An integrated approach for the assessment and monitoring of land degradation and desertification in semi-arid regions using physico-chemical and geospatial modeling techniques

Land degradation (LD) and desertification are serious ecological, environmental, and social-economic threats in the world, and there is a demanding need to develop accountable and reproducible techniques to assess them at different scales. This study assesses LD and desertification with the help of remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) in the study region for the period past 29 years, i.e., from 1990 to 2019. The severity of LD and desertification was assessed quantitatively by collecting twelve soil samples in the study region and analyzing the eleven soil physico-chemical parameters and these values have made correlated with digital number (DN) values with LANDSAT 8 OLI/TIRS satellite image. The land cover analysis of LANDSAT imagery revealed that the water body slightly increased from 0.29% in 1990 to 0.46% in 2019, and built-up-land increased from 2.87% in 1990 to 5.31% in 2019. Vegetation decreased from 52.03% in 1990 to 28.57%. Fallow land, degraded land, and desertified lands increased at alarming rates, respectively 13.71% to 26.35, 18.57% to 22.31%, and 12.53% to 17.00%. It is also established that the multi-temporal analysis of change detection data can provide a sophisticated measure of ecosystem health and variation, and that, over the last 29 years, considerable progress has been made in the respective research.

Automated summary

This study assesses land degradation and desertification over the past 29 years using remote sensing and geographical information system. The results show a slight increase in water bodies, a significant increase in built-up land, and a severe decrease in vegetation. Fallow land, degraded land, and desertified lands have increased at alarming rates.