Detection of Land Use Land Cover Changes Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques in a Secondary City in Bangladesh

This study aims at classifying land use land cover (LULC) patterns and detect changes in a 'secondary city' (Savar Upazila) in Bangladesh for 30 years i.e., from 1990 to 2020. Two distinct sets of Landsat satellite imagery, such as Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) 1990 and Landsat 7 ETM+ 2020, were collected from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website. Using ArcMap 10.3, the maximum likelihood algorithm was used to perform a supervised classification methodology. The error matrix and Kappa Kat were done to measure the mapping accuracy. Both images were classified into six separate classes: Cropland, Barren land, Built-up area, Vegetation, Waterbody, and Wetlands. From 1990 to 2020, Cropland, Barren land, Waterbody, and Wetlands have been decreased by 30.63%, 11.26%, 23.54%, and 21.89%, respectively. At the same time, the Built-up area and Vegetation have been increased by 161.16% and 5.77%, respectively. The research revealed that unplanned urbanization had been practiced in the secondary city indicated by the decreases in Cropland, Barren land, Wetland, and Waterbody, which also showed direct threats to food security and freshwater scarcity. An increase in Vegetation (mostly homestead vegetation) indicates some environment awareness programs that encourage people to maintain homestead and artificial gardens. The study argues for the sustainable planning of a secondary city for a developing country's future development.