Monitoring the inter-decade spatial-temporal dynamics of the Sundarban mangrove forest of India from 1990 to 2019

The space borne remote sensing satellite systems are increasingly used in ecological monitoring, growth dynamics, and mapping of mangrove extent worldwide. Sundarban is the largest, diverse contiguous productive mangrove ecosystem and is increasingly threatened by both environmental changes and anthropogenic forces. The study focuses on the spatio-temporal dynamics in the Indian Sundarban mangrove ecosystem using time-series Landsat satellite imagery during the periods from 1990 to 1999, 1999 to 2009, and 2009 to 2019. The maximum likelihood classifier approach has been applied for image classification and post-classification comparison techniques for change detection analysis over the study period. The findings revealed a decline of 3.76% areal extent of mangroves forest between 1990 and 2019. The areal extent of the Indian Sundarban mangrove areas has been maintained at a relatively constant despite the high population density in its immediate surrounding region. The overall accuracies of 72%, 83%, 79%, and 85.9% were recorded for the classified satellite image of 1990, 1999, 2009, and 2019, respectively. The present study is of great significance to the restoration and conservation of the mangrove forests in response to global climatic change. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.