Geospatial data helps in identifying and determining different landscapes in remote and unreachable areas. The knowledge of landscape dynamics aids in the sustainable management of natural resources. The current study emphasizes on landscape dynamics of Western Ghats from 1985-2018. Using an open source software program GRASS, supervised classification technique was carried out based on maximum likelihood classifier algorithm for the land use analysis. The Western Ghats, one among the 35 global biodiversity hotspots. Currently due to extensive anthropogenic activities, the conserved and protected areas are getting affected leading to changes in the landscapes. The results showed that there is decrement of evergreen forest from 12.27% (1985) to 10.01% (2018). On the other hand, there are changes in plantations and built-up activities which has triggered the environmental balance in the ecosystem. Especially the regions of Pune and Coimbatore have faced extensive urbanization during the study period.

Keywords: Western Ghats, landscape dynamics, spatial data and temporal data analysis.