INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Detection of Land Uses Changes in the Drought Prone Overdrafted Hard Rock
Terrain of Upper Thurinjalar Watershed of Ponnaiyar River Basin Tamil Nadu
using Geospatial Techniques
K. Santhanam1*, Marykutty Abraham2, German Amali Jacintha2, E.V. Nethaji Mariappan2 and Sardar
Maran3
1
Research Scholar, 2Centre for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, 3Centre for Earth and Atmospheric Sciences,
Sathyabama University Chennai - 600119, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract
Land use pattern of an area plays a major role in management,
planning and development activities. For detection of changes in land use
pattern advanced modern scientific methods, remote sensing and GIS
techniques were used. By applying NRSC supervised classification
methods in ERDASIMAGINE software. The land use/land cover
assessment in the study area of Upper Thurinjalar Watershed was made.
*
Corresponding Author: Changes of land use in 11 years 1998 to 2008 indicated that due to rapid
urbanization, frequent monsoon failure, groundwater overdraft and
K. Santhanam inadequate irrigation water supply there was an increase in waste land,
reduction in forest area, wet crop land increase and dry cropland increase
Email: gissanthanam@gmail.com
considerably. In the study area, from 1998 to 208, following land use
Submitted: 17/03/2017 changes were detected based on comparative study in 11 years settlements-
Accepted: 07/09/2017 Built up area increased by 0.06%, (0.17 Sq.km, Wet crop land expanded at
6.36% (20.57 Sq.km), Dry crop land enhanced as 3.27 % (13.57 Sq.km)
Wasteland increased as 4.32% (13.32 Sq.km), Surface water bodies
decreased as a 0.24% (0.17 Sq.km). Forest land as 13.24% (44.90Sq.km)
decreased.

Keywords: Land use changes, Drought prone area, GIS Techniques.

1. Introduction extent of the settlements, cropland, forest land,

Water is essentially required to fulfill the
requirements of sectoral demands like domestic
agriculture, industrial, livestock and power sectors.
Due to increasing population, extension of irrigated
area, industrial growth and rapid urbanization the water
requirement is becoming more and more. But
availability of water is limited. Hence there is over
exploitation of water, an increase in the wasteland and
failure of monsoon rainfall. Water Resources planning
is the important task to solve the problem. Surface
water potential can be assessed by rainfall-runoff
simulation model using daily rainfall, hydrologic soil
group and curve numbers obtained from the land use
map. Water resources planning is characterized as an
iterative process that uses screening and helping to
define that challenges to be addressed and to
appropriately define the boundaries of the planning
effort (Palmer and Linndburg, 2003). Land use map not
only gives curve numbers for NRCS Model but also
shows the land use pattern in different periods. The
wasteland and surface water bodies, can be known by
these maps. Land use maps prepared for different
periods when compared, provides information on
increasing or decreasing changes in wet and dry crop
lands, forest lands, surface water bodies and
settlements.
2. Study Area
The study area Upper Thurinjalar sub basin is
bounded by upper Cheyyar sub Basin in North West, in
east of the Varaganadhi river basin in south by lower
Thurinjalar sub basin and west by Aliyar watershed of
Ponnaiyar basin. The area lies in Thiruvanamalai, and
Chengam Taluks (Fig 1). The total geographical area of
the Thurinjalar sub basin of Ponnaiyar basin is 323.25
Sq km. It lies with in the coordinates East longitude
78° 57’23“E to 79° 09’ 23” E and North latitude, 12°
09’ 08” N to 12°21’17”N. The Archean crystalline
rocks of the study area have Charnockites, Pyroxenites,
Pyroxene Granulites, Magnetite Quartzite, Hornblende-

International Journal of Earth and Atmospheric Science | July-September, 2017 | Volume 04 | Issue 03 | Pages 163-166
© 2017 Jakraya
Santhanam et al…Detection of Land Uses Changes in the Drought Prone Overdrafted Hard Rock Terrain of Upper
Thurinjalar Watershed of Ponnaiyar River Basin Tamil Nadu using Geospatial Techniques

Table 1: Changes in landuse pattern in the years 1998 and 2008

1998 DATA Area in sq km Percentage 2008_data Area in sq km percentage

Settlement 8.79 2.72 Settlement 8.99 2.78
Wet Crop 27.16 8.40 Wet crop 47.73 14.76
Waste land 136.87 42.34 Waste land 150.19 46.46
Forest land 84.18 26.04 Forest land 39.28 12.15
Dry Crop 48.48 15.00 Dry crop 59.05 18.27
Tank 17.8 5.51 Tank 18.04 5.58

Fig 1: Index map of upper thurinjalar watershed

watershed.

