摘要：An understanding of the landscape dynamics has great implications for land management. Knowing the landscape structure, the nature and magnitude of its changes, and how it affects landscape processes are essential in the sound management of lands and their resources. To develop appropriate mapping and landscape structural change assessment techniques, a case study of a case study of Birbhum district, west bengal, India, was conducted. Adopting a post-classification change detection method, the study used Topo Map(1973) and Liss-III (1997) imagery. The land use/cover maps produced were then utilised as input to GIS-based landscape pattern calculation software to generate landscape structure indices. The study has yielded information about the degrading state of the landscape in lateritic patch. The forest areas have become more fragmented, mainly due to human interfere: they are characterised by the proliferation of small, less connected vegetation patches. This study highlighted the valuable use of remote sensing and GIS in mapping and analysis of landscape change. The critical issues identified include the difference in sensor spatial resolution and the shortcomings in calculating other spatial processes in land transformation.
