A STUDY ON LANDUSE AND AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES FOR RURAL AREAS AROUND ROORKEE USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUE

Abstract

Land is the most important natural resource which embodies soil, water and associated flora and fauna involving the total ecosystem. Land use describes, how a parcel of land is used, such as for agricultural practices, residential purposes, industry, water bodies etc. This information on land use permits a better understanding of the land utilization aspects on cropping patterns, fallow lands, wastelands and surface water bodies, which is vital for developmental planning of an area. In the present study land use analysis of Roorkee block (Area 270 RI km) was carried out using Aerial photographs of the year 1966 (scale, 1:25000), Topo sheet 53 G/13 (Scale, 1:50,000) and IRS LISS II False colour composite of the Year 1992 (Scale 1:50,000). In addition agricultural practices in the area were also studied with the help of two sets of Aerial photographs of year 1966 and year 1984 (Scale 1:25,000). Intensive field data were collected from different organization/Deptts. But only a part of the study area can be analysed for agricultural crop types (113 sq.km) due to non-availability of data of the whole area. Landuse changes of 26 years (i.e. from 1966 to 1992) were studied.• It was found that Built up areas have Increased by more than 2 times, Broken land has increased by about 2 times whereas Agricultural areas have decreased by one - tenth from the base year (1966). In the case of orchards, an increase of 2.2 times N was recorded and a trend of increase was also observed in waterbodies as well as Yt5ad network. (iv) Crop identified from aerial photographs were sugarcane and Dalhan crops. A relationship between agricultural crop area and its production was established based on available field data. The relationship is y = 65.95 x - 33422.6 (r = 0.978) where y is crop production in Lakh qtl. and x is sugarcane crop area in hectare. Sugarcane crops were identified from Aerial photographs and their crop production was estimated from above relation with 89% accuracy. This study thus showed the utility of aerial photographs and satellite data for studying Landuse and Agricultural practices in rural areas. (