Spatio-temporal analysis of river channel pattern in lower course of River Ravi using GIS and remote sensing

This study aims to detect changes that occurred in Ravi River channel over the period of last three decades (1990 to 2020). This paper spatially and temporally assesses the changes and geo-visualize variation of Ravi River using Landsat imageries. The maximum likelihood image classification technique has been used to process and analyze the spatial data in geographic information system (GIS) environment. It was found from the results that vegetation cover has gradually decreased from 976 km² in 1990 to 905 km² in 2019, whereas the built-up land had increased from 82 to 188 km² in the same temporal extent. Generally, the channel is shifted from east to west and the growth of built-up land to towards river which has pushed the channel. Similarly, the extreme discharge also causes change in channel shifting. Minor floods have been occurred after 2010 but Ravi is not affected much as their discharge was not that much higher to put any abrupt or significant effect on Ravi River’s channel pattern.