Fig 3: Land use of upper thirunjalar watershed in 1998 (left) and 2008 (right) respectively.

International Journal of Earth and Atmospheric Science | July-September, 2017 | Volume 04 | Issue 003 | Pages 163-166
© 2017 Jakraya
164
Santhanam et al…Detection of Land Uses Changes in the Drought Prone Overdrafted Hard Rock Terrain of Upper
Thurinjalar Watershed of Ponnaiyar River Basin Tamil Nadu using Geospatial Techniques
Biotite Gneiss and Granites. Major part of the
watershed is covered by Charnockites. Granite rocks
occur as patches. The highest altitude is 818m above
MSL located in the Thiruvannamalai reserve forest
area and lowest altitude is 145m above MSL. Hills and
forest land occupy 39 Sq.km, tanks occupy 85 Sq km.
River (Thurinjalar) originates from Kavuttumalai hills
and forest in Chengam Taluk, in western part of sub-
basin. It flows in southern direction. Totally there are
115 tanks. Generally the semi arid climate prevails
over the Upper Thurinjalar sub-basin area without any
sharp variation. The climate of the area is characterized
by four distinct seasons, namely Southwest monsoon
(Jun-Sep), Northeast monsoon (Oct-Dec), Winter
season (Jan-Feb) and hot summer season (Mar-May).
Rainfall and temperature data were collected from
Kilnat. Chipattu weather station Thiruvannamalai
maintained by State Ground and Surface Water
Resources Data Centre, PWD.
3. Methodology
Watershed boundary was delineated through
Survey of India topo sheets. 1998 IRS ID Liss III and
PAN merged satellite image and 2008 IRS P6 Liss IV
and PAN merged image were sourced was made. 5 cate
from NRSA, Hyderabad. The images of the study area
were classified using ERDAS IMAGINE digital image
processing software. The present maps were converted
into digital formats through digitizing using Arc GIS
9.3 Version software database was created in GIS
environment. The data sets acquired used in creating
the database. A supervised maximum classification was
executed for 1998 and 2008 images and final
classification of products furnishes the overview of the
major land use features of the study area. (Fig 2) Level
II land use classification was made. 5 land use
categories were identified and they are 1. Surface water
bodies-tanks 2. Forest land 3. Crop land 4. Wasteland
and 5. Settlements. As per rainfall records 1998 and
2008 years are flourishing years.
Fig 2: Methodology to generate land use maps.
International Journal of Earth and Atmospheric Science | July-September, 2017 | Volume 04 | Issue 03 | Pages 163-166
© 2017 Jakraya
165
4. Results and Discussion
Land use refers to man’s activities and varied
uses which are carried over land and land cover refers
to natural vegetation, water bodies, rock/soil and others
noticed on the land (NRSA 1989) Land use mapping is
one of essential component where other parameters are
integrated on the requirement basis to derive various
developmental indices for land and water resource.
An attempt was made to study the changes in
land use in upper Thurinjalar watershed over eleven
years (1998 to 2008). The study was done through
remote sensing interpretation using IRS 1D, LISS III
and pan merged data of December 1998 and IRS P6
LISS IV data of November 2008. The land use
classification was performed based on satellite data.
GIS (ARC GIS 9.2 version) software was used to
prepare thematic maps of land use. Land use is
classified into different categories as follows.
Built-up land - settlement
Crop land:
a) Wet crop ( Paddy and sugarcane)
b) Dry crop (Groundnut, Flori culture, cholam)
Forest land: Hills and forest
Wasteland:
a) Barren land, Land covered by scrubs
b) Land covered by shrubs
c) Rocky Outcrop
d) Stony waste
e) Stony waste covered by scrubs
Water bodies - tank, rivers and streams
Application of remotely sensed data made
possible to study the changes in land cover in less time
at lower cost, and with better accuracy (Kachhwaha,
1985, Lamb et al., 2001) in association with GIS. The
