Changes in Cropland Status and Their Driving Factors in the Koshi River Basin of the Central Himalayas, Nepal

Paudel, Basanta; Gao, Jungang; Zhang, Yili; Wu, Xue; Li, Shicheng; Yan, Jiangwei

doi:10.3390/su8090933

Cited by 54 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Clearly, beyond localized urban-growth management and land-use zonation in Tarai, the prevention of agricultural loss due to urban growth in Tarai will require national development programmes focused on Nepal's poorer regions to entice would-be economic migrants to remain. Previous studies [29,[34][35][36]59,68] have similarly reported the loss of highly fertile agricultural lands in the different part of Nepal due to urbanization and population pressure, suggesting that our regional observations capture a general trend that is likely to continue, and even intensify, in the absence of any intervention to the contrary.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Urban Expansion Occurred at the Expense of Agricultural Lands in the Tarai Region of Nepal from 1989 to 2016

et al. 2018

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Recent rapid urbanization in developing countries presents challenges for sustainable environmental planning and peri-urban cropland management. An improved understanding of the timing and pattern of urbanization is needed to determine how to better plan urbanization for the near future. Here, we describe the spatio-temporal patterns of urbanization and related land-use/land-cover (LULC) changes in the Tarai region of Nepal, as well as discuss the factors underlying its rapid urban expansion. Analyses are based on regional time-series Landsat 5, 7 and 8 image classifications for six years between 1989 and 2016, representing the first long-term observations of their kind for Nepal. During this 27-year period, gains in urban cover and losses of cultivated lands occurred widely. Urban cover occupied 221.1 km 2 in 1989 and increased 320% by 2016 to a total 930.22 km 2 . Cultivated land was the primary source of new urban cover. Of the new urban cover added since 1989, 93% was formerly cultivated. Urban expansion occurred at moderately exponential rates over consecutive observation periods, with nearly half of all urban expansion occurring during 2006-2011 (305 km 2 ). The annual rate of urban growth during 1989-1996 averaged 3.3% but reached as high as 8. 09% and 12.61% during 1996-2001 and 2011-2016, respectively. At the district level, the rate of urban growth and, by extension, agricultural loss, were weakly related to total population growth. Variability in this relationship suggests that concerted urban-growth management may reduce losses of agricultural lands relative to historic trends despite further population growth and urbanization. Urbanization and LULC change in the Tarai region are attributable to significant inter-regional migration in a context of poor urban planning and lax policies controlling the conversion and fragmentation of peri-urban cultivated lands. Urban expansion and farmland loss are expected to continue in the future.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Urban Expansion Occurred at the Expense of Agricultural Lands in the Tarai Region of Nepal from 1989 to 2016

et al. 2018

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“…[12]. However, our study on Dudh Koshi did not showed the slight reduction in crop farming during 2010 described for the larger Koshi River Basin [12]. Nevertheless, since our study area focuses on the mountain environment, our outcomes seems to confirm the conclusion of another recent study (2016) that "agriculture practices and patterns that were once intensely distributed in lowland areas have spread to higher altitudes" [13].…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 75%

“…To handle the different spatial detail of source data and to smooth any local error in the crop maps, all the parameters were rescaled to a spatial resolution of 250 m prior the regression analysis. [12]. However, our study on Dudh Koshi did not showed the slight reduction in crop farming during 2010 described for the larger Koshi River Basin [12].…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 67%

Analysis of changes in crop farming in the Dudh Koshi (Nepal) driven by climate changes

Gianinetto

Polinelli

Frassy

et al. 2017

Earth Resources and Environmental Remote Sensing/Gis Applications VIII

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Nepal is one of the poorest nations of the world and the Koshi Basin includes some of the poorest regions of this country. It's farming system is subsistence agriculture, mainly rainfed, with crop productivity among the lowest in South Asia. Nepal is also severely impacted by climate changes, such as retreat of glaciers, rise in temperature, erratic rainfalls and increase in frequency of extreme weather. This paper describes the spatio-temporal evolution of cultivated land in Dudh Koshi during the last four decades (1970s-2010s), by mapping the farming of its four main cereals in the districts of Solukhumbu, Okhaldunga and Kothang from space. The analysis of satellite time series showed a 10% of increment in farmland from 1970s to 1990s, and about 60% in the following twenty years. With a shift of cropping to higher altitudes. Data belonging to of the second twenty years are strongly correlated with the population growth observed in the same period (0.97

