The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

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The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Sciences

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Research Paper

Land use/land cover changes in the mining area of Godavari coal fields
of southern India
Debashri Garai, A.C. Narayana ⇑
Centre for Earth & Space Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500046, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The dynamics of land use/land cover changes, the effect of coal mining on the land use/land cover
Received 23 May 2017 changes, and the regional environmental impact are discussed in this paper. The different land use classes
Revised 16 December 2017 mainly water body, mining area, forest cover, built-up area, barren land and agriculture land in Godavari
Accepted 9 January 2018
coal field area of southern India are identified and the impact of land use/land cover change on the envi-
Available online xxxx
ronment are discussed. The land use/land cover changes in the Godavari coal field area were analyzed for
a period of 24 years i.e., from the year 1990 to 2014. The changes were detected on a 5-year time interval
using Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI and TIRS satellite images and the human impact on the landscape are
discussed. In addition, change analysis and quantification of spatial-temporal dynamics of land use/land
cover patterns were also discussed. The study reveals that the water body slightly increases from 2.77% in
1990 to 3.29% in 2014. Mining area increased from 0.04% in 1990 to 0.23% in 2014. On the other hand,
forest cover has decreased from 36.38% in 1990 to 31.67% in 2014. Built-up area and barren land
increased from 0.34% to 0.89% and 1% to 1.69% in 1990 and 2014 respectively. Agricultural land steadily
increased from 59.46% in 1990 to 62.22% in 2014.
Ó 2018 National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier
B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
From environmental point of view, the dynamic process of land
use/land cover change is an indispensable concern all over the
world, which indicates global environmental change (Ruiz-Luna
and Berlanga-Robles, 2003) and this has been recount as the most
remarkable regional anthropogenic disruption of environment
(Lambin et al., 2003). Although land is the natural resource of
utmost importance and original source of all material wealth of
human being, the mining of natural resources is invariably associ-
ated with land use land cover changes (Prakash and Gupta, 1998).
Modern techniques of mining using heavy equipment can produce
dramatic alternations in land cover, both ecologically and hydro-
logically (Turner and Ruscher, 2004; Singh, 2007). Further mining
activities result in change of topography (Manna and Maiti,
2014) and drainage pattern (Akiwumi and Butler, 2008; Khan
and Javed, 2012; Manna and Maiti, 2016) and principal environ-
mental impact comes out as physical disturbance such as
landscape change and degradation (Bajocco et al., 2012; Tadesse
Peer review under responsibility of National Authority for Remote Sensing and
Space Sciences.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: acnes@uohyd.ernet.in (A.C. Narayana).
et al., 2017), soil erosion and degradation (Singh et al., 1997) and
general environmental changes (Dhar et al., 1991; Prakash and
Gupta, 1998).
As a developing country, the energy requirement in India is
increasing day by day and the coal mining industries are eventually
increasing their production to meet the requirement of energy
production through thermal power plants, where coal is used for
generation of electricity (Provisional Coal Statistics, 2015-16). Coal
production by the Singareni Colliery Company Limited, operating
in Godavari Valley increased from 37.71 million tons in the year
2006-07 to 52.54 million tons in the year 2014-15 (Provisional
Production and Dispatches Performance of SCCL, 2017). In general,
the natural resources occur in ecologically sensitive and endan-
gered forest cover areas. About 95% of total coal reserves of India
come from 44 known coal fields of Peninsular India (Sachdev,
2007). In this context, it is essential to scrutinize the effect of min-
ing on land use land cover change to minimize its impact on envi-
ronment as well as for proper land management and decision
making (Bocco et al., 2001; Laskar, 2003; Turner II et al., 2007).
To ascertain such changes, earth resource satellite data are criti-
cally important and useful for land use/land cover change studies
(Yuan et al., 2005).
Acquiring timely remote sensing data and application of GIS
technology are very useful to observe and analyze the periodical

