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Saudi Journal of Civil Engineering (SJCE)
Volume-5 | Issue-08 | 259-273
Original Research Article
Assessment of Change in Land Use Land Cover and Effect of it on Soil Loss from Phewa Watershed
Jaya Bahadur Bista, Keshav Basnet
Published : Sept. 6, 2021
DOI : 10.36348/sjce.2021.v05i08.002
Abstract
Land use land cover change trend in Phewa watershed of Nepal was found very unsymmetric over the past two decades causing tones of soil loss from it. This research focused on providing some valuable insights related to land use land cover change and its effects on soil loss from Phewa watershed using the ArcGIS and RUSLE Model in conjunction with Remote Sensing data for the year 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. This study predicts that the settlement change rate in very intensive compared to other coverages. However, change rate for forest, agriculture, barren, and water was found noticeable. Highest rate of change for settlement land was found 128.40 ha/yr in 2005 to 2010 while for agriculture and forest land it was found 192.92 ha/yr and 181.88 ha/yr respectively in 2000 to 2005. For the barren land and water highest rate of change were 94.12 ha/yr and 12ha/yr respectively. The overall land use change from 2000 to 2020 for built-up area, agricultural land, forest area and bare land were found as 12.30 Km2 (342.20%), 6.47 Km2 (13.12%), 2.45 Km2 (4.27%), and 3.44 Km2 (39.13%) respectively. This research predicts that the fluctuation of land use change has great effects on the soil loss. The year interval having higher land cover change consisted with higher loss of soil and vice versa. Soil loss rate was found highest in 2010 (16.74 t/ha/yr) followed by its lowest rate in 2015 (11.58 t/ha/yr. Year interval with these two significant soil losses has high rate of LULC change. Additionally, this study forecasted the land use land cover change using MOLUSCE in QGIS for the year 2025 and 2030. Forecasted result showed that settlement area will maintain its coverage as 17.10 Km2 and 17.19 Km2 in 2025 and 2030 respectively. In 2025, forest and agriculture will maintain their coverage as 54.99 Km2 and 42.53 Km2 respectively followed by their coverage in 2030 as 55.10 Km2 and 42.39 Km2 respectively. The barren land will be 4.33 Km2 in 2025 but 4.25 Km2 in 2030 while the water coverage for both 2025 and 2030 years will be the same as 3.86 Km2. The results of this study could be very useful and could serve as a corner stone for the sustainable management of land use land cover and to control the soil erosion from the Phewa watershed.
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