Assessing land transformation and associated degradation of the west part of Ganga River Basin using forest cover land use mapping and residual trend analysis

Abstract

The west part of Ganga River Basin (WGRB) has experienced continuous land transformation since the Indus Valley Civilisation shifted from the Indus basin to the Ganga basin. Particularly in the last few decades the land transformation has increased many-folds due to the changing climate and rapid increase in population. In this paper, we assessed land transformation and associated degradation in the WGRB based on the forest cover land use (FCLU) mapping and residual trend analysis (RTA). The FCLU maps for 1975 and 2010 were generated using 216 Landsat satellite images and validated using 1509 ground points. We mapped 29 forest and 18 non-forest types and estimated a total loss of 5571 km 2 forest cover and expansion in settlement areas (5396 km 2 ). Other major changes mapped include a decrease in wetlands and water bodies, while an increase in agriculture and barren lands with an overall mapping accuracy of 85.3% (kappa, 0.82) and 88.43% (kappa, 0.84) for 1975 and 2010, respectively. We also performed the RTA analysis using GIMMS-NDVI3g to identify areas of significant negative vegetative photosynthetic change as an indicator for land degradation. All the RTA models showed monotonic nature of the residual trends and resulted as moderately positive but highly significant (P<0.001). Land degradation in the form of barren land accompanied by a decline in vegetation quality and coverage was found prominent in the basin with a possibility of an accelerated rate of land degradation in future due to the rapid loss of permanent forest cover.

Soil degradation and mitigation in agricultural lands in the Indian Anthropocene

“…Deforestation across India has resulted in an increase of exposed soil prone to degradation, while industrial emissions have contributed enormously to increasing the local temperature and forest loss (Matin et al, 2019). Increasing agricultural activities and urbanization in the Indo‐Gangetic Plain drove massive decreases (34%) in dry deciduous forests during the period 1975–2010 (Matin et al, 2019). At the same time, an increase of about 45%–50% in settlement areas in 2010 (Behera et al, 2014; Matin et al, 2019) signified the increasing pressure exerted on barren land and scrubland.…”

“…Increasing agricultural activities and urbanization in the Indo‐Gangetic Plain drove massive decreases (34%) in dry deciduous forests during the period 1975–2010 (Matin et al, 2019). At the same time, an increase of about 45%–50% in settlement areas in 2010 (Behera et al, 2014; Matin et al, 2019) signified the increasing pressure exerted on barren land and scrubland. There was an increase of 12% in forest plantations from 1975 to 2010 due to the forest gap‐filling exercise by the state forest department.…”

“…Other critical issues observed in the Indo-Gangetic Plain are soil sealing due to urbanization, industrialization and mining that make a major contribution to land degradation processes (Matin & Behera, 2017). Land degradation in the form of barren land formation accompanied by a decline in vegetation quality and coverage is prominent in many Indian states, including West Bengal (Matin et al, 2019).…”

Land use and Cover Changes in the Northern Mountains of Pakistan; A Spatio-Temporal Change using MODIS (MCD12Q1) Time Series

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P lanning for sustainable economic, social, environmental, and land resources are critical because of population growth and global climate change (Ashraf, 2020;Matin et al, 2019). Due to the enormous burden of agriculture and urbanization, various human activities are underway to use the earth's natural re-sources, which are decreasing rapidly.

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Two-decade Spatio-temporal Land Use and Cover Changes in District Shangla of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

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L and use land cover (LULC) has become one of the major issues in sustainable development and global environmental changes (Alam et al, 2019;Yirsaw et al, 2017). LULC describes the land environment associated with anthropogenic activities, planning for sustainable environmental, social, and economic development, and lack of land and land resources due to global climate change and population strength (Ashraf, 2020;Matin et al, 2019). Changes in land cover are affected by social and natural factors (Kweyu et al, 2020).

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