Assessment of Vegetation Condition in Lower Narmada Basin Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a widely used remote sensing technique for mapping land use and land cover (LULC) categories. This method helps in identifying different vegetation types and their health status (Tiwari et al. 2017). In the discipline of remote sensing applications, scientists have created vegetation indices to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate vegetative cover using spectral measurements. The spectral response of vegetated regions is a complicated combination of plant, soil brightness, environmental impacts, shadow, soil colour, and moisture. Furthermore, the VI is influenced by atmospheric fluctuations, both geographical and temporal, during forty vegetation indices have been established during the last two decades to improve vegetation responsiveness while minimizing the effects of the elements mentioned above (Bannari, et. al., 1995) Many river basins, investments in water infrastructure for urban, industrial, and agricultural growth are approaching or exceeding the amount of renewable water available. This over commitment of water resources is caused by disregard for environmental water requirements, incomplete hydrological knowledge, fuzzy water rights, and politically motivated projects with weak economic rationale, resulting in overbuilt river basins. The challenge for agricultural water management is to do more with less water in already stressed river basins, as well as to provide much stricter scrutiny by decision makers and civil society of new infrastructure development in relatively open river basins, in order to avoid over commitment (Molle, et. al., 2013).

STUDY AREA

India is a home to an extensive rivers network, with a total annual discharge of about 1,953 km2 (Gupta et.al. 2020). The Narmada River is the fifth-largest in India and the largest in Gujarat, spanning a total length of 1,312 km, often referred to as the lifeline of Central India, it flows through the Narmada River Basin, which extends between 72°32′ to 81°45′E longitude and 21°20′ to 23°45′N latitude, covering an area of 98,796 km² (Oza et.al, 2025). The Lower basin has major part of Gujarat state and has costal area, it covers the districts like Bharuch, Narmada, Vadodara and Choota Udaipur (Bhargav et.al. 2024). The upper hilly regions of the basin receive higher annual rainfall (1400-1650 mm), which causes floods in the downstream area even though it is a semiarid zone.  The number of large tributaries in the lower basin of the Narmada River is smaller than that in the upper and middle basin, however major tributaries of Narmada are Orsang, Heran and Karjan. (https://sites.iitgn.ac.in/cnarmada/assets/files/Report.pdf).