Abstract:
Land use and land cover changes (LULC) are caused both by natural as well as anthropogenic activities. While its impacts and associated driving forces on the regional environment is of great importance to understand the relationship between these changes and socioeconomic activities. For this purpose, the study in hand is aimed to investigate LULC during 2010-2022. Therefore, based on availability of data, Landsat satellite images for 2010, 2016, and 2021 for Dir District of Khyber Pakhtun khwa Province in Pakistan were acquired. These images were classified into five different types like snow, dense vegetation, light vegetation, water bodies, and barren land using geospatial techniques. The results revealed a slight decrease in snow covered area from 2010 to 2016 while a notable decrease was observed from 2016 to 2021. There was a significant increase in the area under light vegetation, water bodies, and barren land throughout the study period. Overall, area under snow cover decreased by 5.71%of the study area during the study period, while increased values of 9.13%,2.44%, and 0.31% for light vegetation, barren land, and water bodies ,respectively. Similarly, dense vegetation was found with a decrease of 6.17% of the total study area. The outcomes of this study revealed that a significant land transformation has taken place in Dir District regarding a decrease in dense vegetation (forest and big trees) which is attributed with increase in urbanization and other associated infrastructure developments. Further, the increase in light vegetation is linked with increasing agriculture activities to fulfill the requirements of increased population. In this study, the remote sensing and geographical information system (RS and GIS) are found better to identify and monitor these changes. This will help to restore degraded ecosystem services in the Dir District as well as other neighboring areas with same expected impacts. Further, these results will be used to manage agriculture activities in future environmental dynamics.
Page(s):
84-84
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: 1st International Conference on "Recent Advances in Green Biotechnology and Climate Resilience", September 15-16, 2025, Volume: 1, Issue: 1, Year: 2025
Keywords:
Remote Sensing
,
GIS
,
Landsat
,
Land Use and Land Cover