CONCLUSION

The high conversion rates of natural vegetation by anthropogenic activities will have vulnerability on ecosystem and their support for livelihood. The temporal remote sensing data in conjunction with other supporting attribute data, influential factors used for visualization of land use transition at temporal scale using Fuzzy-AHP-CA-MC method predicted two different future scenarios of land use (2022) based on with appropriate regulatory mechanism. Coastal region shows loss of forest cover from 66.55 (2004) to 56.76 %, by increase in built-up area from 3.85 to 8.51 % (2022). Sahyadri Interior region shows moderate forest cover loss due to higher protection, seen progression in plantation from 15 (2004) to 20.60 % (2022) and horticulture uses from 3.8 to 4.89 %. The land use of scenario1 (2022) indicates that environmental restriction fulfilled the goals of reducing forest land transition as established for the restricted areas. If land use changes occur according scenario 2 (2022), plantations will dominate making the legal borders indistinct and maintaining the biological conservation will be a challenging task in this rich biodiversity hotspot. The implementation of a restrictive legal framework for environment protection has resulted as an efficient barrier to human pressure within high forested area. The prediction results in open fields and forest classes were registered net loss in area while built-up, agriculture and horticulture land use classes were registered as net gain in both land use scenarios. The present communication has integrated restrictive legal environmental protection scenarios demonstrates a powerful and persuasive tool to support planning and policy for sustainable landscape development.