ABSTRACT
2Land resource inventory and mapping play a vital role in resource planning and management to assess its potential and limitations for wide range of land use options and formulate sustainable land use plans to meet the ever increasing demand for food, fodder and fuel production. Further, land resource inventory is necessary to deal with the issues of sustainable land resource management and land use planning, food security and assess the impact of climate change on soil resources and their sustainability. Detailed terrain analysis and landform mapping derived from ancillary data and satellite data analysis form a base map in land resource inventory. The detailed landform maps with spatial variations of the terrain features helps in soil survey and mapping the soils and finalize the soil-mapping units in the region. The conventional field investigation in land resource inventory is becoming increasingly unaffordable in terms of financial cost, time and data deliverability. The integrated remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications have immense potential in land resources inventory, mapping and generation of spatial databases for better planning, management, monitoring and implementing the land use plans more efficiently at different levels. In India, ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS & LUP), the premier institute in soil resource inventory and mapping is being used various satellite remote sensing products in soil resource inventory and mapping at different scales ranges from 1:250,000 to 1:4,000 scale depending upon the objectives and scale of mapping. The advent of new age Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), especially, personal computers, the Internet and mobile technologies have immense potential in inventory, mapping, collection, storage, processing, transmission and presentation of land resource information in multiple formats. These advancements provide accurate, timely, relevant information in cost effective and time efficient manner on real time basis. The information generated through land resource inventory on climate, soils and water resources, cropping systems, land use pattern, production and productivity, vegetation, socio-economic profile of the region, etc., could be effectively used to assess land capability, land irrigability, crop suitability, delineation of land management units and evaluate the alternative land use options.
