Land Use Land Cover Change Detection in Churia of Bara District, Nepal by Using GIS and Remote Sensing

Abstract

Land use land cover (LULC) is a dynamic process. It is derived by forces responsible for these changes. LULC changes has become a central component of current strategies in managing natural resources and monitoring environmental changes. Among them, Forest cover have been changes due to different activities like deforestation, encroachment infrastructure development etc. so, the study was carried out with integrated approach using Remote sensing and GIS techniques together with socio-economic data to examine the LULC change and its driving forces. Image processing was done through supervised classification in order to prepare LULC maps using Maximum Likelihood algorithm. Result showed that the forest cover as well as Rivers & Riverine area are decreasing by 0.39% and 1.06% per year respectively, contributing to increase Agricultural land and built-up area at the rate of 1.13% and 4.18% per year respectively in churia range of Bara, Nepal. Mostly, forest area has been converted to Built-up area between 1991 to 2018. Similarly, drivers found associated with forest cover decrease were illegal settlement & encroachment, high dependency on forest product, grazing & forest Fires, infrastructure development & urbanization, natural drivers, land fragmentation, environmental consequences and political instabilities.