Use of gis to evaluate the importance of flood plain features to rural land use in bengal delta plain region: a case study of purbasthali i and ii blocks

Flood plain is relatively low lying flat, fertile land adjacent to the river, streams, lakes and estuaries/oceans which is preferable location for human habitation. People try to live in this unique ecosystem in accordance with the ecological principles. The low lying areas are normally filled up by water to form several types of water bodies like pond, lake, bills, marshy lands, ox-bow lakes etc. and provide specific ecological inputs to sustain the ecosystem of floodplain. With the rise of population, more food production requires more lands while the expanding settlement and urban area reduces this resource. These put enormous pressure which leads to destruction of the ecologically sensitive surface water bodies. Remote sensing and GIS has been used to study the land use land cover of the region and specific emphasis was given to identify and map surface water bodies. GIS helps to calculate the water holding capacity of the ponds and revealed that they can support the whole population for domestic and other uses. GIS also used to study the correlation among these features and evaluates the relationship among the geomorphic set up and the human activities. It is seen that some form of destruction has already began and actions must be taken to stop such encroachments of human activities to the environmentally sensitive features for sustainability.