Spatio-temporal patterns of land use and cropping frequency in a tropical catchment of South India

India's rapid population and economic growth leads to fast changing land use and management practices that have a major impact on the environment. Therefore, this study assesses spatio-temporal dynamics of land use and cropping frequencies using moderate resolution spaceborne data (Landsat 7 and LISS III). Based on a hierarchical knowledge-based classification approach, multi-temporal satellite data from the years 2000/2001 and 2010/2011 have been used to derive land use and cropping frequency maps. The approach adopted in this study resulted in a satisfactory classification quality as indicated by overall accuracies >90% for the individual classifications. A reduced land use pressure on mountainous areas was found, indicated by an increasing development of forests within the transition zones between cultivated land and steep slopes. Furthermore, an increase of tree plantations points to a shift from drought vulnerable plants to less risk prone perennial plants. We found a higher cropping frequency in 2010/11 related to both inter-annual precipitation differences over the course of the rainy season and long-term socio-economic changes. While low yield areas are left for natural succession or switched to tree plantations, the cultivation of high yield areas was intensified.