Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Coastal Districts of Karnataka

Abstract

Coastal environment has an instrumental bearing over the economy of the nation. By virtue of its diverse and precious resources productive habitats, rich biodiversity and its locational advantage to many of the human activities. It contains diverse and productive habitats for human settlements, resource development and local subsistence coastal zones have been among the most heavily utilized area because of their resources. The process of land acquisition for beach resort, hotels and industries has changed entirely the land use pattern of the coastal areas, leading to adverse effects on the environment, as well as on the local people. The increasing population and number of tourism in Karnataka coast, especially in the coastal strips, are the factor which leads to land use and land cover changes in the coastal zone. The area under irrigation, forest cover are increased, whereas the area under unirrigated and culturable waste land is decreased from 1995 to 2015. The coastal backwaters, estuaries, river mouths are well known for their productivity. Some of them are the Aghanashini, Kali, Sharavati, Mulki and Netrani river backwaters, are even today so. With passage of time, Land use and Land cover of coastal area undergoes significant change due to varying natural and anthropogenic causes. So it is essential to monitor the changes in land use and land cover at regular intervals for proper management of natural resources existing in an area. In the present study deals with the land use and land cover mapping and monitoring of the area around the river mouth, urban and village settlements and infrastructural activities Karnataka coast. The satellite data were interpreted based on visual interpretation keys to prepare land use and land cover map of year 1995 and 2015.