Abstract:
The land cover or landuse over the eastern region, such as the Ampara, Batticaloa
districts in Sri Lanka, has rapidly changed in the last twenty years (mainly as a
consequence of the unpredictable socio-political system). Land cover change induced
by anthropogenic factors as such is a detrimental force to the ecological stability of the
localities. As such, estimating the spatial extents of land cover change or transformation
and inferring the patterns (inherent) are of paramount importance when it comes to
soundly managing the natural resources (and consequently planning for sustainable
development) in the said districts. In this respect, detection of Landuse changes becomes
essentially (and only) possible by the data generated by space-borne sensors. The
objective of this study is to detect the landuse changes in the Batticaloa district between
years July 2000 and May 2003 using space borne information and maps based on a
local survey. As such, Landsat images data was analyzed using GIS and remote sensing
tools in synergy for this study. Parallely, land use maps based on a local survey and
statistical data were also used for comparision. Results indicate the severity of the
changes in the landcover types and emphasise on the need for the establishment of a
sound zonation plan as a mitigatory measure. This paper also presents an initial
framework for an effective zonation plan (or map) on the spatial domain to aid in
development focused decision making based on the results obtained on the land use
changes at local scale. Arguably, this research paper can be considered unique as it is
by and large the first ever attempt (in a scientific manner) to apply GIS and remote
sensing tools for landuse mapping in the Batticaloa district.
