Advance tools and techniques in land resources inventory and characterization in tropical ecosystem: A review

Abstract

Sustainable management of land resources is the major challenge in the 21 st Century for the agricultural scientists, planners, administrators and farmers to meet the ever increasing food grain requirements for the present and future generations.An intimate knowledge on location, extent, spatial distribution, their characteristics, classification, potentials and problems of land resources is a prerequisite for developing rational land use planning.Soil is of the important component of land resources and its inventory and characterization provides an insight into the potentialities and limitation of soil for it's effectively utilization.Modern tools such as satellite remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) providing a new dimension in inventory, characterization, monitor and management of land resources for their effective use.Remote sensing techniques have reduced field work to a considerable extent and soil boundaries are more precisely delineated than in conventional methods.The review reveals that advance tools like remote sensing and GIS have immense potential in effective for mapping and characterizing of land resources.