Quantifying the influence of Chashma Right Bank Canal on land-use/land-cover and cropping pattern using remote sensing

Abstract

The goal of this research is to employ remote sensing to assess the influence of the Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) on land-use/land-cover (LULC) changes and cropping patterns in the Dera Ismail Khan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. LULC changes and cropping patterns were quantified using multi-temporal Landsat images from 1990 to 2018. Our finding revealed that between 1990 and 2018, agriculture, build-up, and water bodies increased by 52.22%, 5.44%, and 2.06% respectively, at the cost of decreasing barren land (50.27%), sand (5.05%), and shrubland (4.41%). Similarly, between 1997 and 2017, crop types such as sugarcane, and rice field increased by 19.77%, and 1.79%, whereas wheat decreased by 22.23%. We found that CRBC significantly altered the LULC of the study area, resulting in favorable changes in land-cover and cropping patterns, emphasizing the relevance of irrigation projects.