Trends of land cover change in a key biological corridor in Central Nepal
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Abstract. Neupane K, Gautam AP, Regmi A. 2017. Trends of land cover change in a key biological corridor in Central Nepal. Asian J For 1: 64-69. Monitoring changes in biophysical features of the earth is useful to assess the impacts of human activities on the environment. This effort is essential to evaluate, for example, the outcome of policy implementation. This study analyzed changes in land cover in one of the key biological corridors in Central Nepal, the Barandabhar Corridor located in Chitwan District, during the last two decades (i.e. 1991 to 2013). The study used satellite imageries (Landsat 5 TM of 1991 and Landsat 8 OLI_TIRS of 2013) and the results were cross-checked with primary data collected from the field to investigate the drivers of land cover change. Supervised Maximum Likelihood method of image classification was used to produce the land cover maps for 1991 and 2013. The result showed that forest cover in the corridor increased by 7.03% while the coverage of shrubland, water bodies and other land cover types (open lands, sand and roads) decreased during the study period. The implementation of community-based forest management programs, decreasing dependency of local communities on forest resources, and increasing awareness in conservation among the local people are found to be the main causes of the increase in forest cover.
2017-01-01
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References
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some major forest types surveyed on natural and semi-natural forest
stand in Nepal Proceeding of II National Conference on Science and
Technology, Kathmandu.
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forest corridor of Lamahi bottleneck area of Terai Arc Landscape
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New Delhi.
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landscape-scale conservation of the endangered tiger and rhino
population in and around Chitwan National Park. Report of the final
evaluation mission. United Nations Development Programme, UK.
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IGBP Report No. 35. International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme,
Stockholm.
William ER, William BM, Turner II BL. 1994. Modeling land use and
land cover as part of global environmental change. Climat Ch 28: 45-
64.
management regimes of the northern Barandabhar Forest Corridor: an
essential habitat for ecological connectivity in Nepal. Trop Conserv
Sci 5 (1): 38-49.
Awasthi K. 2004. Land use change effects on soil degradation, carbon and
nutrient stocks and greenhouse gas emission in mountain watersheds:
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural
University of Norway, Oslo.
Balla M, Awasthi K, Shrestha P, Sherchan D, Poudel D. 2000. Degraded
Lands in Mid-hills of Central Nepal: A GIS appraisal in quantifying
and planning for sustainable rehabilitation. LI-BIRD, Pokhara, Nepal
Balla M, Awasthi K, Singh B, Sitaula B, Pradhan B. 2007. Land Use
Changes and Geomorphometric Analyses in Galaundu and Pokhare
Khola Watersheds in Mid-hill Region of Nepal. Intl J Ecol Environ
Sci 33 (2-3): 171-182.
Bennett G. 2004. Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable
Use: Lessons Learned from Ecological Networks. IUCN, Gland.
CBS. 2012. National population and housing census 2011 National
Report. Central Bureau of Statistics National Planning Commission
Secretariat, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal.
CNP. 2013. Management Plan for Chitwan National Park and It’s Buffer
Zone 2013-2017. Chitwan National Park Office, Chitwan, Nepal.
Dangol D, Shivakoti G. 2001. Species composition and dominance of
plant communities in western Chitwan, Nepal. Nepal Journal of
Science and Technology 3 (1): 69-78.
DFRS/FRA. 2014. Terai Forests of Nepal (2010-2012). Forest Resource
Assessment Nepal Project/Department of Forest Research and
Survey, Babarmahal, Kathmandu.
Dhakal RR, Yadava JN. 2011. Comparative assessment of floristic
diversity in a buffer zone community forest and a community forest
of Barandabhar corridor, Chitwan, Nepal. J Hortic For 3 (8): 244-250.
DoF. 2005. Forest Cover Change Analysis of the Terai Districts 1990/91-
2000/01. Department of Forests (DoF), Kathmandu, Nepal.
ERDAS L. 2002. ERDAS Imagine Field Guide. Erdas Inc., Atlanta,
Georgia.
Fan F, Weng Q, Wang Y. 2007. Land use and land cover change in
Guangzhou, China, from 1998 to 2003, based on Landsat TM/ETM+
imagery. Sensors 7 (7): 1323-1342.
Fischlin A, Midgley G. 2007. Ecosystems, their properties, goods and
services. In: IPCC, climate change 2007—the working group II
NEUPANE et al. – Land cover change in Central Nepal 55
contribution to the IPCC fourth assessment report. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge
Gardner R, Gerrard J. 2001. Soil loss on noncultivated land in the Middle
Hills of Nepal. Physic Geogr 22 (5): 376-393.
Gautam AP, Webb EL, Shivakoti GP, Zoebisch MA. 2003. Land use
dynamics and landscape change pattern in a mountain watershed in
Nepal. Agric Ecosys Environ 99 (1): 83-96
Geist HJ, Lambin EF. 2002. Proximate causes and underlying driving
forces of tropical deforestation: Tropical forests are disappearing as
the result of many pressures, both local and regional, acting in various
combinations in different geographical locations. BioScience 52 (2):
143-150.
Joshi A. 2002. Establishing Biological Monitoring System for Terai Arc
Landscape. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal Program.
Kathmandu, Nepal
Lambin EF, Geist HJ, Lepers E. 2003. Dynamics of land-use and landcover change in tropical regions. Ann Rev Environ Resour 28 (1):
205-241
Mulders MA. 2001. Advances in the application of remote sensing and
GIS for surveying mountainous land. Intl J Appl Earth Observ
Geoinform 3 (1): 3-10.
Panta M, Kim K, Joshi C. 2008. Temporal mapping of deforestation and
forest degradation in Nepal: applications to forest conservation. For
Ecol Manag 256 (9): 1587-1595.
Pokhrel GK, Shah KB. 2008. Role of community forests in faunal
diversity conservation: a case study of community forests within
Satbariya Range Post of Dang District. Nepal J Sci Technol 9: 111-
117.
Serra P, Pons X, Saurı´ D. 2008. Land-cover and land-use change in a
Mediterranean landscape: a spatial analysis of driving forces
integrating biophysical and human factors. Appl Geogr 28: 189-209.
Sharma RR. 2002. Monitoring Forest Resources Using Remote Sensing
Data. www.gisdevelopment.net/aars/acrs/2002/for/167.pdf
[September 2015]
Shrestha B. 2003. Phytoecology of Barandabhar Forest, Chitwan, Nepal.
[Thesis]. Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University,
Kathmandu, Nepal.
Shrestha N. 2001. The political economy of land, landlessness and
migration in Nepal. Nirala, New Delhi.
Subedi M. 1994. Structure, composition and general characteristics of
some major forest types surveyed on natural and semi-natural forest
stand in Nepal Proceeding of II National Conference on Science and
Technology, Kathmandu.
Thakur R. B. 2012. Assessment of the land use land cover change in the
forest corridor of Lamahi bottleneck area of Terai Arc Landscape
Nepal. [Thesis]. Department of Natural Resources, TERI University,
New Delhi.
Tiwari S, Regmi R, Green M. 2007. Tiger-rhino conservation project:
landscape-scale conservation of the endangered tiger and rhino
population in and around Chitwan National Park. Report of the final
evaluation mission. United Nations Development Programme, UK.
Turner II BL, Skole D, Sanderson S, Fischer G, Fresco L, Leemans R.
1995. Land-Use and Land-Cover Change Science/Research Plan.
IGBP Report No. 35. International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme,
Stockholm.
William ER, William BM, Turner II BL. 1994. Modeling land use and
land cover as part of global environmental change. Climat Ch 28: 45-
64.