ABSTRACT
Land change modeling is a phenomenon to simulate the land-use changes occurred due to the interactions between humans and environment. The coupled human-environment interaction is the basis of land change modeling. A wide variety of land change models are present in the literature, a brief review of which is mentioned in this chapter. The progress in the development of land change modeling approaches over the past few decades can be understood from the wide availability of models at different scales and contexts. Land change modeling has proven to be a leading tool in advancing our understanding of land-use dynamics and in predicting future land-use change scenarios. Coupling of land change models with other modeling techniques has paved the way to interdisciplinary study to analyze different environmental problems. With the mention of the need and significance of land change modeling, the chapter discusses the case study of Lucknow in India, which shows more urbanization in the study area in a future scenario. The case study reveals that such studies will be 74useful at decision-making levels in studies related to prediction and planning. The chapter also touches upon the development of urban land change models, in specific over a number of past decades and their advancement with the emergence of remote sensing and GIS. The chapter is an attempt to provide a synoptic view of land change modeling.