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrs.2018.01.002
1110-9823/Ó 2018 National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article in press as: Garai, D., Narayana, A.C. Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrs.2018.01.002
2 D. Garai, A.C. Narayana / Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
changes of land forms and land cover (El Gammal et al., 2010) and
thus these two technologies together perform a multifaceted and
cost effective way for LULC change study (Meshesha et al., 2016;
Rawat and Kumar, 2015). The space borne imagery helps in assess-
ing and monitoring the environmental impacts due to its synaptic
and repetitive coverage and this tool is very useful for cost effective
decision making (Giriraj et al., 2008). Usually, the most standard
method used for land use land cover change detection is the post
classification comparison method, which entails the comparison
of independently produced classified images (Singh, 1989). Earlier
studies established the potential of various methods of classifiers
vis unsupervised classification with ISODATA cluster algorithm
(Boakey et al., 2008; Chitade and Katyar, 2010; Omo-Irabor,
2016; Rao and Narendra, 2006), supervised classification with max-
imum likelihood classifier (Ma et al., 2017; Toren and Unal, 2001; Yan
et al., 2006) visual interpretation technique (Khan and Javed,
2012), Support Vector Mechanism (SVM) (Otukei and Blaschke,
2010), decision tree classifier (Matinfar and Roodposhti, 2012).
In the present study, unsupervised classification has been
employed to identify land use/land cover changes, using Landsat
satellite images of the study area for the period from 1990 to
2014. The study area is being subjected to both opencast and
underground mining for more than 100 years, and definitely the
area might have experienced environmental stress, including the
land use/land cover changes. The main objective of the present
study is to understand the periodic changes in various landform
and land cover changes, and the impact of mining on the dynamics
of LULC changes.
2. Study area
Godavari Valley coalfields encompass Pranahita – Godavari
river valleys and cover an area of 9000 km2. Based on geographical
and geological aspects, these coal fields are divided into twelve
coal belts – Tandur, north and south Godavari coal fields, Karlapalli,
Ramagundam etc., of which Ramagundam coal field is located
along the western margin of the Godavari river valley. Currently,
15 opencast and 35 underground mines are being operated in
the Godavari valley area by the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd.
It is estimated that around 2150000 million tons of non-coking
coal is reserved in Godavari Valley coal field extending to a depth
of 1200 m, and most of which lies at a depth of 300 m. Among
which, about 1040000 million tons of coal are proved as measured
and the rest of deposits are indicated/inferred (Indian Coal and
Lignite Resources, 2017). The main soil types that occur in the area
are Chalkab (43%), Dubla (28%) and black soils (29%). Godavari,
Sabari, Kinnersani, Munneru, Paleru, Akeru and Wyra are the
important rivers that flow through the area. The geology of the
Godavari Basin found three super groups namely Archaeans,
Cuddapahs (Pakhals) and the Gondwanas which are overlain by
the Deccan traps. The alluvial deposits and soil covers are quite
common through the river basin.
0 0 00
The present study area lies between 16°46 2500 – 19°54 57 N lat-
o 0 00 o 0 00
itude and 78 19 37 – 80 33 43 E longitude (Fig. 1). The total geo-
graphical area of the Godavari basin is around 312812 km2, of
which about 57000 km2 of area covers the present study. Physio-
graphically, the average elevation rises from 600 m to 1355 m in
the north-east and south-west direction and dips along the river
bank. The general slope is from west to east and follows the flow
of the river Godavari and its tributaries Pranahitha, Indravati,
Sabari, Akeru, Paleru, Maher etc. The major geological formations
