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Development of Application Software for automatic detection of changes in spatial features over space and time
P. Vijay Sagar, R. Sivaganesavelan EGIS Solutions Private Limited, Chennai, India G. B Sukumaran Professor and Head, Department of Geology, Presidency College, Chennai, India Maheswari Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts and Science For Women, Coimbatore, India Uma Avinashi College of Arts and Science, Deemed University, Coimbatore, India Introduction The land – use change significantly due to various physical and socio – economic factors. The land – use pattern of an area is directly related with the level of tecno – economic advancement and the nature and degree pf covo;osatopm pf ots omahabitants (Whyte, 1961). Land – use is a dynamic phenomenon and both its value and pattern changes from one particular point of time to another and also from one geographical unit to another with varying efficiencies, abilities, priorities and needs (Bisht and Tiwari, 1996). The changes in land – use or land – cover due to natural and human activities can be observed using current and archived remotely sensed data (Luong, 1993) as information on land – use / land – cover pattern, their spatial distribution and changes over a time scale are the prerequisites for making development plans. Remote sensing plays a key role in providing information regarding the spatial distribution of various landuse classes, and multi-temporal data aids in detecting the changes that have taken place in a given terrain. Quantification of such changes is possible through GIS techniques even if the resultant spatial datasets are on different scales / resolutions. Change detection studies recognize that the biotic and abiotic components of the biosphere are linked and that human impacts on the earth now approach the global scale of biosphere processes (Hobbs, ed. 1990). However, no software can provide a full fledged solution to many of the problems posed by the user, and similarly it is very difficult to analyse spatial data in a GIS environment as intended by the user, and as many GIS software is provided with an extension tool which enables the user to create his own application software modules using these tools. In this context, an attempt is made to detect the changes automatically that have taken place in a given terrain over a period of time as it is often essential for academicians and decision makers. Study Area The area chosen is part of the Palar River basin, in the state of Tamilnadu, India. The following figures show the two time data of the part basin considered for the years 1980 and 2000.  
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