Abstract:
Land-use change is a predictable and principal driving force of potential environmental
changes on all spatial and temporal scales. A land-use change model is a tool that supports the
analysis of the sources and consequences of land-use dynamics. This study aims to assess the
spatiotemporal land-use changes that occurred during 1990–2020 in the municipal council limits
of Batticaloa. A land change modeler has been used as an innovative land planning and decision
support system in this study. The main satellite data were retrieved from Landsat in 1990, 2000, 2010,
and 2020. For classification, the supervised classification method was employed, particularly with
the medium resolution satellite images. Land-use classes were analyzed by the machine learning
algorithm in theland change modeler. The Markov chain method was also used to predict future
land-use changes. The results of the study reveal that only one land-use type, homestead, has
gradually increased, from 12.1% to 34.1%, during the above-mentioned period. Agriculture land use
substantially declined from 26.9% to 21.9%. Bare lands decreased from 11.5% to 5.0%, and wetlands
declined from 13.9% to 9.6%.
