Cluster Based Classification Of NDVI To Assess The Temporal Trend Of Vegetation In Pollachi Taluk, Tamil Nadu, India

Understanding vegetation dynamics plays a predominant role in spatial planning and environmental sustainability. This study uses cluster-based classification of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to assess the vegetation patterns in Pollachi Taluk, Tamil Nadu, India, over a period of 23-years (2001-2024). NDVI values were computed using Landsat satellite data and further land cover is classified into vegetation, water bodies and built-up/barren land for a detailed investigation of spatial and temporal fluctuations. The analysis of vegetation trends reveals periodic fluctuations despite an overall increase in vegetation area from 310.63 km<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> in 2001 to 338.57 km<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> in 2024. Accuracy assessment displays a progressive improvement, with total accuracy rising from 73.25% in 2001 to 83.8% in 2024, reflecting advances in remote sensing and data processing techniques. The findings also suggest the importance of long-term land management methods for reducing urban driven vegetation loss. Future research should use combination of satellite and drone data with deep learning techniques to improve the accuracy of NDVI-based land cover classification and enable data-driven decision-making in spatial planning.