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Wasteland identification in India using satellite remote sensing

1989; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01431168908903850

1366-5901

L. R. A. Narayan, D. P. Rao, Nitin Gautam,

Soil and Land Suitability Analysis

Abstract An area of about 329 million hectares comprising the entire Indian territory has been studied using Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) false colour composite (FCC) diapositives of 1:1 million scale. Different wasteland categories such as salt-affected land, gullied or ravined land, water-logged or marshy land, undulating upland with or without scrub, jhum or forest blank, sandy areas (coastal or desert), barren hill ridge or rock outcrops and snow-covered or glacial areas have been identified and delineated with the aid of monoscopic visual interpretation techniques on an experimental basis. The interpretation technique was supported by intensive ground data and previous geographical knowledge of the area. The area under wastelands in India has been estimated to be of the order of 53-3 million hectares (i.e., 16-2 per cent of the total geographical area of the country). An accuracy of 80 to 90 per cent has been achieved in the identification arid mapping of wastelands when compared with the ground surveys. Based on this study, a detailed wasteland mapping project in 146 districts (the districts having 15 per cent or more of wastelands) has been conceived at the insistence of the National Wastelands Development Board at 1:50000 scale using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) FCC prints made from bands 2, 3 and 4. A suitable wasteland classification system adoptable for remote sensing techniques has also been developed in India. Furthermore a detailed wastelands image interpretation key using remotely-sensed Landsat TM data has also been developed and is presented in this paper.