Monsoon-driven LULC dynamics in the Cholistan Rangeland: A landsat 8 and GIS approach

Authors

  • Muhammad Waseem Department of Forestry and Range Management, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 61000, Pakistan
  • Ihsan Qadir Department of Forestry and Range Management, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 61000, Pakistan
  • Tanveer Hussain Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan
  • Muhammad Madnee Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan
  • Nugraha Akbar Nurrochmat Department of Forest Management, Dendrometry and Forest Economics, Institute of Forest Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, 02-776, Poland
  • Junaid Naseer Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan
  • Muhammad Atif Latif Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan
  • Muhammad Amjad Yaqoob School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4071-3833

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22849152

Keywords:

Cholistan Rangeland, Change Detection, Vegetation Dynamics, Desertification, Sustainability

Abstract

Land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics in arid rangelands are strongly influenced by episodic rainfall events, yet quantitative evidence from Pakistan’s Cholistan rangeland remains limited. This study assessed seasonal LULC changes between pre-monsoon (April 2019) and post-monsoon (September 2019) periods using multitemporal Landsat 8 imagery integrated with GIS-based supervised classification and post-classification change detection. Three major classes viz., vegetation, water bodies, and barren land were mapped to evaluate monsoon-driven landscape responses across 12,698 km². Classification performance was robust, with overall accuracies of 94.63% and 93.10% and kappa coefficients of 0.84 and 0.87 for April and September, respectively. Results showed substantial post-monsoon expansion of vegetation from 556.03 to 2,176.26 km² (+291.4%) and water bodies from 15.26 to 72.05 km² (+372.1%), while barren land declined from 12,126.68 to 10,449.67 km² (−13.8%). Spatially, most gains were concentrated in depressions, toba catchments, and formerly unvegetated plains where runoff accumulation and soil moisture favored rapid vegetation emergence. The marked increase in vegetation likely reflects both regeneration of perennial shrubs and short-lived ephemeral species responding to seasonal rainfall pulses. These findings confirm that the Cholistan rangeland functions as a pulse-driven ecosystem with rapid but potentially temporary ecological recovery following monsoon precipitation. The study demonstrates the utility of medium-resolution satellite imagery for operational monitoring of drylands and provides evidence for adaptive grazing management, targeted restoration of weak response zones, and maintenance of traditional water-harvesting systems.

Author Biography

Muhammad Waseem, Department of Forestry and Range Management, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 61000, Pakistan

Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan

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Published

2026-07-08

How to Cite

Waseem, M., Qadir, I., Hussain, T., Madnee, M., Nurrochmat, N. A., Naseer, J., Latif, M. A., & Yaqoob, M. A. (2026). Monsoon-driven LULC dynamics in the Cholistan Rangeland: A landsat 8 and GIS approach. Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity, 10(2), 382–401. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22849152

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2026): Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity

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Original Article

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