AN ASSESSMENT OF LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGES IN LAHORE (PAKISTAN) AND NEW DELHI (INDIA) USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUES

Abstract

All over the world rapid urban growth was considered the key factor for change detection. It was considered obvious, widespread an irreversible form of land alteration. The two expanding urban centers like Lahore (Pakistan) and New Delhi (India), land use modifications are terrific. Thus, it was important to evaluate the major key factors of such modification. Urban environment and its surroundings have been greatly affected by temporal land use and land cover alterations. Land Sat images from 1972 to 2015 has been selected to figure out the land cover change detection in study area. The purpose of this comparative study was to detect extent of urban expansion that was main reason for change detection. Geospatial techniques have been used to evaluate these alterations. The Lahore’s built up area was 62.88 square kilometers in 1972 and it was 557.38 square kilometers in 2015.Over all change detection of 494.5 square kilometers was observed in structure of Lahore. In New Delhi’s built up area was 136.13 square kilometers in 1972 and in 2015 it increased up to 686.71 square kilometers. The overall change was observed 550.58 square kilometers for 43 years. It was observed that the built up have been changed substantially in Lahore and New Delhi.