Land use analysis (http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/water/paper/urban_dynamics/data.htm) has been done considering latest remote sensing data (IRS LISS IV, 26 Jan 2012 procured from National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad, http://nrsc.gov.in). The analysis involved i) generation of False Colour Composite (FCC) of remote sensing data (bands – green, red and NIR). This helped in locating heterogeneous patches in the landscape ii) selection of training polygons (these correspond to heterogeneous patches in FCC) covering 15% of the study area and uniformly distributed over the entire study area, iii) loading these training polygons co-ordinates into pre-calibrated GPS, vi) collection of the corresponding attribute data (land use types) for these polygons from the field . GPS helped in locating respective training polygons in the field, iv) supplementing this information with Google Earth  v) 60% of the training data has been used for  classification, while the balance is used for validation or accuracy assessment.

Land use analysis was carried out using supervised pattern classifier - Gaussian maximum likelihood algorithm. The region (Figure 5) is dominated by forests (102268.80 hectares, 57.39%) followed by areca (40073 hectares; 22.49%), rubber plantations (16815; 9.44%), others (17785 hectares, 9.98%), water (1176hectares, 0.66%) and built-up (93 hectares; 0.31%).

Figure 5: Land use in Kumaradhara river basin