Land Use Land Cover Classification and Spatial Analysis of Bihar Using QGIS

Project Overview

This project presents a Land Use Land Cover (LULC) classification and spatial analysis of Bihar using the ESRI Global Land Cover dataset (10 m resolution) in QGIS. The workflow involved raster reclassification of detailed land cover classes into broader categories, followed by binary classification to isolate individual land cover types for class-specific analysis.

The project demonstrates the application of GIS techniques for land cover mapping, spatial analysis, and visualization.

Study Area

Bihar, India

Original ESRI LULC Dataset

Reclassified LULC Map

The original land cover classes were reclassified into the following major categories:

• Water Bodies
• Vegetation
• Agriculture
• Built-up Area
• Bare Land

Binary classification rasters were generated for each major land cover class by separating the target class from all other land cover categories.

• Water vs Non-Water
• Vegetation vs Non-Vegetation
• Agriculture vs Non-Agriculture
• Built-up Area vs Non-Built-up Area
• Bare Land vs Non-Bare Land

Binary Classification Outputs

Dataset

• ESRI Global Land Cover Dataset (2024)
• Spatial Resolution: 10 m
• Study Area: Bihar, India

Software and Tools Used

• QGIS
• Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP)
• Raster Calculator
• Raster Reclassification Tools
• QGIS Layout Manager

Methodology

1. Downloaded ESRI LULC raster dataset.
2. Imported raster into QGIS.
3. Examined existing land cover classes.
4. Reclassified detailed classes into:
   • Water Bodies
   • Agricultural Area
   • Vegetation
   • Built-up Areas
   • Barren Land
5. Generated binary classification rasters for individual classes.
6. Generated thematic maps.
7. Calculated area statistics for each class.

Results

The reclassified land cover map of Bihar revealed the following distribution:

Class	Area (km²)	Percentage
Agriculture	59,650	67.74%
Built-up Area	16,490	18.72%
Vegetation	9,205	10.45%
Water Bodies	1,823	2.07%
Bare Land	896	1.02%

Total Area Analyzed: 88,056 km²

Skills Demonstrated

• GIS Analysis
• LULC Analysis
• Raster Processing
• Raster Reclassification
• Binary Classification
• Spatial Analysis
• Cartographic Visualization
• QGIS

Siddharth Gupta

B.Tech Geoinformatics

Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT)