<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><article><front><Journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type='publisher'>CWE/2130/2021</journal-id><journal-title >Current World Environment</journal-title><issn pub-type='PPub'>0973-4929</issn><issn pub-type='ePub'>2320-8031</issn><publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name></publisher></Journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type='other'>CWE--82-00</article-id><title-group><article-title>&lt;p&gt;Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) Changes and its impact on Soil Organic Carbon Stock in Killiar River Basin, Kerala, India: A Geospatial Approach&lt;/p&gt;</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type='author'><name><surname></surname><given-names></given-names></name><xref ref-type='aff' rid='aff00'><sup></sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type='author'><name><surname></surname><given-names></given-names></name><xref ref-type='aff' rid='aff00'><sup></sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type='author'><name><surname></surname><given-names></given-names></name><xref ref-type='aff' rid='aff00'><sup></sup></xref></contrib></contrib-group><aff id='aff001'><sup>1</sup><instname></instname>,<deptname>Department of Environmental Sciences</deptname>, <instaddress>University of Kerala</instaddress>, <instcity>Thiruvananthapuram</instcity>, <instcountry>India</instcountry>.</aff><pub-date pub-type='ppub'><publicationDate></publicationDate></pub-date><doi>10.12944/CWE.16.3.2</doi><volume>Volume 16</volume><issue>Volume 16</issue><page>665-678</page><abstract><title>Abstract</title><p>&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:14px&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif&quot;&gt;The changes in the pattern of land use and land cover (LU/LC) have remarkable consequences on ecosystem functioning and natural resources dynamics. The present study analyzes the spatial pattern of LU/LC change detection along the Killiar River Basin (KRB), a major tributary of Karamana river in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala (India), over a period of 64 years (1957-2021) through Remote Sensing and GIS approach. The rationale of the study is to identify and classify LU/LC changes in KRB using the Survey of India (SOI) toposheet (1:50,000) of 1957, LISS-III imagery of 2005, Landsat 8 OLI &amp; TIRS imagery of 2021 and further to scrutinize the impact of LU/LC conversion on Soil Organic Carbon stock in the study area. Five major LU/LC classes, viz., agriculture land, built-up, forest, wasteland and water bodies were characterized from available data. Within the study period, built-up area and wastelands showed a substantial increase of 51.51% and 15.67% respectively. Thus, the general trend followed is the increase in built-up and wastelands area which results in the decrease of all other LU/LC classes. Based on IPCC guidelines, total soil organic carbon (SOC) stock of different land-use types was estimated and was 1292.72 Mt C in 1957, 562.65 Mt C in 2005 and it reduced to 152.86 Mt C in 2021. This decrease is mainly due to various anthropogenic activities, mainly built-up activities. This conversion for built-up is at par with the rising population, and over-exploitation of natural and agricultural resources is increasing every year.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</p></abstract><kwd-group><title>Keywords</title><kwd>Geospatial Technology</kwd><kwd> Kerala</kwd><kwd> Killiar River Basin</kwd><kwd> Land Use/Land Cover</kwd><kwd> Soil Organic Carbon</kwd></kwd-group><counts><ref-count count='' /><page-count count='' /></counts></article-meta></front></article>