Evaluating Changes in Vegetation and Non-Vegetation Patterns of Lidder Valley, Kashmir, India by Using Remote Sensing and GIS

The main goal of this study is to reveal the changes in the vegetation and non-vegetation land cover classes over the study region (Lidder Valley) from 1998 to 2020. Remote sensed data in the form of multi-spectral imagery was used to compute Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices. It provided the base for calculating changes in the land cover categories (Vegetation and non-vegetation). It has been analysed that a large area of the vegetation and non-vegetation classes of the study region had remained the same over 24 years, i.e., no change was noticed among them. About 06 % and 05% of the total area of the study region have witnessed afforestation and deforestation, respectively. Many studies have found that increasing horticultural area at the cost of agriculture is an important reason for increasing vegetation cover. In contrast, increasing population and tourism are the leading causes behind decreased vegetation cover. The large area under non-vegetation should be converted into vegetation other than horticulture because it has been found that increasing horticulture has created many problems in the region. Moreover, it is the need of the hour that government should restrict deforestation practices in the area.https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/geography/59778/evaluating-changes-in-vegetation-and-nonvegetation-patterns-of-lidder-valley-kashmir-india-by-using-remote-sensing-and-gis/azhar-u-din-waz