Binod Heyojoo

The study assessed trees outside forest (TOF) resources integrating ancillary data, Geo-Eye image and field inventory in Panchase area, a middle mountain landscape of Nepal. The result showed that out of total study area (2289.04 ha), the TOF area was  361.88 hectare (ha) and the tree density of the TOF  was  195±17 with an average of 61.23±7.45 tonne per ha above ground biomass (ABG) phytomass. The average phytomass content from the individual tree of the TOF was 0.32± 0.02 ton for both TOF-Scattered and TOF-Group classes. The total ABG phytomass stock was found 8191.44 tonne in TOF-Scattered class and 8754.67 tonnes in TOF-Group class. The variation in tree density and tree species among the TOF classes indicated Schima wallichi was dominant species both in terms of density and ABG phytomass content in the both classes. The study found weak relationship (R2; 0.027 and 0.072 for TOF-Group and for TOF-Scattered class respectively) between the estimated ABG phytomass and NDVI of the GeoEye image. The findings suggested that there is significant difference in the average phytomass per ha between TOF classes while there is no significant difference in the average phytomass per tree of TOF classes.

Keywords: Geo-Eye, TOF-Scatter, TOF-Group, Tree density, NDVI

Land use and land cover change have major impacts on the global environment and climate. Remote sensing and GIS technology are very useful tools and important for monitoring changes. It is accepted worldwide that warming of the globe is responsible for unprecedented climate events posing a number of direct and indirect threats to mountain environment. This study aimed to assess land uses dynamics with climate change indicators and the major causes and effects of climate change on land use in Upper Madi khola Sub-watershed of Kaski district. Landsat satellite images of year 1988 and 2012 were used for quantifying changes using supervised classification method. Household surveys, key informant interview, GPS point and indirect field observation were carried out to agglomerate social, economic and bio-physical data.
Results showed that the forest cover has increased at an annual rate of 0.23% and other (barren land, settlement, water) increased by 0.88% per annual. Similarly, snow cover has decreased at an annual rate of 1.5%. The maximum, minimum and average annual temperature in the study area were found increasing at the rate 0.0147 °C, 0.0396 °C, and 0.0271 °C respectively. Precipitation trend is also increasing by 8.622 mm per annum. Melting of snow, expansion of glacial lake, occurrence of landslide and invasive species moving upper elevation are some distinctly noticed effects of climate within the watershed. Land use/Land cover change in the study area should be monitored and updated regularly and agriculture land of the area should be protected from further transformation which creates food scarcity to the study area.
Keywords: land use dynamics, Climate change, Sub-watershed

This study aims to estimate above ground phytomass and carbon of TROF ecosystem in part of Bijnor district in Uttar Pradesh state of India using IRS P6 LISS-IV satellite image by geo-spatial approach coupled with field sampling. Chacko’s formula was referred to compute number of samples in each TROF types and the sample plot size in each stratum was adopted from Vegetation Carbon Project (VCP) under National Carbon Project (NCP). With the help of field data consisting mainly the height and girth information, volume of each individual tree per plot was obtained using site and tree species-specific standard volumetric equations. The phytomass was calculated by multiplying volume with Biomass Expansion Factor (BEF) then with regional specific gravity of the individual species and summed up in each plot to get total phytomass per plot. The total phytomass per plot was reported to be maximum 544.00 t/ha for linear TROF followed by 121.89 t/ha for block TROF. The carbon from phytomass was obtained by multiplying the total phytomass by a conversion factor that represents the average carbon content in phytomass. Spectral modeling for phytomass with different bands and indices were established and the best fit curve (R2 = 0.552) with red band was applied to generate phytomass and carbon distribution map of the study area.

Keywords: TROF, Sampling, Geospatial, Phytomass, Carbon

Lake area shrinkage has been severe throughout all ecological regions in Nepal. Sedimentation of lakes reduces both effective depth and surface area of lake, which ultimately reduce the effective life of the lake. Phewa Lake covering an area of about 439 hectares has been one of the prominent tourist attractions of Nepal. Remotely sensed data sets are emerging as better choice for managers to observe spatially explicit changes over the time period where a high repeat frequency is required. This study aims to determine the spatio-temporal change and assess the shrinkage rate of Phewa Lake area.  Six temporal (November 1988 to October 2012) Landsat TM and ETM satellite images were used as primary data to detect change and calculate dimensions of the lake.  ERDAS IMAGINE 9.2 and ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 were used for digital image processing such as projecting in common coordinate system, digitizing the lake boundary and calculating the area. Standard formula used to calculate annual shrinkage rate of the lake reveals this rate as 0.46% and the lake area as 410.5 ha. respectively. The mean annual decrease  of the lake was about 2 ha.  Shrinkage in the lake area has indicated that it could create potential threat of eliminating the lake in future. Thus, a detailed study and regular monitoring is recommended for controlling sedimentation problem in the lake.