Land use and land cover analysis of select districts in central Western Ghats, Karnataka with spatial distribution of flora and fauna of Shimoga district, Karnataka
Student name: Ms Sneha Haridas
Guide: Dr Kamna Sachdeva
Year of completion: 2018
Host Organisation: Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr T V Ramachandra
Abstract: Natural resources management requires knowledge of resource availability, usage and the driving forces acting at a particular landscape. Land use land cover (LULC) are the prime variables that expresses landscape status. Understanding LULC and the spatial distribution of flora and fauna, by the use of spatial technologies - GIS with the remote sensing data would help in prudent management. The integration of heterogeneous data and making it available to the concerned stakeholders, can be addressed with the help of a decision support system. In this regard, LULC analysis of select districts of Central Western Ghats in Karnataka has been done. The region is one of the 35 biodiversity hotspots of the world undergoing tremendous changes due to continuous anthropogenic pressures. The social status has been analysed with the population density and the proportion of schedule tribe population at village level for all the districts. Additionally, the spatial distribution of flora and fauna of Shimoga district, along with their endemism and IUCN statuses have been analysed, to account for the ecological significance of the region. For Shimoga district, the percentage cover of urban land use, has increased to 2.24% in 2018, agricultural and forest plantations together have increased from 26.36 to 30.07 percent and the vegetation has decreased from 37.78 percent in 2002 to 34 percent in 2018. The results can aid in future management and conservation plans along with the various other heterogeneous data that is produced from this study, which can be utilised in a decision support system.
Keywords: Land Use and Land Cover, Biodiversity, central Western Ghats, Shimoga district and Decision Support System.
