Impact of land use on environmental quality due to urbanization a case study-Tirumangalam Taluk, Madurai

Large amount of natural lands have been converted to urban due to rapid population growth and rural to urban migration. Prior land use pattern also getting changed in their activities. Finding out the ways and means for protection of land using environmental quality is the need of the hour. Sustainable land management is a critical challenge of earth system and resources on the land. Protection of productive agriculture land has become a major priority in many regions of the world. Impact can be defined as any change in the physical, chemical, cultural (or) socio-economic, environmental system as a result of activities related to that of land use. In particular the changes of Land Use and Land Cover modify the physical parameter of earth surface thus affecting material and energy interchanges between land and atmosphere. LULC -change directly impacts bio diversity, modifying the composition, and structure of ecosystem. Agricultural land used as an urban area have significant (-ve) effects on the environmental quality as they generate environmental problems such as impact of the water cycle, impact on the ground (or) surface water, emission of water pollutants, air pollutant, soil degradation etc. This research is mainly concentrates on LULC - change by using Quantum GIS Software (QGIS). The range of land use conversions is identified and the ways means for the various impacts are analysed based on LULC. This research paper has identified the ranges in variations of land use and degradation of the environmental quality.