Analysis of Spatio-temporal Changes in Landuse and Land Cover in Kharagpur and Midnapore Municipalities of West Bengal, India

Since independence, the rate of urbanization in India has increased significantly. The huge population pressure in urban centers has altered or continues to alter the practical use of urban land, leading to changes in ecosystems, pollution, deforestation, decreasing fallow land, and rapid expansion of built-up areas. These changes have greatly impacted the pattern of land use and land cover in Indian cities. The use of satellite imagery and geo-informatics might be the best tool to detect and analyze these temporal changes. In the present study, the temporal changes in land use and land cover of the two municipalities, Midnapore and Kharagpur, were identified and analyzed using satellite images from LANDSAT_5 TM (1991 & 2011), LANDSAT_7 ETM (2001), and LANDSAT_9 OLI (2024). Before starting the pre-processing and classification of satellite imagery through ERDAS IMAGINE-9.2 and Q.GIS 3.28.3 software, a thorough field survey utilizing a global positioning system (GPS) was conducted throughout the research region. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Built-up Index (BUI) were used to determine the changes in land use and land cover of the study areas. This study aims to assess the level of changes in different landuse and land cover (LULC) classes of the study areas between 1991 and 2024. The results show that significant changes have taken place in the area under settlement (increase), and vegetation cover (decrease) in both the municipalities during the period of study.