in the study area consist of Archaean rocks comprising gneisses,
schists, igneous and metamorphic rocks. Generally dry climate is
recorded in the area with temperatures varying from 16 °C in
winter to 45 °C in summer. The area receives 1000 mm annual
rainfall (CWC, 2013).
Please cite this article in press as: Garai, D., Narayana, A.C. Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrs.2018.01.002
3. Material and methods
Utilizing the multi-dated Landsat data sets of Godavari basin
coal mine area, a number of digital image processing techniques
were adopted and land use/land cover maps for 5-year time inter-
val i.e., for the years 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2014 were
prepared as discussed below.
3.1. Data
The satellite data used for land use/land cover classification are
derived from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper for five–year time peri-
ods of 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010, whereas Landsat-8, OLI
and TIRS data sets are used for the year 2014. The Landsat-5 and
8 sensors have a spectral resolution of 30 m and a swath of
185 km (http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov). These satellite data sets
were obtained from the Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) (http://
glcfapp.glcf.umd.edu:8080/esdi/) and Earth Explorer (http://
earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). All the data were projected to the same
reference system UTM (zone 44) and WGS 84 datum. The study
area falls under the path 142–144 and row 46–48 in Worldwide
Reference System of Landsat. The ground truth data points were
ascertained in the month of September 2014 with the help of
Geographical Positioning System (GPS). These data were used for
classification and overall accuracy assessment of the classified
images. Employing multi-dated TM Landsat data sets of Godavari
basin coal mining area, various digital image processing techniques
were adopted to prepare LULC maps of the study area for 5-year
time interval i.e., 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2014.
3.2. Mapping and accuracy assessment
The GLCF and Earth Explorer satellite data were subject to
radiometric and geometric (ortho-rectified with UTM/WGS84pro-
jection) corrections and standard FCC were generated for land
use mapping (Prakash and Gupta, 1998). ERDAS imagine version
9.1 (Leica Geosystems, Atlanta, USA) software was used to create
false colour composite layer by stacking of five spectral bands
(band 1–5) of Landsat-5 and 8. The satellite imageries representing
six time periods on a time scale of five year period (1990, 1995,
2000, 2005, 2010 and 2014) were clipped using AOI tools in ERDAS
Imagine.
First, the satellite images were visually interpreted, followed by
the classification of land use/land cover. Six major land use/land
cover classes were implemented by unsupervised classification
method employing ISODATA (Tou and Gonzalez, 1974) technique
with the help of ERDAS Imagine 9.1 software (Areendran et al.,
2013). Post-classified images were cleaned for obtaining better
accuracy results and for reduction of misclassification (Harris and
Ventura, 1995). While classifying the images, mixed pixels cause
a common problem because of the medium spatial resolution of
the Landsat data sets (Lu and Weng, 2005). In order to fix this prob-
lem, mixed pixels were addressed by visual interpretation with the
help of recode process and AOI tool all the six classes of the classi-
fied images were cleaned and recoded (Areendran et al., 2011).
Accuracy assessment has been carried out by employing the
’confusion matrix’ (Story and Congalton, 1986) and ’Kappa’ analysis
(Lea and Curtis, 2010) and images were evaluated. Stratified
random sampling method was used for the assessment in ERDAS
imagine 9.1 software.
3.3. Change detection
To obtain changes of the land cover classes during the study
period i.e., from 1990 to 2014, the change matrix were generated
 D. Garai, A.C. Narayana / Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. xxx (2018) xxx–xxx 3

