Assessing spatiotemporal changes in landcover using geospatial and remote sensing techniques in the Southern fringes of Chennai

Peri-urban areas are transitional zones on the outer boundaries of cities. These regions have immense growth potential, and it is necessary to observe the land use landcover changes to understand the dynamics of these transformations. The area selected for this study is towards the Southern fringe of Chennai, Tamil Nādu, India, and is analyzed using multi-spectral satellite imagery from Landsat 5 and 8. The primary objective of the study is to assess the change in landcover classes, namely water, land, and vegetation, over a 30-year study period between 1991 and 2021. The peri-urban regions majorly are arable land. Hence, NDVI is considered a suitable index to monitor the landcover changes. The spatiotemporal analysis indicates an increase of 19.43% in land /barren areas towards the Northern parts near the study area and along the transit and industrial corridors. No significant changes are observed in the areas of vegetation that could be attributed to efforts taken to conserve reserve forests and increase green zones in newer developments. A steep depletion of 46.86% of water bodies observed in the region also corresponds to water scarcity problems. Accuracy was assessed using ground-truthing methods, computing the confusion matrix and Kappa coefficient. NDVI is used efficiently in the landcover classification but does not indicate the difference between built-up areas and barren land. Change detection map prepared using ARCGIS indicates the areas that have been converted to other landcover over a period of 30 years. The study reveals an urgent need to bring in policy decisions to conserve waterbodies and green spaces in the initial stages of urban planning for sustainable developments in the fringe areas.