Abstract
Studies about wetlands have been identified as a key component of environmental change. The present study assesses the spatio-temporal changes in the wetlands of the Great Rann of Kachchh, in the Kachchh Biosphere Reserve, India, using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Satellite time-series data from Landsat (1977, 1990 and 1999) and IRS P6 (2006, 2008–2012) were used. The Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI) was derived for each year and the layers were manually edited to obtain a high classification accuracy. The analysis found that the area has undergone considerable change from 1977 to 2011. The natural wetland area of 30.6 km2 was converted to salt pans. An area of about 255 km2 (41.6 %) of natural grassland was invaded by Prosopis juliflora, which raises further conservation concerns and emphasises the importance of having intervention plans to manage this ecosystem. The highest water spread of 1171 km2 was observed in September 2011, followed by 2010, 2009 and 2008 in the same month. The present study is useful in planning the long-term management and conservation of the Great Rann of Kachchh wetland.
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Acknowledgments
The work has been carried out as part of the national project on ‘Inventorisation and Monitoring of Biosphere Reserves in India using remote sensing and GIS technology’, supported by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Authors are thankful to Dr. V.K. Dadhwal, Director, NRSC, Dr. P.G. Diwakar, Deputy Director, NRSC for encouragement and technical support. We are grateful to Shri D.K. Sharma, Field Director, Kachchh Biosphere Reserve, Bhuj and State Forest Department, Gujarat for permission and facilities to carry out the field work. We thank the editor and anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments and suggestions, which helped us to improve the manuscript.
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Reddy, C.S., Pasha, S.V. & Jha, C.S. Spatio-temporal changes associated with natural and anthropogenic factors in wetlands of Great Rann of Kachchh, India. J Coast Conserv 20, 145–155 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-016-0425-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-016-0425-0