ABSTRACT
The coastal land use and land cover (LULC) on the Odisha coast is actively influenced by natural and anthropogenic activities due to aquatic and terrestrial processes. The key purpose of this study is to determine the decadal changes of LULC and their transformations, using temporal Landsat series satellite images (1990–2017). The LULC maps were prepared for each year by introducing a hybrid classification system that involved image interpretation, band ratios (normalized difference vegetation index [NDVI] and normalized difference built-up index [NDBI]), and supervised and unsupervised techniques. The study area was classified into 17 LULC classes as per Space Application Center (SAC)–LULC category Level – III. A precise evaluation was carried out for each of the datasets, where the average accuracy ranged from 84% to 91%. It is observed that area in aquaculture, beach/sand dune, industrial area, mangrove, marshy land, mud flat, open vegetation, rural settlement, scrub land, port/harbor, and urban settlement has increased during the period between 1990 and 2017. Moreover, a larger area of fallow lands was rapidly transformed into built-up areas and aqua farming in Chandabali, Mahakalpada, and Rajnagar blocks, whereas the beach and sand dunes are evidently increased in Mahakalpada, Chandabali, Bahanaga, Basudevpur, Baliapal, and Bhograi blocks due to the cumulative effects of waves and tides. Subsequently, the resource degradation index indicates that Ersama and Balikuda blocks are in the higher-risk zone in the study area. This shows the appropriate precision for land use and ground use transition studies of the graded LULC features, which may be used as a primary source for sustainable land use and shoreline conservation behavior.
