Preeti Barsha Borah, Sultana Afsana Rahman, Bhadrawati Dutta, Krishnamoni Deka, Ananjay Muchahary and Himanta Gogoi
Abstract
Land use/land cover (LULC) changes impact biodiversity, water distribution, radiation budgets, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon cycling, and livelihoods worldwide. Landsat 8-9 OLI/TIRS satellite imagery from 2013 and 2023, obtained from the USGS Earth Explorer website, was processed in QGIS to assess LULC changes. This study followed a five-stage methodology: (1) satellite data pre-processing, (2) image classification, (3) LULC change detection, (4) modeling and predicting LULC using the Cellular Automata model. The analysis for 2013 and 2023 shows an expansion of the built-up area to 3273.39 ha in 2023, with a predicted increase to 3614.49 hectares by 2033, validated using Kappa statistics.