Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are widely used for change detection in rivers caused
by erosion and accretion. Digital image processing techniques and GIS analysis capabilities are used for detecting
temporal variations of erosion and accretion characteristics between the years 1999 and 2011 in a 40 km long Marala
Alexandria reach of River Chenab. Landsat satellite images for the years 1999, 2007 and 2011 were processed to analyze
the river channel migration, changes in the river width and the rate of erosion and accretion. Analyses showed that the
right bank was under erosion in both time spans, however high rate of deposition is exhibited in middle reaches. The
maximum erosion was 1569843 m2
and 1486160 m2
along the right bank at a distance of 24-28 km downstream of the
Marala barrage in the time span of 1999-2007 and 2007-2011, respectively. Along right bank mainly there is trend of
accretion but erosion is much greater between 20 and 28 km reach. Maximum accretion was 5144584 m2
from 1999-2007
and 2950110 m2
from 2007-2011 on the right bank downstream of the Marala Barrage. The derived results of channel
migration were validated by comparing with SRTM data to assess the accuracy of image classification. Integration of remote
sensing data with GIS is efficient and economical technique to assess land losses and channel changes in large rivers.