5.1. Introduction The land includes soil and topography, in fact, all the physical features of given location. It reflects the interaction of physical conditions, natural processes, and human response to them in social and economic terms. Very often it is the economic situation which dictates the planning and use of land (Robert Arvill, 1969). There are several reasons for changing land use pattern in the coastal area. The land use changing particularly with the process of shrimp farming, its influences and consequences on the land over the period of several years have been given more emphasis to this study. The variabilities involved with the shrimp cultivation and its impacts on the land also taken under consideration. In this chapter, therefore an attempt has been to analyses the patterns of land use change in the study area during the study period (1975-99). For this purpose eight major land use categories were identified in the study area as: - settlemen