Spatio-temporal variation in land use/land cover pattern and channel migration in Majuli River Island, India

Precise land use and land cover (LULC) change information of a land surface is significant for sustainable development programs as the earth's surface is undergoing rapid changes. Majuli Island is located in the upper reach of the Brahmaputra River in India. It is continuously changing its shape by the action of erosion of the Brahmaputra River, incurring both tangible and intangible losses. This study aims to find out the changes that occurred in the island by analyzing the land use/land cover along with channel migration in the Brahmaputra River that occurred in that area over the period 1973 to 2019. This paper assesses the changes and present status of Majuli River Island from 1973 to 2019 using Landsat MSS (1973), TM (1985, 1995), ETM + (2009), and OLI (2019) satellite imageries. Here, the maximum likelihood classification (MLC) technique for LULC analysis and their temporal changes and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) technique for the vegetation characteristics have been processed and analyzed with the help of the geospatial information system (GIS). From the results, it is found that area of vegetation has gradually decreased from 365.59 (26.85%) in 1973 to 262.79 km² (19.29%) in 2019. In contrast, the barren land had increased from 4.82 (0.35%) in 1973 to 31.88 km² (2.34%) in 2019. Other LULC categories like agricultural lands, built-up areas, water bodies, and sand deposition also have changed significantly. The NDVI values are also changed due to channel shifting, soil erosion, and deforestation. The accuracy assessment for the supervised classification of LULC classes for all years showed excellent results in all six classes.