Integrated Approach for Sustainable Management of Natural Resources for Rural Development

Abstract

Land and forest resources are limited and their wide utilization is imperative, especially for countries like India. All over the world these resources are dynamic and always affected by anthropogenic activities. In developing countries due to the high rate of urbanization, fringe areas are developing spontaneously in unplanned manner. This uncontrolled, haphazard growth and poor management may prove very costly to resolve process of sustainable development. Urbanization is unavoidable process which converts productive rural lands into urban use and it left serious impact on natural resources utilization. Here, an attempt has been made to provide information on the natural resource of rural area to support their sustainable use and implement an integrated innovative approach and mechanism on micro watershed level. In India, many rural development programs considered watershed as a planning unit for overall sustainable management and development of natural resources. Information on existing land cover and changes through time is prime pre requisites for sustainable management and such information can be generated from remotely sensed data. In the present research work, IRS LISS III multi temporal satellite data of 23.5 meter spatial resolution has been used and obtained results shows that there is loss in quality of land and forest cover of the study area. It is anticipated that such changes may affect the natural ecosystem of the watershed hence spatial planning is required for the reclamation of natural resources of the study area.