Land use and land cover change has impacts on the functioning of socioeconomic and environmental systems. Remote sensing images and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are being used to identify and analyze land use and land cover changes. The present study is carried out to identify and quantify spatio-temporal changes due to river course diversion in part of Kosi river basin, Bihar, India, using multitemporal satellite datasets of Landsat MSS (1976), Landsat TM (1990) and IRS P6 LISS III (2004). It was ascertained through remote sensing and time series analysis that there has been a major land cover changes were taking place in the proximity of river course. During 1976 to 1990 a shift of 5 km is found in north western part and 3 km in central and north eastern part of study area. During 1990 to 2004, also Kosi river shows a significant shift of 3.5 km in north western part, followed by central and north eastern parts of river with 2.5 km shift.
