10%, settlement occupying 12.01%, cropland covering
8.59% while other landuse features occupied a negligible area. The trend of the landuse
and land cover continued in the same manner in 1998 with the same order of importance.
However, settlement with plantation, plantation, and settlements showed an increase in
hectarage while cropland showed a significant reduction. In 2002, the three categories
continued to dominate the area (settlement with plantation 21.30%, settlement
16.84%,plantation 7.72%), here plantation decreased while settlement (housing,
industries, towns)increased due to the change in population density, labour force in
agriculture and population growth. In short the most common variable explaining the
changes in landuse and landcover in Pondicherry is population growth. The variations in
area cove red under agriculture and fallow land attributed to changes in crop rotation,
harvesting time and conversion of these lands into plantation.

Variation in coast is due to erosion. The Rocky coast has shown an increasing
trend from 0.29 sq. km in 1990 to 0.53 sq.km. Fishermen were affected, by income and
lost property. Last year 18 houses were washed off in to the sea. The study identified that
the satellite data derived baseline inputs would contribute to the regional efforts to assess
and monitor the coastal marine ecosystems as well as to formulate policies and measures
to mitigate the undesirable effects.

Conclusion

The study has revealed that satellite data has the unique capability to detect the
changes in landuse quickly and accurately. From the analysis it has been found that the
satellite data is very useful and effective for getting the results of temporal changes, with
this effective data it has been found that the cropland is decreasing at the cost of
haphazard growth of plantation and settlements. This will help in maintaining the
ecological balance and improving microenvironment of the region.

References

Balak Ram and Kolarkar A.S. (1993), 'Remote Sensing application in monitoring land
use changes in arid Rajasthan'. Int. J. Remote Sensing, Vol.14, No. 17,pp. 3191-3200.

Chaurasia R., Closhali D.C., Dhaliwal S.S., Minakshi Sharma P.K., Kudrat M. and
Tiwari A.K (1996), ' Landuse change analysis for agricultural management - a case study
of Tehsil Talwandi Sabo, Punjab'. Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Vol. 24,
No.2. pp. 115-123.
Kachhwala T.S (1985). Temporal monitoring of forest land for change detection and
forest cover mapping through satellite remote sensing. Proc. Of the 6th Asian Conf. On
Remote Sensing. Hyderabad,pp 77-83

Star, J.L., J.E. Estes, and K.C. McGwire (1997). Integration of geographic information
systems and remote sensing. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.