Identification Of Temporal Dynamics Of Vegetation Coverage Using Remote Sensing And Gis (A Case Study Of Western Part Of West Bengal, India)

Monitoring vegetation coverage changes using multi-temporal remotely-sensed data offers an efficient and exact evaluation of anthropogenic intervention on the natural environment. Study was conducted to explore the spatio-temporal changes in vegetation cover using the potential multi-temporal satellite data captured in 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2009 in Kangswati (Cossi) river and Dwarakeswar river interfluves area, West Bengal. Temporal changes were determined using image differencing of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in that time series. The highest maximum NDVI value was found in 2009 (maximum NDVI of 0.99), and lowest value was recorded in 1999 (maximum NDVI of 0.48). By 2002 - 2005, the area of surface waterbody decreased to 0.89% and in 2009, it grew to 1.03%. In 2002 and 2005, highest percent of surface area is coved with the low density vegetation zone. By 1999 – 2005, there was decreased in trend of bare surface area, while in 2005 – 2009, there was an increased in trend. Between 1999 and 2009, the low density vegetation zone portrayed increased in trend. Assessment conducted on the generated thematic images signifies accuracies of 86.0%–92.0% were attained. However, the NDVI results indicated the vegetated area decreased and it may be due to the anthropogenic intervention.