LANDFORM ANALYSIS AND SOIL MAPPING OF A PORTION Of MEERUT DIVN. USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES

Abstract

The knowledge of existing landforms and their soil associations is an important aspect of regional development planning concerning engineering and agriculture. The conven-tional methods of soil mapping are both time consuming and un-economic. aerial photographs are being used for soil mapping for the last forty years or so. The use of Landsat data products have recently added a new dimension in this field, because of their broad synoptic coverage, low cost and easy availability in multispectral and multitemporal data modes. The present study comprising of Landform study and Soil Mapping from Remote Sensing Techni que,encompasses a portion of Meerut Division in the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plains of Western Uttar Pradesh, The area is intensively cultivated with annual rainfall ranging from 700 to 900 mm. The climate of the area can be termed as semi-arid.. Low cost visual interpretation techniques using various remote sensing data products viz, Landsat imagery, aerial photo-graphs and CIR diapositives, have been used. The approaches of (i) integration of dominantly dynamic and static image inter-pretation elements in the use of Landsat imagery, and (ii) Physio-graphic analysis for aerial photographs and CIR diapositives, have been adopted. The common area for photo interpretation was selected such that all the three types of data products were available for it, so as to provide a comparative analysis of their respective suitability for such a study.