Landuse/Landcover Changes and Geo-Environmental Impacts on Beluguppa Mandal of Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh, India, using Remote Sensing and GIS Modelling
The study aims to discriminate the changing pattern of land use and its geo-environmental impacts over the Beluguppa mandal of Anantapur district in the division of AP state, India. Satellite imageries were analyzed to perceive the changes in landuse and landcover (LULC) in the past 19 years in Beluguppa mandal. The assistance of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) modeling has been adopted in mapping the LULC changes. The study includes six characterized features they are, vegetation, Fallow land, Barren land, Sand dunes, Water bodies and Built-up land. The results reveal an increase in water bodies and sand dunes (1.12 % and 4.96% respectively) between the periods of observation from 2000 to 2019. The present study is mainly focused on change detection of sand dunes as the region is under notified desertification zone. For the past 19 years sand has migrated to the fields by wind action and hence vegetation, fallow land and barren lands have considerably decreased (0.55 %, 0.76% and 3.39% respectively). Built-up-land is also showing a decrease of 1.39% in this area. Further, the environmental ecosystem has been severely disturbed by the sand dunes migration and it is making the study area as a desertified zone.Keywords: Geomorphological, land use and land cover, remote sensing and GIS, sand dunesCite this ArticlePradeep Kumar B., Raghu Babu K., Rajasekhar M., Narayana Swamy B., Ramachandra M. Landuse/Landcover Changes and Geo-Environmental Impacts on Beluguppa Mandal of Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh, India, using Remote Sensing and GIS Modelling. Research & Reviews: Journal of Space Science & Technology. 2019; 8(2): 6–15p.
