Assessment of Spatio-Temporal changes of Forest Cover using Remote Sensing techniques in Pavagadh Region, Gujarat State

For effective forest management, it is essential to consider forest patterns and periodic changes in forest cover. Several spectral vegetation indices derived from multi-temporal Remote Sensing data are useful to track the changes over time. The major objective of this study was to monitor the changes in forest cover during the past three decades in the Pavagadh area of Panchmahal district, Gujarat State, India. Various indices like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Land Surface Temperature, and Urban Thermal Field Variance Index (UTFVI) with the Ecological Evaluation Index were analyzed for assessment of Spatio-temporal changes in the forest cover. Multi-temporal Landsat-TM and OLI sensor data for the years 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2021 were utilized covering the study area. The results indicated that the total forest cover area has gradually increased from 1991 to 2021 and the total forest area has doubled during this period of 30 years. The comparative study of NDVI and Land Surface Temperature map brings out a significant fact that in the areas where moderate and dense forest cover is present, the Land Surface Temperature was lower as compared to areas with poor vegetation cover. This indicates that there is an inverse relationship between forest cover distribution and Land Surface Temperature. However, the Ecological evaluation index shows that the forest vegetation quality is gradually improving to normal conditions with the excellent category and UTFVI value (< 0) in reference to the year 1991.