Mapping and Identification of Homegardens as a Component of the Trees Outside Forests Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System

The homegardens represent an important component of the trees outside forests (TOF) in the rural ecosystem which fulfill a range of subsistence and economic needs besides providing many environmental services. The present work was focused on the identification and mapping of rural homegardens as a component of the trees outside forests in the larger landscape of the three districts—Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj, of Barak Valley, Assam, northeast India. Mapping and identification of homegardens and other dominant land use/land cover classes was done with IRS-P6 LISS-IV data using on-screen visual interpretation technique in a geographic information system environment. Two major TOF classes could be identified from the satellite data and homegardens were found to be the dominant TOF class with the highest percentage coverage of the total geographical area in the three districts. The study reveals that high resolution satellite data of IRS-P6 LISS-IV can be successfully used for classification and mapping of different land use/land cover classes including the homegardens with an overall classification accuracy of 91 %. The land use/land cover map generated for the three districts shows the distribution of the homegardens in relation to other land use/land cover classes and can be used in future for proper identification of homegardens and resource management planning.