Ecologically sensitive regions in Belgaum district, Karnataka, Central Western Ghats

Aim: Deforestation due to unplanned developmental activities leading the loss of carbon sequestration capability and release stored atmosphere has been a prime mover global warming, with changes in climate evident from spatio-temporal rainfall, increase temperature, higher instances vector-borne diseases. Unregulated land cover have necessitated prioritizing ecologically sensitive regions develop location-specific management strategies. This entails estimating spatio temporal LULC using multi-resolution spatial data understand landscape dynamics, which helps prudent natural resources. Methodology: The current communication accounts for use transitions Belgaum district, part central Western Ghats, through classifying over scale supervised classifier. Ecologically are prioritized by integrating bo-geo-climatic, ecological, hydrologic, social parameters. Results: Temporal analyses reveal forest 2.99% (90.29 sq km) an built-up area during two decades (1989 2019 decline contiguous interior forests 16.26% 6.77%. Geo-visualisation likely uses hybrid Fuzzy MCE AHP MCA modeling indicates further decrease 5.6% 2029. Hence, it necessitates conservation (ESR) at disaggregated levels. Interpretation: Regions exceptionally high sensitivity (ESR1) 15% extent 27% (52 grids) (ESR2), 52% (99 moderate (ESR3), rest 6% (12 minimal (ESR4). Prioritization region based on its ecological sensitiveness would facilitate decision-makers implementation effective policies focusing maintaining integrity resources support livelihood sustenance Key words: Forest fragmentation, Hybrid modeling, Livelihood people, Land cover, Natural Resource Management