Land use/land cover changes in the mining area of Godavari coal fields of southern India

The dynamics of land use/land cover changes, the effect of coal mining on the land use/land cover changes, and the regional environmental impact are discussed in this paper. The different land use classes mainly water body, mining area, forest cover, built-up area, barren land and agriculture land in Godavari coal field area of southern India are identified and the impact of land use/land cover change on the environment are discussed. The land use/land cover changes in the Godavari coal field area were analyzed for a period of 24 years i.e., from the year 1990 to 2014. The changes were detected on a 5-year time interval using Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI and TIRS satellite images and the human impact on the landscape are discussed. In addition, change analysis and quantification of spatial-temporal dynamics of land use/land cover patterns were also discussed. The study reveals that the water body slightly increases from 2.77% in 1990 to 3.29% in 2014. Mining area increased from 0.04% in 1990 to 0.23% in 2014. On the other hand, forest cover has decreased from 36.38% in 1990 to 31.67% in 2014. Built-up area and barren land increased from 0.34% to 0.89% and 1% to 1.69% in 1990 and 2014 respectively. Agricultural land steadily increased from 59.46% in 1990 to 62.22% in 2014.