G. Sujatha et al., Mapping and monitoring of degraded lands in part of Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh using temporal spaceborne multispectral data, INT J REMOT, 21(3), 2000, pp. 519-531
Apart from soil erosion by wind and water, the major land degradation proce
sses operating in irrigated commands in arid and semi-arid regions are wate
rlogging and subsequent salinization/alkalinization. Remote sensing data ha
ve been used successfully in studies of the spatial extent, magnitude and t
emporal behaviour of lands affected by such processes. In this work we inte
rpreted Landsat Multispectral Scanner images acquired during 1975 and Lands
at Thematic Mapper data acquired during 1993, in conjunction with ancillary
information and adequate ground data, to derive information on the extent
and spatial distribution of various degraded lands, namely salt-affected so
ils, waterlogged areas and eroded lands in part of the Jaunpur district of
Uttar Pradesh. The results indicate a significant shrinkage in the spatial
extent of salt-affected soils (of the order of 49.76%) over the period 1975
to 1993. A similar trend was observed in the temporal behaviour of waterlo
gged areas, but an increase (6.45%) was found in the spatial extent of erod
ed lands. The methodology employed and the observations made are described
here in detail.