Quantifying the drivers of urban expansion in Nepal

Rijal, Sushila; Rimal, Bhagawat; Stork, Nigel E.; Sharma, Hari Prasad

doi:10.1007/s10661-020-08544-3

Cited by 20 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…These preconditions transform the economy leading to a shifting of prime agricultural land towards settlements (Chen, 2007;Dyson, 1996;FAO, 2008;Maxwell et al, 2000;Liu et al, 2014;Pauchard et al, 2006;Verburg et al, 1999). Rapid urbanization changes the land use affecting ecology, development, and food security (Cao et al, 2020;Chen et al, 2010;Guo et al, 2012;Liu et al, 2013;Rijal et al, 2020;Youssef et al, 2020…”

Section: Accuracymentioning

confidence: 99%

Outlook from the soil perspective of urban expansion and food security

Gardi

Florczyk

Scalenghe

2021

Heliyon

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The use of soil as support for built-up areas represents only one of its several functions. Farmlands at the fringe of conurbations have more chance of being converted into built-up areas due to the favourable topography and the accessibility to existing infrastructure, being in the vicinity of urban areas. We analysed the global land-take during the period 2000-2014. The data are based on a global dataset describing the spatial evolution of human settlements using the Global Human Settlement Layer, which was derived from Landsat images collected in 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2014. Although the global land-take represents roughly 0.1% of the global terrestrial Earth, it affects 1% of the naturally fertile soils, according to the proposed Soil Productivity Indexes (SPI), based upon the potential soil productivity, calculated on the basis of the Harmonized World Soil Database. We have found that, few large conurbations develop on potentially high productive soil, while scarcely productive soils sustain the expansion of several megalopolises. On a global scale and through the centuries, considered comparatively as individual overall age of settlements, a trend between the intrinsic quality of the soils and its use for settlement purposes as major competitor, was not observed.

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Section: Accuracymentioning

confidence: 99%

Outlook from the soil perspective of urban expansion and food security

Gardi

Florczyk

Scalenghe

2021

Heliyon

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“…Forest area increases were mainly due to greater community level conservation practices and forest management strategies [22]. Further, urban area increases due to population growth resulted in migration from the highlands to the lowlands [55], causing abandoned cultivated land in upstream areas, which have turned into vegetation cover, leading to increases in forest cover [100,101]. Political conflict between 1996 and 2006 caused many people to migrate to more secure urban areas from agricultural areas in the mid-hills, resulting in the abandonment of agricultural lands and increased forest cover [102].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LC changes are a major driver of global environmental change and occur due to deforestation, reforestation, urban expansion, and the intensification of cultivated land [50,51]. LC change models can be used to predict the location and frequency of LC change [52]; to aid land use planning and conservation [53], urbanization [54,55], Lake area evaluation [56]; and to monitor environmental changes [57]. A number of simulation models are widely used, such as DINAMICA [53,58], SLEUTH [59], SERGoM [60], CLUE [61], GEOMOD [62], LUCAS [63] ANN-CA [64], and the CA-Markov change model [65][66][67][68].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Cover and Sustainable Development in the Lumbini Province, Nepal: Past, Present and Future

et al. 2021

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The analysis of forest cover change at different scales is an increasingly important research topic in environmental studies. Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) is an integrated approach to manage and restore forests across various landscapes and environments. Such restoration helps to meet the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)–15, as outlined in the UN Environment’s sixth Global Outlook, which includes the sustainable management of forests, the control of desertification, reducing degradation, biodiversity loss, and the conservation of mountain ecosystems. Here, we have used time series Landsat images from 1996 to 2016 to see how land use, and in particular forest cover, have changed between 1996 and 2016 in the Lumbini Province of Nepal. In addition, we simulated projections of land cover (LC) and forest cover change for the years 2026 and 2036 using a hybrid cellular automata Markov chain (CA–Markov) model. We found that the overall forest area increased by 199 km2 (2.1%), from a 9491 km2 (49.3%) area in 1996 to 9691 km2 (50.3%) area in 2016. Our modeling suggests that forest area will increase by 81 km2 (9691 to 9772 km2) in 2026 and by 195 km2 (9772 km2 to 9966 km2) in 2036. They are policy, planning, management factors and further strategies to aid forest regeneration. Clear legal frameworks and coherent policies are required to support sustainable forest management programs. This research may support the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the land degradation neutral world (LDN), and the UN decade 2021–2031 for ecosystem restoration.

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“…Due to both political and economic factors, such as rural poverty and better employment possibilities in cities, Nepal's urban population has grown rapidly during the past ten years. Other driving factors of urban population growth include social, physical, developmental, high net migration, and administrative reclassification (Rijal, Rimal, Stork, & Sharma, 2020;Rimal et al, 2020Rimal et al, , 2018. Climate and physiographic features make the area attractive for urban development, along with good government plans and policies (Rijal et al, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Other driving factors of urban population growth include social, physical, developmental, high net migration, and administrative reclassification (Rijal, Rimal, Stork, & Sharma, 2020;Rimal et al, 2020Rimal et al, , 2018. Climate and physiographic features make the area attractive for urban development, along with good government plans and policies (Rijal et al, 2020). For instance, in Nepal, urbanization primarily occurred at the periphery of the East-West, postal highway, and connecting road networks to the mid-hills (Rimal et al, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) Using SatelliteDerived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Land Surface Temperature (LST) in Three Metropolitan Cities of Nepal

Kandel

Gyawali

Sandifer

et al. 2022

Banko

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Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) are urban areas that are relatively warmer than nearby rural areas due to the presence of infrastructures, such as buildings, roads, and associated development. This study explored the UHIs in Nepal's three largest metropolitan cities, i.e., Pokhara, Bharatpur, and Nepalgunj. Using freely available data, we explored LST dynamics between 2000 and 2019 and how changes in NDVI affect LST and their relationship with UHI. We used the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 8-day product (MOD11A2) to evaluate LST and the MODIS-derived NDVI 16-day product (MOD13Q1) to quantify land surface characteristics. Using a simple linear regression technique, we explored the relationship between LST and NDVI. The results indicated that LSTs for the urban areas are consistently greater than LSTs for the nearby rural areas, and an inverse relation between LST and NDVI was obtained. The results from Pokhara and Bharatpur showed that increasing LST resulting from declining NDVI is responsible for UHIs. However, the results from Nepalgunj suggested that factors other than NDVI are responsible for variation in LST. These results indicate a need for systematic mapping, planning, and managing open and green areas in large cities. This research also highlights the scope of applying UHI conceptual models to rapidly developing urban areas in different locations of Nepal for better planning and management of open spaces.

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Quantifying the drivers of urban expansion in Nepal

Cited by 20 publications

References 56 publications

Outlook from the soil perspective of urban expansion and food security

Outlook from the soil perspective of urban expansion and food security

Forest Cover and Sustainable Development in the Lumbini Province, Nepal: Past, Present and Future

Assessment of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) Using SatelliteDerived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Land Surface Temperature (LST) in Three Metropolitan Cities of Nepal

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