Land Use and Land Cover Assessment of Jalandhar, India: A Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning and Visual Interpretation

For the sustainable management of natural resources and to understand how the climate affects the landscape, accurate land use and land cover (LULC) classification is essential. Robust classification techniques and high-quality datasets are necessary for precise and effective LULC classification. The effectiveness of various combinations of satellite data and classification techniques must be carefully evaluated to help choose the optimal strategy for LULC classification, given the growing availability of satellite data, geospatial analysis tools, and classification techniques. This study focuses on the LULC classification of Jalandhar, Punjab, India, using machine learning (ML) algorithms and visual image interpretation. Sentinel-2 satellite data, with its high spatial and spectral resolution, has been utilized for feature extraction and classification. Python was employed for implementing various ML algorithms, including Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Gradient Boosting (GB), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), and Decision Tree (DT), while ArcGIS was used to classify LULC using visual image interpretation and for maps preparation. Agriculture was the dominant class across all methods, with GB estimating 1774.26 sq.km, followed by plantation (268.13 sq.km) and built-up areas (171.76 sq.km). Waterbodies were mapped with high precision due to their distinct spectral features, with estimates ranging from 18.34 sq.km (GB) to 26.05 sq.km (Visual interpretation). Among all models, GB outperformed others with the highest overall accuracy (95.0%) and a kappa value of 0.94, followed by RF (94.2%), and SVM (93.8%). Visual interpretation achieved a comparative accuracy of 90.1%, though it showed limitations in distinguishing spectrally mixed classes like plantation and built-up. This study concludes that while Visual interpretation remains a useful and accessible method, especially for real-time interpretation, ML-based approaches, particularly GB and RF, offer superior accuracy and reliability. The study highlights the importance of visual interpretation for a better accurate LULC at a regional level; meanwhile, leveraging advancements in ML algorithms in a hybrid approach will enhance the accuracy in many-fold.