Spatiotemporal Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Urban Growth Dynamics in Salem District, India (1985–2024): Integrating Elevation and Infrastructure Networks.

This study examines the spatial and temporal Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes in the Salem district, Tamil Nadu, over nearly four decades (1985–2024). Using remote sensing data and geospatial techniques, the Received: Revised: Accepted: landscape was classified into five major categories: agriculture, built-up, barren land, forest, and waterbodies. LULC data for 1985 and 2005 were obtained from national repositories, while the 2024 classification was generated from Sentinel-2 imagery using the Random Forest algorithm within the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The results reveal significant urban expansion, reduced agricultural and forest areas, and a rise in barren land. Spatial analysis indicates that urban growth is strongly associated with transportation networks and low elevation areas. These findings highlight the need for integrated land use planning and sustainable resource management to mitigate the environmental impacts of rapid urbanization.