MULTI DECADAL ASSESSMENT OF LULC DYNAMICS OF A RAMSAR WETLAND IN HARYANA USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS TECHNIQUES (2001–2024)

Abstract

Wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems of the world, serving various benefits to local flora and fauna as well as anthropogenic activities such as tourism, fisheries and so on. They offer various natural, social, and economic activities. Wetlands around the world are suffering degradation because of various human activities around them. One such wetland in this context is Bhindawas wetland in Haryana state of India. A multi decadal comprehensive analysis of its Land Use Land Cover (LULC), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) was done with the help of remote sensing and GIS techniques. Google earth engine facilitated the analysis with the help of its in-house availability of various satellite datasets. For this purpose, Landsat 5 TM for the year 2001 and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS for the years of 2014 and 2024 were utilized. QGIS 3.34 helped in map making. Random Forest Classifier, was used for preparing LULC maps. LULC analysis highlights the fact that builtup area has increased at an alarming rate, but vegetation and aquatic vegetation have taken a significant toll. Overall accuracy of the LULC classification for 2001, 2014, and 2024 is 0.94, 0.92 and 0.90 and kappa coefficient is 0.92, 0.88 and 0.87 respectively. NDVI and NDWI have also undergone significant transformation with decline in vegetation and drier than ever conditions in and around the wetland. The research provides a solid base to be carried forward in the future studies of the wetlands and will help in eco-friendly policies.