Land use/land cover change detection and validation of SWAT model on VISHOW sub-basin using remote sensing and GIS techniques

The change in land use/land cover (LU/LC) of a region has a direct impact on its hydrological processes. VISHOW, a sub-basin of Jhelum River basin situated in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India, has undergone tremendous land use/land cover changes over the past few decades resulting in unprecedented hydrological response of the sub-basin to rainfall inputs. In this study the LU/LC of the VISHOW sub-basin was determined for the years 2000, 2008 and 2015 using remote sensing and GIS techniques. During both time periods from 2000 to 2008 and 2008 to 2015, the shrinkage in area has been detected under the land uses of agriculture, snow, forest and pastures; whereas the increase in area has been detected under the land uses of horticulture, built up, and barren. The runoff coefficients for the years 2000, 2008 and 2015 were found to be 0.1678, 0.1876 and 0.2445 respectively.