Land use and land cover data of the Indian Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna Delta, 1990-2021
Pal, I., Mukhopadhyay, A. (2026). Land use and land cover data of the Indian Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna Delta, 1990-2021. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/6f56ad04-c622-49f9-9326-386f17dcd44a
The Indian Sundarban delta, part of the Sundarbans in West Bengal, exhibits diverse land use and land cover including dense mangroves, tidal creeks, mudflats, agricultural fields, aquaculture ponds, and settlements. LULC data supports monitoring of coastal erosion, salinity intrusion, cyclone impacts, and ecosystem-based management planning. Land Use-Land Cover (LULC) data for the years 1990, 1998, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2019, and 2021 were prepared using satellite imagery downloaded from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) EarthExplorer portal. Appropriate Landsat sensors corresponding to each time period were selected to ensure data consistency and availability. Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images were used for 1990, 1998, and 2000, while Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data were used for 2008 and 2010. For recent years, 2019 and 2021 were a derived product of ESRI land use land cover open source data All images were selected with minimal cloud cover and downloaded as Level-1 products. Pre-processing steps included radiometric correction, atmospheric correction, layer stacking, and subsetting to the study area. Subsequently, supervised classification using training samples was conducted to generate LULC maps. The classified outputs were then validated and reclassified into consistent land-cover categories to enable temporal comparison and change detection across the selected years.
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre