Work

Semi-automatic delineation of badlands using contrast in vegetation activity: a case study in the lower Chambal valley, India

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: Population growth worldwide leads to an increasing pressure on the land. Recent studies reported that many areas covered by badlands are decreasing because parts of badlands are being levelled and converted into arable land. It is important to monitor these changes for environmental planning. This paper proposes a remote-sensing-based detection method which allows mapping of badland dynamics based on seasonal vegetation changes in the lower Chambal valley, India. Supervised classification was applied on three Landsat (Thematic Mapper) images, from 3 different seasons; January (winter), April (summer) and October (post-monsoon). Different band selection methods were applied to get the best classification. Validation was done by ground referencing and a GeoEye-1 satellite image. The image from January performed best with overall accuracy of 87% and 0.69 of kappa. This method opens the possibilities of using semi-automatic classification for the Chambal badlands which is so far mapped with manual interpretations only.

Source: Geocarto International

DOI: 10.1080/10106049.2015.1004130

Authors: V. Ranga, A. Van Rompaey, J. Poesen, S.N. Mohapatra, P. Pani

Institutions: Jiwaji University, KU Leuven, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Language: English

Topic: Remote-Sensing Image Classification

Subfield: Media Technology

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Life on land

Open Access status: green

Funder: KU Leuven