Land Use & Land Cover Change Detection and Environmental Impact Assessment in Ayodhya: A Geospatial Synthesis through GIS and Remote Sensing

This research tries to understand how the land use and environment of Ayodhya district havechanged between the years 2000 and 2025. Over the last few years, Ayodhya has gone through alot of development—especially after the decision to build the Ram Mandir. Roads, railwaystations, airports, and many other construction projects have changed the way the land is beingused.In this study, we used satellite images and GIS (Geographic Information System) technology tostudy these changes. With the help of Landsat satellite data, we classified the land into five maintypes: water, green cover, agriculture, built-up areas, and barren land. We then comparedthese categories from the years 2000 and 2025 to see how much they changed.We also used different spectral indices like NDVI, SAVI, NDWI, and MNDWI to understandvegetation health, moisture levels, and green growth. Our analysis showed that while built-upareas increased rapidly (especially after 2019), agricultural land reduced. Green cover alsoincreased, but this includes all types of greenery (not just forests). Water areas decreased slightly,and some water bodies were hard to detect due to tree cover and satellite resolution limits.We faced some technical challenges while calculating temperature (LST) and built-up index(NDBD), so we excluded those parts. All maps were prepared and post-processed using GoogleEarth Engine, QGIS, and ArcGIS Pro. The results were analyzed in Google Sheets.This research shows that Ayodhya’s rapid development is reshaping its land use and environment.While growth brings opportunities, it also creates challenges for sustainable resourcemanagement. GIS and remote sensing methods provide an effective way to monitor thesechanges and can help future planners make better decisions for balanced development.