LAND USE (LU) AND LAND COVER (LC) CHANGE ASSESSMENTS USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS AT RAWAL LAKE WATERSHED, ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

The goal of the current study is to use multispectral satellite images from the years 2010 and 2021 to document changes in land use and land cover (LULC) in the Rawal Lake Watershed. The purpose was to assess the shifts in LULC that have taken place in the area during the period of study. This study's objective is to evaluate the numerous LULC shifts that have occurred in Pakistan's Rawal Lake Watershed between 2010 and 2021. A supervised technique that made use of a likelihood classification was employed for the classification goal and the creation of LULC maps for the various periods that were selected. The results show that the LULC underwent considerable changes across the study periods. In the area under investigation, different types of LULC change were discovered to be taking place. All classes experienced an increase in their LULC change, apart from the bare land class, where a reduction was seen. To determine the calibre of the information derived from the data, accuracy analysis and Kappa assessment tests of images taken in 2010 and 2021 were conducted. These results show that for the categorization of images from the years 2010 and 2021, the classification performance accuracy rates that were achieved were 90.4 % and 90.0 %, and the total kappa percentages reached 87.3 % and 86 %, respectively. The results showed that the five separate LULC classes that have been identified all showed LULC changes. Due to all of this, adequate watershed planning, management, and resource preservation must be devised to protect the resources belonging to the LULC class that are situated within this watershed