ABSTRACT
The experiment was conducted in coastal areas of Uttara Kannada during 2021–23 to investigate land use and land cover (LULC) changes using remote sensing and identify climate resilience potentials of different agroforestry systems in coastal regions of Uttara Kannada. The remote sensing tools analyzed the LULC from 2002, 2012 and 2022 through the Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) and false color composites, assessing vegetation health and land cover classifications. The change detection analysis shows that area under mangrove forest has increased by 290 hectares from 2002 to 2012 and 900 hectares from 2012 to 2022 in the coastal belt of Uttara Kannada district. During 2002-2012, a decrease in area was observed in terrestrial forests (5500 ha), uncultivated land (1400 ha) and water bodies (90 ha). Similarly, during 2002-2012, loss of area in terrestrial forests (4000 ha), uncultivated areas (1700 ha), and water bodies (1700 ha) due to conversion, encroachment, and gain in built-up areas (3300 ha), agriculture land (2300 ha) and horticulture land (1100 ha) was observed. In the experimental study area, eight agroforestry systems were identified, with home gardens (68.33 %) being the most prevalent. In farming activities, farmers adopted different management practices, including weeding (72.22 %), digging around trees (70.56 %) and branch pruning (69.44 %). Among the different agroforestry systems, home gardens exhibit the highest Shannon diversity index (2.03), indicating the greatest level of biodiversity among all landholding categories. Home gardens show the highest volume of vegetation per hectare, at approximately 214.97 m3 ha-1 and exhibit the highest carbon stock of 78.93 Mg ha-1, demonstrating their effectiveness in carbon storage due to diverse tree species. Among the different agroforestry systems, home gardens exhibit the highest resilience index due to their exceptional adaptability and stability, while bund plantations showed the lowest resilience. Hence the study advocates for expanding home gardens to enhance ecological and economic sustainability in coastal Uttara Kannada.