Pooja Yadav and Shruti Dutta
Abstract
In todayâs world, almost every accessible piece of land today is being utilized for some or the other purpose directly affecting human needs. Not only is the land being used intensively, but is also evolving and changing with time. The rapid and intensive changes in land use and land cover (LULC) have created the need to quantify these changes in numbers and maps, so that we can understand this information to the best use possible. Thus, this paper aims to examine Panchkula district focusing upon the relationship of land use land cover (LULC) and the consequent changes in environment. Three annual LULC maps (2001, 2011 and 2021) were prepared with the help of satellite images. The change detection showed that built-up area has increased by approximately 268% in two decades with a total area of 10261.9 ha area in 2021, thus indicating that water bodies and barren land were converted into settlement for managing the population across the district and introducing infrastructure for the same. However, the forest and river bed area has increased by 19 % and 78.02 % respectively, while agricultural land was noticed to be increased by 55.62 % with a significant increase during 2001-11 and a slight decrease after 2011. The open scrub land has increased by 56 %. Thus, the present study can help with identifying areas experiencing significant changes in ecosystems and natural resources in the district. It can also provide valuable insights into the expansion of urban areas, changes in infrastructure and the encroachment on natural and agricultural lands, thereby contributing to urban planners to understand urban growth patterns, assess the impacts and make informed decisions regarding land zoning, infrastructure development and resource allocations.