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“…A total of 901, 905 and 890 stratified random points were generated in the classified image of 2000, 2010 and 2017, respectively, and were verified in Google Earth imageries. The topographical maps during 1992-2001 from the Survey Department, Government of Nepal were also used for data verification [29,59,61].…”

Section: Accuracy Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Ecosystem Services Value Based on Land Use and Land Cover Changes in the Transboundary Karnali River Basin, Central Himalayas

Shrestha

Khadka

2019

Sustainability

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Land use and land cover change (LUCC) and its spatio-temporal characteristics are essential for natural resource management and sustainable development. LUCC is one of the major factors that affect the ecosystem and the services it provides. In this study, we used remote sensing techniques and a geographical information system to extract the land cover categories based on the Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) technique from Landsat TM/ETM/OLI satellite images in the transboundary Karnali River Basin (KRB, China and Nepal) of central Himalayas from 2000 to 2017. Spatio-temporal integrated methodology-Tupu was used to spatially show the LUCC as well as spatial characteristics of the arisen Tupu and shrunken Tupu. In addition, the ecosystem services value (ESV) were obtained and analyzed for each land cover category. In 2017, forest covered the highest area (33.45%) followed by bare area (30.3%), shrub/grassland (18.49%), agriculture (13.12%), snow/ice (4.32%), waterbody (0.3%) and built-up area (0.04%) in the KRB. From 2000 to 2017, the areas of forest, waterbody and snow/ice have decreased by 0.59, 6.14, and 1072.1 km 2 , respectively. Meanwhile, the areas of shrub/grassland, agriculture, barren land, and built-up categories have increased by 82.21, 1.44, 991.97, and 3.11 km 2 , respectively. These changes in the land cover have led to an increase in the ESV of the basin, especially the increase in shrub/grassland, agriculture, and water bodies (in the higher elevation). The total ESV of the basin was increased by $1.59 × 10 6 from 2000 to 2017. Anthropogenic factors together with natural phenomena drive LUCC in the basin and thus the ESV. The findings of this study could facilitate the basin-level policy formulation to guide future conservation and development management interventions.Ecosystem function refers to the habitat, biological or system properties and physical processes that occur within or across the ecosystem [17]. Ecosystem services are the benefits humans reap from the ecosystem function [17][18][19] that includes provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services [18,20]. In addition, the ecosystem function plays an important and multi-dimensional (ecological, socio-cultural and economic) role in the human society [21]. Ecosystem services do not directly flow from nature to human well-being, rather this occurs through the interaction with other forms of capital such as human capital (presence of human being), built capital (human built environment) and social capital (their community) [22]. Generally, the structure of the ecosystem is modified due to increased land use intensity and frequent changes in the land cover types. This results in changes in the ecosystem functions and the associated services it provides [23][24][25]. In recent decades, ecosystem services have been degrading due to an ever-increasing demand for these services, leading to a substantial and largely irreversible loss of natural and biological diversity life on earth [18]. The assessment and valuation of ecosystem ser...

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Changes in Cropland Status and Their Driving Factors in the Koshi River Basin of the Central Himalayas, Nepal

Cited by 54 publications

References 39 publications

Urban Expansion Occurred at the Expense of Agricultural Lands in the Tarai Region of Nepal from 1989 to 2016

Urban Expansion Occurred at the Expense of Agricultural Lands in the Tarai Region of Nepal from 1989 to 2016

Analysis of changes in crop farming in the Dudh Koshi (Nepal) driven by climate changes

Assessment of Ecosystem Services Value Based on Land Use and Land Cover Changes in the Transboundary Karnali River Basin, Central Himalayas

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