Environ Monit Assess (2009) 158:169–179
DOI 10.1007/s10661-008-0571-4
Monitoring conservation effectiveness in a global
biodiversity hotspot: the contribution of land
cover change assessment
Shijo Joseph · George Alan Blackburn ·
Biswadip Gharai · S. Sudhakar · A. P. Thomas ·
M. S. R. Murthy
Received: 27 May 2008 / Accepted: 12 September 2008 / Published online: 27 September 2008
© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract Tropical forests, which play critical roles
in global biogeochemical cycles, radiation budgets
and biodiversity, have undergone rapid changes
in land cover in the last few decades. This stu-
dy examines the complex process of land cover
change in the biodiversity hotspot of Western
Ghats, India, specifically investigating the ef-
fects of conservation measures within the Indira
Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. Current vegetation
patterns were mapped using an IRS P6 LISS III
image and this was used together with Landsat
MSS data from 1973 to map land cover transitions.
Two major and divergent trends were observed.
S. Joseph · B. Gharai · S. Sudhakar · M. S. R. Murthy
Forestry and Ecology Division, National Remote
Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, India
S. Joseph (
B
)
GIS Centre, Department of Physical Geography
and Ecosystem Analysis, Lund University,
Solvegatan 12, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
e-mail: shijonrsa@gmail.com
G. A. Blackburn
Department of Geography, Lancaster University,
Lancaster LA1 4YB, UK
S. Joseph · A. P. Thomas
School of Environmental Sciences,
Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India
A dominant degradational trend can be attributed
to agricultural expansion and infrastructure devel-
opment while a successional trend, resulting from
protection of the area, showed the resilience of the
system after prolonged disturbances. The sanctu-
ary appears susceptible to continuing disturbances
under the current management regime but at
lower rates than in surrounding unprotected ar-
eas. The study demonstrates that remotely sensed
land cover assessments can have important con-
tributions to monitoring land management strate-
gies, understanding processes underpinning land
use changes and helping to inform future conser-
vation strategies.
Keywords Remote sensing · Change assessment ·
Tropical forest · Protected area management ·
Western ghats
Introduction
Land cover change is one of the most critical
dynamic elements of ecosystems. Tropical forests,
which play critical roles as repositories of bio-
logical diversity and regulators of global bio-
geochemical and hydrological cycles (Houghton
1999;Cairnsetal.2000; Myers et al. 2000) have
undergone rapid land cover changes especially
in the last few decades. (Bockstael et al. 1995;
Pijanowski et al. 2000). Global estimates show