Spatio-temporal analysis of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) change using high resolution satellite data: A case study of Nagaon, Assam

Geographic information systems (GIS) coupled with satellite remote sensing (RS) have had a significant impact on the assessment and mapping of land surface dynamics, specifically the analysis of land-use land-cover (LULC) change. This study uses high-resolution multispectral LISS-IV (Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor-IV) imagery with a 5.8-meter resolution to evaluate LULC trends in the Nagaon district of Assam between 2015 and 2024. Land use classes in a variety of categories, including vegetation, water bodies, agricultural land, built-up areas, scrubland, sandbars, tea plantations, and trees outside forests (TOF), were identified applying the maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Overall, The accuracy was 85.7% in 2015 and 90.3% in 2024, with respective Kappa Coefficients of 0.836 and 0.889, respectively. The results showed that between 2015 and 2024, the areas of tea plantations, natural vegetation, scrubland, and agricultural land fell by 0.26%, 6.14%, 0.26%, and 9.83%, respectively. Conversely, the waterbody, sandbar, built-up, and TOF have all increased by 0.29%, 0.91%, 0.82%, and 14.46%, respectively. This noticeable shift from conventional agricultural and natural vegetation landscapes toward tree-based systems and urban expansion on the study area, emphasize on matters concerning climate stress, declining soil fertility, economic benefits, policy support, and the need for resilient livelihoods.