Agroforestry and grassland mapping in two districts of Uttarakhand through geospatial technology

Abstract

An assessment of agroforestry and grassland resources was done in two districts (Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi) of Uttarakhand state using medium resolution remote sensing LISS-3 data. Both pixel and sub-pixel classifiers were applied and area under agroforestry and grassland were estimated. Estimated area under agroforestry in Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi districts was 2286.31 ha (1.15%) and 5147.45 ha (0.64%), respectively. Grassland was estimated to be 18.87 and 10.88% in Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi districts, respectively. Classification accuracy of 84.4% with kappa of 0.829 was found in Rudraprayag district, whereas it was 83.8% with kappa of 0.822 in Uttarkashi district. Thus geospatial technologies can successfully be used for accurate assessment of natural resources like grassland and agroforestry, which will facilitate in better planning towards their sustainable management.