Analysis of landuse landcover changes of Kazhakuttam block based on GIS

Expansion of human settlement and accompanying activities, especially the rapid urbanisation occurring in the developing countries, play an important role in global land use land cover change. The changes in land use associated with urban development affect the hydrological regime in many ways such as change in total runoff, flooding in low lying areas etc. Preparation of Land use map from toposheets and satellite imageries and their analysis by ArcGIS is an efficient method for assessing the landuse landcover change. Landuse landcover information have become important for landuse planning and resource management. In this study, Kazhakuttam block of Trivandrum district is taken as the study area. Here a study is conducted to assess the landuse landcover changes of Kazhakuttam block from 1967 to 2005 using GIS and ERDAS imagine softwares. The landuse map of 1967 is prepared from toposheets and landuse maps of 1999 and 2005 were made from satellite images. These maps are analysed to identify the land use changes of the study area.