The nature and trend of land conversion in Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala, India Aneesh M.R1, , Suresh S.1, Mani K.2 1Research Scholar, Department of Geography, University College, Thiruvananthapuram 2Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University College, Thiruvananthapuram Online published on 3 July, 2021. Abstract Land conversion is a process characterised by converting the land from one type of use to other. Land conversion is a serious matter since it affects the environment negatively. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the nature and trend of land conversion in the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. Survey of India Topographical Maps of the scale 1:50000 and 1:25000 were used to prepare the land use maps for the period 1967 and 1991 respectively. Landsat 8 OLI images were used to prepare the land use maps for the year 2017. Land use dynamic degree index was prepared to identify the relative intensity of land use changes in the two periods namely 1967-1991 and 1991-2017. Land conversion matrix was calculated in the ArcGIS 10 platform to understand the trend of land conversion. A simple land conversion index was employed to identify the rate of conversion of land use in different time periods. Results indicate that widespread land conversion occurred in the study area during 1967-2017 with urbanization as the major driving force. It also shows that land conversion index was higher for plantations during 1967-1991 and for built up lands during 1991-2017. Top Keywords Land Conversion, Topographical Map, Landsat, Urbanization, Land Use Dynamic Degree Index. Top |