Fig. 1. Map of the study area showing the coal mine areas in the Godavari River Basin.

by cross tabulation analysis on a pixel by pixel basis as suggested ðpresent LULC area  prev ious LULC areaÞ
Change percentage ð%Þ ¼
by Munsi et al. (2009). Land use/land cover area distribution prev ious LULC area
results were used to compute the trend, net change, percent  100
change and rate of LULC change between the years 1990 and
1995, 1995 and 2000, 2000 and 2005, 2005 and 2010, and for the
period 1990 and 2014. 3.4. Rate of LULC change

3.3.1. Percent change estimation LULC change data were used to obtain the rate of change during
To compute the change in percentage (%), initial and final LULC the period 1990–2014. The rate of change of LULC follows compound
areal coverage was compared using the following formula: interest and can be obtained by the formula (Puyravaud, 2003):

Please cite this article in press as: Garai, D., Narayana, A.C. Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrs.2018.01.002
4 D. Garai, A.C. Narayana / Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

A
r ¼ 1=t 2  t1  ln2 =A1  100
where, A1 and A2 are the areas of land cover classes correspond to
year t2 and t1 respectively.
4. Results and discussion
Six major land use land cover categories -water body, mining
area, forest cover, built-up area, barren land and agricultural land
- were recorded in the study area. The land use/land cover maps
of the study area for six different time periods are presented in
Fig. 2a–f. Spatial distribution and area statistics of six land use/land
cover categories are shown in Table 1. Percentages of the area cov-
ered by each land use land cover category are also shown in Table 1.
Table 2 depicts the magnitude of change in different land use land
cover categories in 5-year time span from 1990 to 2014. The rate of
change of the land cover classes during the each 5 year time span is
shown in Table 3. Table 4 gives the land use transformation matri-
ces for the study period from the year1990 to 2014.
4.1. Areal extent and change of LULC
The results on various landform cover extents and their changes
are presented in Fig. 2a–f and Tables 1–4. The high altitude areas
are mainly covered by forest and the low lying areas by agricultural
land. Built-up area is distributed mostly in agricultural land.
Opencast coal mines are seen mostly along the bank of river
Godavari.
The water body of the study area shows increasing trend from
1990 to 2005 covering an area of 1577 km2 (2.77%) in the year
1990 and 2106 km2 (3.70%) in the year 2005 (Table 1). However,
the total area of water body has decreased to 1874 km2 (3.29%)
in the year 2014.
The coal mining area that had spread over 25 km2 in 1990
(0.04%), increased to 72 km2 in 2005 (0.13%) and again it increased
to 130 km2 in the year 2014 (0.23%). The net increase of mining
area is 410% from the year 1990 to 2014. The mining area com-
prises the opencast coal mines and overburden dumps. As a conse-
quence, the area of mining and overburden dumps show constant
increase in their aerial extents during the study period.
The forest cover comprises nearly 30% of the study area and
forms an important land cover class. It is observed that the forest
cover has decreased from 20692 Km2 (36.38%) in the year 1990
to 18746 Km2 (32.95%) in the year 2005, and further decreased
to 18010 Km2 (31.67%) by the year 2014. The decrease of forest
cover may be due to establishment of industries such as thermal
power station, paper mill, and opening of new mine pits as most
of the coal mines are situated in dense forest cover.
The rural and urban settlements were found spreading over
agricultural land causing the increase in built-up area. With the
advent of increasing mining activity and industrial development,
the residential/built-up area has also increased. The built-up area
was 191.5 km2 in the year 1990 (0.34%), which gradually increased
to 294 km2 (0.52%), 407 km2 (0.72%) and 416 km2 (0.73%) in the
year 1995, 2000 and 2005 respectively. It again increased to 482
km2 (0.85%) in the year 2010 and 509 km2 (0.89%) in the year
2014 showing a net increase of 318 km2 (166%) from the year
1990 to 2014 (Tables 1 and 2).
The land cover category of barren land increased from 570 km2
(1.0%) in the year 1990 to 911 km2 (1.60%) in the year 1995 and to
970 km2 (1.71%) in the year 2000. However, barren land decreased
to 731 km2 (1.29%) in the year 2005, increased to 855 km2 (1.5%) in
the year 2010 and 960 Km2 (1.69%) in the year 2014 (Table 1). A
net increase of 390 km2 (68.42%) of barren land is observed during
the period from 1990 to 2014 (Tables 1 and 2).
The study reveals that 60% of the Godavari coal field area is cov-
ered with agricultural land, which comprises of plantation, crop
land and fallow land. In the year 1990, 33814 km2 of the area
was covered with agricultural land, which gradually increased to
35387 km2 (62.22%) in the year 2014 (Table 1). A 5-year time scale

Fig. 2. The maps depicting the land use/land cover changes in the Godavari coal field area during the study period from 1990 to 2014. (a) Land use/land cover extents in the
year 1990, (b) land use/land cover extents in the year1995, (c) Land use/land cover extents in the year 2000, (d) Land use/land cover extents in the year 2005, (e) Land
use/land cover extents in the year 2010, and (f) Land use/land cover extents in the year 2014.

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 D. Garai, A.C. Narayana / Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. xxx (2018) xxx–xxx 5

Table 1
Areal distribution of LULC classes in the Godavari coal field area (expressed in km2; values in parenthesis indicate percentages).

LULC classes 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014

Water body 1576.97 1910.4 1928.11 2106.44 1809.22 1873.8
(2.77) (3.36) (3.39) (3.70) (3.18) (3.29)
Mining area 25.43 59.91 70.06 72.34 113.09 129.63
(0.04) (0.11) (0.12) (0.13) (0.19) (0.23)
Forest cover 20692.1 19420.9 19052.9 18747.2 18204.64 18009.8
(36.38) (34.15) (33.50) (32.96) (32.01) (31.67)
Built up area 191.5 293.52 407.2 416.04 481.88 509.25
(0.34) (0.52) (0.72) (0.73) (0.85) (0.89)
Barren land 570.41 911.28 970.84 731.28 855.48 960.68
(1.00) (1.60) (1.71) (1.29) (1.50) (1.69)
Agriculture 33814.1 34274.5 34441.4 34797.21 35406.2 35387.35
(59.46) (60.27) (60.56) (61.19) (62.26) (62.22)

(Values in brackets shows the area in%).