change in land use is largely related either to the
external forces and the pressure built up within the
system (Bisht and Kothyari, 2001).
Watershed boundary was delineated through
SOI Toposheets. 1998 IRS 1D LISS III Pan merged
image and 2008 IRS P6 LISS IV pan merged data,
sourced from NRSA Hyderabad. The images of the
study area were classified using ERDAS IMAGINE
software. The present analogue maps were converted
into digital format through digitizing using the ARC
GIS 9.3 software. A database was created by GIS
Software. The data sets acquired were used in creating
the database. A supervised maximum classification was
executed for 1998 and 2008 images and the final
classification products furnish an overview of the
major land use features of the study area. Level II, Five
categories of land use were identified. They are 1.
Surface water bodies 2. Forest land 3. Wet (paddy) and
dry crop land 4. Wasteland and built up area. Fig 3 and
4 illustrate land use/land cover maps of the watershed
for the years 1998 and 2008 monthly rainfall. For 11
Santhanam et al…Detection of Land Uses Changes in the Drought Prone Overdrafted Hard Rock Terrain of Upper
Thurinjalar Watershed of Ponnaiyar River Basin Tamil Nadu using Geospatial Techniques
years were collected from Kilnachipattu,
Thiruvannamalai rain gauge station and analysis.
While analyzing the 3 years, moving average
annual rainfall data for the period of 1995 to 2011,
seven years were drought prone years 1998 was
identified as flourishing year. Annual rainfall was 1014
mm. As 96, 97 and 98 were flourishing years, it reflects
on land use pattern. Cropland is 75.64 sq km Forest
land is 84.18 sq km. Wasteland occupied 136.87 Sq.
km (47.34 %). Land use map for 1998 was prepared
based on remote sensing data. 2005, 06, 07, 08 are
flourishing years.
While reviewing 2008 land use data the extent
of irrigated cropland increased as 106.78 Sq Km
(33.03%). In 1998 crop land extent was 75.64 Sq. km
(23.40%). There was an increase of 9.63%. Forest land
extent was reduced from 84.18% to 39.28%.
Drastically forest land was reduced and converted as
crop land and waste land. While comparing 1998 land
References
Bisht BS and Kothyari BP (2001). Land covers analysis of
Garur Ganga watershed using GIS and RS Techniques.
Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing, 29: 137-
141.
Gibson Power (2000). Introducing Remote Sensing digital
interpretation and application. Routledge, London, UK,
2000-29.
Kachwaha TS (1985). Temporal monitoring of forest land for
change detection and forest cover Mapping through
satellite. Remote Sensing-Proceeding of the Asian
Conference on Remote Sensing, Hyderabad.
International Journal of Earth and Atmospheric Science | July-September, 2017 | Volume 04 | Issue 03 | Pages 163-166
© 2017 Jakraya
166
use data, Wasteland extent was drastically increased
from 136.87 Sq. km to 150.19 Sq. km.
5. Conclusion
The application of Remote Sensing and GIS in
Land use management through the classification,
estimation and interpretation of different land use
classes has been demonstrated. Only due to rapid
deforestation, forest lands were converted as wet and
dry crop lands and wastelands. This is a dangerous
practice. Deforestation should be strictly prevented. By
identification of favorable Geomorphological features,
lineaments and lineament intersections lie on the
wastelands, suitable abstraction structures may be
established and irrigation water supply may be
provided to the wastelands and they may be converted
as productive lands.
Lampin EF et al. (2001). The causes of land use and land
cover changes: moving beyond myths. Global
Environment Change, 11: 261-269.
Palmer RN and Lindburg KV (2013). Integrated Water
Resources Planning 4th Characteristics of Water
Resources Planning, 9-12.
Satellite image IRS 1 D, Liss III PAN merged data 1998 -
NRSA Hyderabad.
Satellite image IRS P 6 Liss IV PAN merged data 2008 -
NRSA Hyderabad.
Survey of India Toposheets 57 P3, P4 and P7 (1:50000
scale).