Climate Variability and Crop Land Degradation Assessment Using a Remote Sensing and GIS in the Nashik Division of Maharashtra, India
P. P. Patil, J. D. Jadhav, S. V. Bagade, S. M. Apturkar, B. K. Gavit, S. K. Upadhye, V. A. Sthool
International Journal of Environment and Climate Change · pp. 663–674 · Published 21 May 2026
10.9734/ijecc/2026/v16i55465Abstract
In India's semi-arid areas, agricultural sustainability is becoming exponentially susceptible to unpredictable monsoon patterns and environmental instability. This study focuses across the Nashik division of Maharashtra to assess the combined effects of climatic variability on soil health and agricultural output. The study used the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator to identify temporal climatic trends by combining 33 years (1991–2023) of gridded IMD meteorological data with multi-temporal satellite images from Landsat 7/8 and Sentinel-2. Additionally, high-resolution satellite imagery and spectral indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and Normalized Difference Salinity Index (NDSI), which were validated with significant ground-truth data, were used to assess Land Use Land Cover (LULC) dynamics. The results show an effective regional warming indication, with annual minimum temperatures (T_min) increasing by around 0.02°C to 0.03°C annually. A significant rise of late-season rainfall in September and a reduction of the early monsoon in June were indicative of a major seasonal change. The increase of fallow lands and irreversible urbanization caused a 3% net loss in agricultural land between 2018 and 2023, according to remote sensing studies. The rabi season NDVI showed a notable "browning" pattern, indicating prolonged post-monsoon water stress, but the kharif season showed positive greening behaviors. The loss of a protective plant canopy is the main cause of soil salinity and land degradation, as confirmed by strong negative relationships between NDSI and both NDVI and SAVI. This study offers a spatially explicit framework for climate-smart agriculture, highlighting the critical need to adopt climate-resilient cultivars and put "Drought-Escape" methods into practice in order to protect regional food security.
Cited by 0
No indexed citations yet.
Related research
- Conflict Resolution and Collective Action for Ecological Restoration in the Highlands of Northern Ethiopia — shares topic coverage
- Characterization and Classification of Soils from Southern Agro-climatic Zones of Karnataka, South India — shares topic coverage
- Climate Information Services (CIS): A Vital Tool for Africa's Climate Resilience — shares topic coverage
- Links between Farmers’ Socio-demographics and Adoption of Soil Conservation Technologies in Hilly Terrains of Nandi County, Kenya — shares topic coverage
- Assessment of Land Use Changes and Impacts of Dam Construction on the Mbaa River, Ikeduru, Nigeria — shares topic coverage
Article metrics
Real usage data collected on this platform.
0
Page views
0
PDF downloads
0
Outbound clicks
0
Citations
Views by country
Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".
No views recorded yet.
Traffic sources
Referring site, by host.
No traffic recorded yet.
Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.