Land-use and land-cover change detection in Pipestem Creek watershed, North Dakota

Satellite imagery provides an effective platform to detect land-use and land-cover changes over a period of time. The changing land-use patterns over the years are an indicator to prioritize vulnerable areas to conversion processes within the Pipestem Creek Watershed of North Dakota, USA. The study demonstrates the applicability of remote sensing science in change detection. Landsat Thematic Mapper images acquired from the years 1976, 1991, 2000, 2005 and 2011 were used to quantify temporal changes from 1976 to 2011 by image classification techniques. Data analysis and classification were done using the remote sensing software ENVI® 4.5. Post classification confusion matrices were generated to obtain accuracy assessment. The results quantify the land-cover change patterns in the watershed and demonstrate the potential of Landsat data in providing an accurate and cost effective way to analyze land-cover changes over time. This data can be utilized as essential inputs in land management and policy making.