Dynamic of population growth and its effect on land use/land cover of bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh

Studying the dynamics of land use and land cover change (LULC) is essential to the formulation of land-use policy. This study describes the spatial–temporal changes in land use and land cover (LULC) in the Bahraich district and the underlying mechanisms behind these changes. To detect the land transformation, satellite images for over 30 years (1991–2021) have been used. Five major LULC classes (agriculture, forest, water bodies, built-up area, and sand) have been taken into consideration for analyzing the land transformation. The aim of the study is to find out the level at which the LULC changes have taken place and their correlation with the population dynamism. It has been found that the population growth in the Bahraich district has a very strong correlation with LULC classes defined in this study which includes both natural and anthropogenic features. In these 30 years, natural features like waterbody (− 74.01%), fallow land (− 72.89%), forest (− 26.20%), and sand (− 38%) have seen a major loss in the area coverage due to extensive anthropogenic activities. These classes are strongly correlated with human population growth with Rho values of − .963, − .947, − .983, and − .830, respectively. Other classes such as built-up and agriculture have shown a strong positive correlation with the expension of human population. The Rho values of built-up and agriculture are noted to be .982 and .986, respectively, whereas the increase in the area of land surface cover is found to be 394.57% and 43.04% respectively. This signifies that the geometrical progression in the human population has amplified anthropogenic activities vastly, resulting in the loss of areal extent of natural classes such as water bodies, forest, fallow land, and sand and increment in the area extent of human-induced activities such as agriculture and built-up. For the abovementioned analysis, Landsat 4–5 TM images for the year 1991 and 2007 and Landsat 8 OLI images for the year 2021 have been used. The results have shown that although the study area is rich in biodiversity, yet it has been facing escalating environmental issues due to acute land surface transformation resulting majorly due to human-induced activities. The majority of the transitions are reversible. The research area’s LULC change processes are primarily influenced by socioeconomic, demographic, and proximity variables. The findings will be useful in modelling future LULC situations as a direction for land management policies.