Land Transformation of Rohtak City: A Study Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Abstract

Land transformation is one of the most important fields of human induced environmental transformation; with an extensive history dating back to antiquity.The study makes use of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technique for land transformation of Rohtak city, Haryana. Located amidst fertile agricultural lands, the city has undergone rapid expansion during the recent past raising serious concern among planners and policy makers. On the basis of Toposheet and satellite images, land use/land cover of Rohtak was classified into eight classes. These classes are urban built up, rural built up, water bodies, forest area, agricultural area, open area, industrial area and parks/garden. Data used in the present paper are the Survey of India Toposheet, LANDSAT TM 1989, IRS P6 LISS-IV PAN (mono) 2005, image acquired from Google earth 2011, and Census of India. On the basis of these data the land transformation map for different time periods has been prepared and showing three time land transformation data.