Abstract

With the growth of socio-economic activities, natural land cover is being modified for various development purposes. This has increased the rate of land-use and land-cover changes (LULCC) and thus, affecting the overall ecosystem health. LULCC mapping is an important tool for land management and monitoring. This paper presents LULCC analysis using remotely sensed data integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS). LULCC was quantified using Markov analysis, and the associated probability of change for each class was predicted. Landscape metrics were also used to quantify the spatial and temporal changes in the area. The unique combination of these techniques support the conclusion that with increasing human activity:

1. The deforestation rate has increased
2. Forest areas have become increasingly fragmented and
3. The forested areas have the highest probability of getting converted to some other land-use and land-cover (LULC) class