LAND-USE/LAND-COVER CHANGES FROM 1990 TO 2016 ON THE TERRITORY OF MANDI BAHAUDDIN CITY (PUNJAB, PAKISTAN)

Abstract

Аim. We analyze land use/land cover in the city of Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab, Pakistan in the period from 1996 to 2016. Methodology. Spatiotemporal aspects of land-use/land-cover changes in the city of Mandi Bahauddin are analyzed. Landsat satellite imageries of 3 different periods (1990, 2000 and 2016) are obtained from the Global Land Cover Facility site (GLCF) and Earth Explorer site to compute the changes in the land use and land cover (LULC) from 1990 to 2016. To classify different categories, a false-color composite is prepared by combining all bands of downloaded images. The false-color composite is prepared through layer stacking, and supervised classification is used to determine a change in residential land use in Mandi Bahauddin by ERDAS Imagine 10.2. The imageries of the area under study are categorized into three classes: agriculture land, barren land and built-up area. Results. The results of this study indicate that the size of the built-up area and barren land increased by 30% and 58%, respectively, and the size of the agricultural land decreased by 88%. Research implications. The land-use/land-cover changes have a great theoretical and practice interest for sustainability of environment and society. It is found that changes are mainly detected in the Mandi Bahauddin city where the population has rapidly increased. The results of investigation have demonstrated the land-use/land-cover changes and shifts from agriculture land to urban settlement. Urbanization is the major cause of land use change in the period from 1996 to 2016 according to the results of the study.

Keywords

• land
• land use
• land cover change
• natural environment
• urbanization