Urbanization Induced Land Use-Land Cover Changes in the Manipur Valley and Surrounding Hills: A Landscape Metrics Approach

The impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) change in Manipur valley and its surrounding hills have important implications for the management and conservation of natural resources. This study examines the spatial and temporal patterns of LULC change along the boundary of Manipur valley from 1989 to 2015. Land use assessed during the period 1989–2015 using the maximum likelihood classifier indicates that there has been a significant increase (387%) in urban area, with a consequent reduction in the vegetation cover. The increase in open forest categories occurred at the expense of dense forests, which decreased at an average annual rate of 4462 ha year⁻¹, or at 5.3% annually. The Shannon’s Entropy computed using temporal data illustrates that Manipur valley and its neighboring hills were experiencing urban sprawl in all directions as entropy values were closer to the threshold. Spatial metrics at landscape level reveal that the landscape had a highly fragmented forest class and built-up area started clumping in all directions. The total number of dense forest patches increased by 63%, and mean size of forest patch (MPS) decreased from 2.4 to 0.3 ha during a period of 25 years. The number of smaller patches (in the 0–100 ha size class) increased, indicating that a more fragmented landscape accrued over time; this is a development that might create a risk for the maintenance of biodiversity in the remaining forested area in and around the valley. The results show that urbanization became an important determinant of LULC changes in the valley and with the increase of urban development, most forest lands have been converted to agriculture or settlement.