Table 2
Net Change in areal extent (km2) of land cover (values in parenthesis show changes in percentages).

LULC classes 1990–1995 1995–2000 2000–2005 2005–2010 2010–2014 Net change

1990–2014
Water body 333.43 17.71 178.33 297.22 64.58 296.83
(21.14) (0.92) (9.23) (14.11) (3.57) (18.82)
Mining area 34.48 10.15 2.28 40.75 16.54 104.2
(135.58) (16.94) (3.25) (56.33) (14.63) (409.75)
Forest cover 1271.2 368 305.7 542.56 194.84 2682.3
(6.14) (1.89) (1.60) (2.89) (1.07) (12.96)
Built up area 102.02 113.68 8.84 65.84 27.37 317.75
(53.27) (38.72) (2.17) (15.82) (5.8) (165.92)
Barren land 340.87 59.56 239.56 124.2 105.2 390.27
(59.75) (6.53) (24.68) (16.98) (12.29) (68.42)
Agriculture 460.4 166.9 355.81 608.99 18.85 1573.25
(1.36) (0.48) (1.03) (1.75) (0.05) (4.65)

Table 3
Rate of change in land use/land cover of the Godavari coalfield area (change expressed in km2/year).

LULC classes 1990–1995 1995–2000 2000–2005 2005–2010 2010–2014 Net change

1990–2014
Water body 3.83 0.18 1.77 3.04 0.87 0.72
Mining area 17.14 3.13 0.64 8.93 3.41 6.78
Forest cover 1.26 0.38 0.32 0.58 0.27 0.58
Built up area 8.54 6.55 0.43 2.93 0.01 4.08
Barren land 9.37 1.26 5.67 3.13 0.09 2.17
Agriculture 0.27 0.09 0.20 0.34 0.01 0.19

Table 4
Transition Matrix of land use change in Godavari basin mining area from 1990 to 2014 (km2).

LULC classes Water body Mining area Forest cover Built- up area Barren land Agriculture Total in 1990
Water body 1214 0.71 21.48 2.30 3.49 335 1577
Mining area 0.24 19.04 0.18 2.73 0.63 2.61 25.43
Forest cover 55.17 34.48 16386 23.20 73.8 4120 20692
Built- up area 3.02 2.65 4.00 131 5.72 45 191
Barren land 5.02 4.72 54.59 6.65 207 292 570
Agriculture 597 68 1544 343 670 30592 33814
Total in 2014 1874 130 18010 509 961 35387

reveals that the agricultural land cover extends to 34275 km2
(60.27%), 34441 km2 (60.56%), 34797 km2 (61.19%) and 35406
km2 (62.26%) of the area in the years 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010
respectively (Tables 1 and 2).
Forest and agriculture land constitute the major part of the
study area. It can be observed from the data that there is an
increase in area of all the landforms from the year 1990 to 2014,
except the forest cover (Table 1). Maximum positive change is
observed in the mining area, particularly during 1990–1995,
whereas maximum negative change is recorded in the barren land
during the year 2000–2005 (Table 2). Maximum increase in the
mining area and consequently the maximum decrease in forest
cover are observed during 1990–2014. It is observed that natural
and anthropogenic activities have caused significant change in land
use/ land cover in the Godavari coal field area during the period
from 1990 to 2014. Accuracy assessment of results of the land
use/land cover change show that the overall accuracy and kappa
coefficient (K) were found at 92% and 0.90 respectively for LULC
change for the year 2014, suggesting level of accuracy is good
enough to assess the land use and detection of change analysis.

