Landuse and landcover are   two different aspects of land, which are spatial in nature and accredit to describe the multi-temporal changes in various facets of the lithosphere and hydrosphere. In this paper an attempt is made to present the need for change detection in regional and infrastructure planning. Digital Image Processing and Geographic Information System have been used as tools to derive fast and accurate results for immediate application.   The conventional maps are very old and consume a colossal amount of time, money and manpower for preparation, and their updating is a big hassle, which involves extensive field survey, men and money. When the map comes to planning table for recommendation the scenario in reality would have changed giving way to only piecemeal implementation. Here the satellite data with temporal resolution acts as a boon providing instant information, which is true, explicit and un-tampered.   When the information is processed to the desired need, it   gives near perfect information depending on the resolution of the sensor, which decides the clarity of the imagery. A brief account of various techniques of change detection and some examples of practical implementation is cited with an action plan, which can be implemented to any big city.

* Dept. Of Geography, Bangalore University

** Dept. Of Remote Sensing, Birla Institute Of Technology

Phone: 5561128

E mail: mrvijaindra@yahoo.co.in