Land Use Mapping and Monitoring Using Landsat Data

Timely, accurate and reliable information about the extent, location and quality of the renewable resources like forests is very essential for their planned management. Traditionally the classification and inventory data collection of various land uses and vegetation is done through ground surveys. These surveys are very time consuming and tedious. With the advent of Remote Sensing technique, land use and vegetation classification can now be attempted with acceptable accuracy through visual interpretation of False Colour Composites (FCC) from the Landsat data which are both cost and time effective. This technology also has the potential for monitoring the different land uses, specially the vegetation. In this paper the potentialities of the Landsat FCC for preparation of landuse map in general and vegetation map in particular and monitoring the vegetation for national planning are discussed.