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6 D. Garai, A.C. Narayana / Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
4.2. Rate of LULC change
The rates of change in LULC are shown in Table 3. It is observed
that the water body shows an increase, but at a slow rate, except
during the year 2005–2010 which shows a decrease in rate of
change (3.04 km2/year), but maximum gain in change rate
(3.83 km2/year) is recorded during the year 1990–1995. Results
show that the net rate of change of water body is 0.72 km2/year
during the study period. Change rate of mining and built-up area
is observed increasing continuously during the study period with
a net rate of change of 6.78 and 4.08 km2/year respectively. Mining
and built-up areas witnessed maximum increment in change rate
at 17.10 km2/year and 8.54 km2/year respectively during the per-
iod 1990–1995. The net rate of change of forest cover is 0.58
km2/year for the study period, while it is highest (1.26 km2/year)
during 1990–1995. The barren land exhibits net positive rate of
change of 2.17 km2/year during the total study period, while
recording maximum increase in change rate (9.37 km2/year) dur-
ing the year 1990–1995, and maximum decrease in change rate
(5.67 km2/year) observed during the years 2000–2005. The
results further suggest a decrease in rate of change (0.01 km2/
year) in agriculture land during the years 2010–2014, while there
was an increase in rate of change (0.34 km2/year) during the period
2005–2010 and the net change for the total study period is 0.19
km2/year.
4.3. Transition matrix
The transition matrix (Table 4) shows the conversion of one
land cover class to another one. The water body of 1214 km2 extent
was retained from 1990 to 2014, while the net increase of water
body mainly comes from the agricultural area (597 Km2) and also
observed that the conversion of water body to other land cover
class is very minimal, except the agricultural land cover. An area
of 35 km2 of forest cover and 68 km2 of agriculture land have been
converted to mining area during 1990–2014, resulting in a net
increase of 104 km2 of mining area. On the other hand, transition
from mining to other classes was very less. The transition from for-
est cover to agricultural is more prominent during the study per-
iod. Forest cover of 4236 km2 has been lost mainly to agricultural
land from 1990 to 2014, i.e., out of 33814 km2 of agriculture area
in the year 1990, 30592 km2 area still falls under agriculture cover
in the year 2014. About 3220 km2 of area was converted to other
classes such as water body, forest cover, mining area and barren
land. The transformation of agriculture land to built-up has been
amounted to 343 km2 from the year 1990 to 2014. An extent of
74 km2 of forest cover and 670 km2 of agriculture land were con-
verted to barren land from 1990 to 2014, whereas only 293 km2
of barren land has been converted to agriculture land during the
year from 1990 to 2014 and 207 km2 retained as barren land.
The increase of agricultural land mainly comes from forest cover
that extends up to 4120 km2 during the study period. There is a fall
of 4.72% (36.38% to 31.67%) in the forest cover during the period
from 1990 to 2014; out of which major part i.e., 2.77% has gone
to agriculture, 0.69% to barren land, 0.56% to built-up area, 0.52%
has been converted to water bodies and lastly about 0.18% has
gone to mining sector.
5. Conclusion
The remote sensing and GIS tools have been applied to analyze
land use/land cover changes in the Godavari coal field area. Six
major LULC classes have been clearly identified from the mining
area of Godavari basin. The study also provides the trend of major
changes in the land use/land cover classes of study area during the
Please cite this article in press as: Garai, D., Narayana, A.C. Egypt. J. Remote Sensing Space Sci. (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrs.2018.01.002
time period from 1990 to 2014. It is observed there is a direct
impact of mining on forest cover along with other factors. This
study helps that in decision making for land reclamation and land
management in the Godavari coal field area of India. Some earlier
studies suggest that Landsat data may not be suitable in delin-
eation of open cast mining area, due to spatial complexity and
spectral heterogeneity. However some other studies suggest that
TM images of Landsat data can be effectively used for land use/land
cover analysis. However, our study, employing Landsat-5 (TM) and
Landsat-8 (OLI & TIRS) has given satisfactorily results for classifica-
tion of six major land cover classes of Godavari mine area.
Conflict of Interest
None.
Acknowledgements
First author thanks the University Grants Commission for the
research fellowship. Authors thank T. Suryanarayana for his help
in the statistical analysis of the data. The valuable suggestions of
the reviewers, which helped in improving the manuscript, are
gratefully acknowledged.
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