Changing Land Use and Land Cover A Case Study of Bettiah City, Bihar
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/anxrtq34Keywords:
Land Use/Land Cover, Remote Sensing, GIS, Urban Expansion, Bettiah, BiharAbstract
This study uses Landsat satellite imagery for 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2022, processed through supervised classification, to quantify changes across five broad LULC classes – waterbody, agriculture, built-up, vegetation, and open area – within the Bettiah Nagar Parishad area and its immediate surroundings. The results show that built-up area increased from 6.58 sq. km in 1991 to 10.33 sq. km in 2022, with the sharpest expansion occurring after 2011, largely at the cost of agricultural land, which fell from 27.31 sq. km in 2011 to 20.52 sq. km in 2022. Waterbody area also increased over the period, reflecting the emergence of new water-holding depressions and possibly classification effects linked to seasonal flooding, while open/vacant land declined overall as it was progressively absorbed into either cultivation or construction. The findings are discussed in relation to Bettiah's administrative upgradation, ribbon development along National Highway-28B and State Highway-54, the outer ring road, and growth of the Mithanpura industrial belt. The paper concludes with planning implications for the management of Bettiah's future urban expansion.
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Data Availability Statement
Landsat satellite imagery used in this study is publicly available from the USGS EarthExplorer portal (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov). The derived LULC classification data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Arif Ahmad, Akash Kumar, Barkha Chaplot (Author)
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