REMOTE-SENSING QUANTIFICATION AND CHANGE DETECTION OF NATURAL-RESOURCES OVER DELHI

Delhi has witnessed a recent spurt in urbanization. The depletion in t he forest and natural vegetation cover has reduced water availability in the river Yamuna. The present study quantifies these changes. Satel lite data from SPOT and Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1B) from 1987 to 1992 have been combined with rainfall data and ground truth to assess both the spatial and the temporal degradation in the region. T he total Delhi area has been subdivided into four equal regions and ea ch of these have been analyzed separately. Further, the Delhi city reg ion has been subdivided and analyzed for quantifying the spatial chang es. A rainfall ratio has been introduced to account for normalising th e rainfall occurring in each year. This ratio has been used to estimat e the vegetation cover and the water availability in the river under t he same normal rainfall conditions in each of the years under consider ation. Results indicate that the forest cover is constantly declining with the most severe depletion occurring in northeast Delhi. However, due to increase in rains over the past few years, the forest and the v egetation covers in 1992 have increased in some parts of south Delhi.