Atiya Hameed

The Indus delta is one of the largest mangrove forests in the world. Over 600,000 hectares of Pakistan's coastline is under mangrove vegetation and has been described as being threatened by human encroachment. This study aims to utilize remote sensing techniques to analyze mangrove forest land cover change that has occurred in the study area during 1975 to 200 I. Mangrove extent and quality monitoring is a complex task because of its geographic conditions. For this study Landsat Images of 1975 (MSS), 1989 (TM) and 2001 (ETM+) were used for digital image processing (DIP) techniques, unsupervised classification, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), principal components analysis (PCA), tasseled cap transformation techniques, image differencing method and land use/ land cover (LULC) mapping. The analysis showed that mangrove forest increased by about 13.8% between 1975 and 1989, in 1989-2001 mangrove forest decreased by about 1.41 % and overall between 1975 and 2001 this mangrove forest increased by 12.4%. Based on the results, mangrove forest of the study area has increased in fact very dramatically in contrast to what has often been reported. It is also identified that the methodology I explored to perform mangrove forest change analysis has some limitations which can effects the results of this analysis. The present study determines the pattern of land-cover and vegetation changes that have occurred in the land-cover from 1975 to 2001 and recommends planning measures to protect this ecosystem especially where it has decreased to prevent further losses recommending continuous monitoring.