[01] Tamilenthi S., Dept. of Geography, Kalinga University, Raipur, India. [02] Arul P., Dept. of Geography, Govt. Arts College (Auto), Salem, India.

There has been rapid change in the land use and land-cover types in Salem city in Tamilnadu, India in the past 37 years. The major change is the conversion of agriculture and forest lands into urban areas mostly in an un-planned manner making urban sprawl characterizing the urban change dynamics. Land use change has been the reason for many social, economic and environmental problems in Salem city, the capital city of Salem district over the past decades. This has engaged the researchers to find out possible measures to address and monitor this phenomenon. The principal aim of this research was to apply remotely sensed data, geospatial tools to detect, quantify, analyze and detect the urban land use changes of Salem city. Salem is a city is bound between the latitude 11° 39 ` to 11° 65`N and longitude 78° 16` to 78° 9`E. It covers an aerial extent of 12 4 sqkm. The ultimate objective of the research is to detect the land use/land-cover change of Salem city from 1973 to 2010. Satellite images of Salem city at different periods, 1973 and 2010 were analysed. The software programs that have been used in this study to process, quantify, analyze and change detection are ArcGIS 9.2, ArcMap and ERADAS 9.3.The change detection procedure, however it was able to identify the areas of significant change. The seasonal variations of two satellite images used in the analysis affected the spectral resolution which subsequently affected the change detection process. Because of the variation of the temporal resolution and other environmental factors, the same land cover class can have different radiance values between the images. Post-classification comparison change detection was conducted to reveal the areas that have changed over the period of 37 years. In this method, the from-to-change informational classes were available. The results revealed drastic growth of urban areas and reduction of Barren Rocky Surface, Fallow land, Crop & Plantation, Land with Shrub and River.

Urban Change, Urban Sprawl, Land Use & Land Cover and Salem City

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