Assessing land use land cover dynamics of wetland ecosystems using Landsat satellite data

In the light of growing debates over climate change, population growth, and associated activities, wetland ecosystems have gained immeasurable importance as they have potential to serve both environmentally and economically. Hence, the evaluation of wetland ecosystems dynamics and development of comprehensive management policies demand accurate assessment of land use-land cover changes over time and distinct hydrological processes taking place in such aquatic ecosystems. Assessment of such changes is imperative to deal with various perspectives of resource management, ecosystem conservation, sustainable development and land use planning, etc. The present study aims to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of LULC in wetland ecosystems of Kashmir Valley using Landsat datasets of the period 1994-2018. Maximum likelihood classifier was used to quantify LULC changes in ERDAS IMAGINE (14). A total of seven categories were classified viz. forest, plantation, marshy land, water body, horticulture, agriculture, and built-up. From the present analysis, two patterns of LULC changes were observed in the study area (in both cases: Wular, as well as, Hokersar and Anchar): (1) Continuous increase in area of respective categories: agriculture, horticulture, and built-up (Wular Lake); forest, plantation, agriculture, and built-up (Hokersar and Anchar Lake); (2) a consistent decrease in categories like: forest, plantation, water body, and marshy land (Wular Lake); water body, marshy land, agriculture (Hokersar and Anchar Lake). Most significant change in terms of area has been observed in plantation -5378.18 ha, water body -3954.94 ha, and built-up +2556.18 (Wular Lake); horticulture +4884.3 ha, built-up +6071.96 ha, agriculture -11,605.43 ha, and water body -106.01 ha (Hokersar and Anchar Lake). The LULC transformation, mostly driven by human-induced factors, pose a severe threat to wetland ecosystems of Kashmir Valley. Anthropogenic activities threatening the wetland ecosystems may include urban development, agriculture and horticulture practices, impacts of insecticides and pesticides, fertilizers, climate change and invasion of alien species.