Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics and Precipitation Trend of Lower Vellar basin, Tamil Nadu, India and its Impact on 2015 Flood

Abstract

Abstract Flood is the most destructive disaster which causes loss of human life and the economy. Recently Tamil Nadu has been facing floods frequently. Chennai and Cuddalore districts were affected heavily by the 2015 flood. Cuddalore district comes under the lower vellar basin. This research aims to determine the change in land use land cover and rainfall trend of the lower vellar basin and its impact on flood. The Land use land cover map was prepared for the lower vellar basin for a temporal variation of 5 years for 2005, 2010, and 2015 using remote sensing data (Landsat images) and software (Arc GIS and ERDAS). The settlement has increased, and barren Land has reduced. However, there is no significant change in Waterbodies, forests, littoral swamps and plantations. Daily precipitation data of 30 years are collected, and trend analysis is done using Mann-Kendall (MK) method. Out of the 11 rain gauge stations, 4 stations show a positive precipitation trend. The settlement in 2015 was nearly 2% only in the total area, showing a sustainable land use development. Compared to precipitation, land use and land cover change has minimum effect on the flood.