Geospatial Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Transformation and its Implications for Urban Growth in Jalandhar District, Punjab, India

Abstract

Background: Land-use and land-cover changes reflect human-environment interactions, affecting agriculture, ecology, and sustainability. In Punjab, GIS and remote sensing are vital for monitoring these transformations. Aims: The purpose of this study is to examine spatio-temporal land use and land cover (LULC) in Jalandhar district, Punjab, and to evaluate how urban growth has affected agricultural land use in the area between 2001 and 2021. Study Design: The research is based on a geospatial study using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools to assess land-use changes over time. Place and Duration of Study: Jalandhar district, Punjab, India, between the years 2001 and 2021. Methodology: It used multi-temporal Landsat data (Landsat-5 TM in 2001 and 2021) with a 30 m spatial resolution. The Maximum Likelihood algorithm was used to classify the supervised data into five major LULC categories: water bodies, built-up area, barren land, forest/vegetation, and cultivated land. To measure land-use transitions, change detection analysis and a transformation matrix were used. The accuracy evaluation has been performed using a confusion matrix, overall accuracy, and the Kappa coefficient. Results: According to the findings, cultivated land was the largest land-use category, accounting for 74.54% and 73.29% in 2001 and 2021, respectively. The built-up area doubled to 21.29%, indicating rapid urban growth. Barren land decreased, and became 1.37, and forest/vegetation cover was comparatively steady, decreasing by 3.20. According to the transformation matrix, about 296.11 km2 of built-up areas were developed out of cultivated lands, which is the largest land transformation in the district. Conclusion: The paper emphasizes the rising intensity of urbanization on farmland and its effects on environmental sustainability. These results underline the importance of proper land-use planning and the applicability of remote sensing and GIS in overseeing land-use processes and promoting sustainable regional development.