Compliance Engineering Journal ISSN NO: 0898-3577

MULTILEVEL LAND USE AND LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION IN SURULI AR

WATERSHED IN THENI DISTRICT, TAMIL NADU, INDIA.
Rajith, R*, K.Vinodh** and B.Gowtham**, Prof.V.Madha Suresh*,
* Centre for Natural Hazards and Disaster Studies, University of Madras, Chennai: 600005.
**Department of Geology, Presidency College, Chennai – 5

Abstract

The land use/land cover pattern of a Study area is a result of usual and public
economic factor and their exploitation by humanity in time and distance. Earth is becoming
an in short supply resource due to huge agricultural strength. Hence, in sequence on land use /
land cover the potential for their optimal function is indispensable for the selection, traing
and execution of land use schemes meet the increasing needs for human needs and benefit in
Suruli Ar Watershed at Theni District at Tamilnadu. The land use map has been prepared
from IRS 1C, LISS III FCC, Geo-coded data in 1: 50,000 scale shows the presence of
agricultural land, built up area (settlements), forest, wasteland, water bodies and others,
multilevel land use and land cover classification system described in this study area and
ARCGIS 10 software was used in preparation for thematic map in the study area.

Keywords: Exploitation, Potential, Suruli Ar, Built up area and ARCGIS 10

Introduction
Understand the Earth is now critical to the understanding of the influence of human
activities on his natural source base over instance. In situations of fast and often unrecorded
land use change, the comments of the earth from space provide objective information about
human use of the scenery. Over the past years, data from Earth sensing satellites has
developed into fundamental in mapping the Earth’s kind and infrastructures, managing
natural resources and studying ecological change.
Land cover refers to the vegetative or non-vegetative kind of a part of the Earth’s
surface. Land use describes several human activities on the exterior of the earth. The concept
of land cover is best unstated when applied to usual surfaces where no activity has occurred.
The kind of land cover there is determined straight by observation. This surveillance
may use satellite imagery or aerial photography for convincing levels of classification detail
and positional accuracy. For very detailed levels of mapping, however, on-site inspection
may be required.

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Land use types may also be determined through observation by deducing human
activity or disturbance based on the appearance of the landscape. As in the case of land cover,
land use classes may also be determined.

Fig: 1. Stydy area Map

Study area
Suruli Ar watershed covers a major portion of Kambam valley, lies between 9°34’ N
and 10°9’ N latitudes and 77°10’ E and 77°30’ E longitudes with in aerial extend of the area
is 1575 square kilometres, in the study area (Fig.1) is bounded by Cardamom hills in the
west, the highway mountain range in the southeast, Theni-Allinagaram in the east and the
Palani hills in the north. It comprises in fifty Villages, Five Blocks and Bodinayyakkanur and
part of Uthamapalayam and Theni taluks of Theni District. The Temperature variation is
16˚C and 40.5˚ in month January and May. The average annual Rainfall is 870mm,
Geologically, Charnockite is dominant in this area 1146 square kilometes, and 409 square
kilometer area is covered by Gneiss, 19 and 1 square kilometre area covered in Granitic /
Acidic rocks and Quartzite respectively (Fig.2) The major rivers are Suruli Ar, Theni Ar and
Suthagangai Odai drain in Suruli Ar watershed The soils are river alluvium, forest humic soil,
sandy loam, sandy clay loam and silty clay. About 28 types of crops are being cultivated of
which paddy, maize, groundnut, chilly, vegetables and coconut are the major crops.

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Methodology
The multilevel
land use and land cover
classification system
described in this study has
been developed because
different sensors will
provide data on a range of
resolutions dependent upon
altitude and scale,
Simple GIS
interpolation techniques are
employed in the
preparation of thematic
map in ARCGIS 10.

Fig. 2 Geology Map

Table. 1 Multilevel land use and land cover classification system.

Classification Level Data Character
Level I LANDSAT (formerly ERTS) type of data
High-altitude data at 40,000 ft (12,400 m) or above
Level II
(less than l:8O,OOO scale)
Medium-altitude data taken between 10,000 and 40,000
Level III
ft (3,100 and 12,400 m) (1:20,000 to 1:80,000 scale)

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Result and Discussion

From the Level I (Fig.3) analysis of the Study area were classified in the following
type, Agricultural land, Build up land, Forest, Others, Wasteland and Water bodies.
Agricultural Land may be defined generally as land used mainly to produce food and fiber. In
91899 Hectares (Ha) land is covered in the agricultural land in this study area. These
characteristic geometric patterns are also feature of Urban or Built-up Lands since of street
layout and growth by blocks. Unique sandwiched between Agricultural and Urban or Built-
up Lands normally should be likely on the basis of urban-activity indicators and the
associated concentration of population. The number of construction malls is lesser and the
thickness of the road and highway system is much lower in Agricultural Land than in Urban
or Built-up Land, 4099 Ha land is classified for Build-up Land in the Suruli Ar watershed.
More than ten percentage of tree growth in aerial density of the area was classified for forest
land, 48806 Ha land covered in forest area in the study area. 167 Ha land is Classified in the
other land in the study area, unusable land is classified for wasteland in the study area 8042
Ha is falling this study area. The description of water body areas depends on the scale of data
appearance and the extent and resolution kind of the remote sensing data used for
understanding land use and land cover, in this study area 4485 Ha land is falling in the water
bodies on the study area. Level II Classification for Classified in Level I as follow,
Table.2. Classification of Land use in Level I and Level II classification.

Total Area in Hectares Total Area in Hectares

Level I Level II in Level I in Level II
Cropland 36023
Agricultural land Fallow 91899 5929
Plantation 49947
Industrial area 93
Built-up land Rural settlements villages 10992 2998
Town and cities 1008
Deciduous 6893
Ever green / semi evergreen 233
Forest Forest blanks 48806 427
Forest plantations 13440
Other forest 23050
Scrub forest 4763
Others Grassland / grazing land 167 167
Barren rocky / stony waste 463
Wastelands Land with scrub 8042 5722
Land without scrub 1466
Sandy area 391
Reservoir / lake / tank 3864
Water bodies 4485
River / stream 621

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In level three classifications Crop land was classified for Dry crop and Wet Crop
13389 Ha Land was cultivated in wet crop and 22634 Ha land is cultivated in wet crop in this
study area

Fig. 3 Land use / Land cover classification – Level I Fig. 4 Land use / Land cover classification – Level II

Conclusions

In the different type of land use /

land cover classification is made up the
following aspects in the Suruli Ar
watershed, in the 58 percentage of the study
area coverd in agricultural land, in the most
of agriculture field are coverd by plantation
and crop land, in the wet crop type is
cultivated in the most of study area and 31
percentage of land is coverd with forest, and
only 3 percentage land was engaged in build
of land and water bodies and remaing 5 %
of land occupied in waste land.
Fig. 4 Land use / Land cover classification – Level III

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