Kaski, one the major cities of Nepal, major tourism place and regional headquarter of Western Development region, attracts large population from surrounding resulting 36.4% increase in population proportion and thus, land cover is rapidly changing in the area. The research intended to find land cover change over nine years from 2000 to 2009 as well as possible reason for the land cover change. Landsat images were obtained from USGS Glovis, National boundary data was clipped and dissolved selecting study area, and demographic data were obtained from Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal for the research. Data was analyzed using Supervised Classification method with maximum likelihood parameter. From the result, it is concluded that the urban area has increased by 47.86% in study area with the decrease in forest area by 26.25%. The possible reason for the land cover change can be attributed to rapid increase in population growth and rapid urbanization. Also, decrease in water resource and barren land can also be accounted to rapid urbanization and rapid change in land use pattern though research provides sufficient room for further research in this area of study

1. Objectives
A Comparison of Land Cover Change in Kaski District, Nepal
Bijesh Mishra (bijesh.mishra@kysu.edu); MS in Environment Studies.
Instructor: Dr. Buddhi Gyawali, Remote Sensing of the Environment [Env. 589]
College of Agriculture, Food Science, and Sustainable System, Kentucky State University
Abstract
Kaski, one the major cities of Nepal, major tourism place and regional headquarter of Western Development
region, attracts large population from surrounding resulting 36.4% increase in population proportion and thus, land cover
is rapidly changing in the area. The research intended to find land cover change over nine years from 2000 to 2009 as well
as possible reason for the land cover change. Landsat images were obtained from USGS Glovis, National boundary data
was clipped and dissolved selecting study area, and demographic data were obtained from Central Bureau of Statistics,
Nepal for the research. Data was analyzed using Supervised Classification method with maximum likelihood parameter.
From the result, it is concluded that the urban area has increased by 47.86% in study area with the decrease in forest area
by 26.25%. The possible reason for the land cover change can be attributed to rapid increase in population growth and
rapid urbanization. Also, decrease in water resource and barren land can also be accounted to rapid urbanization and
rapid change in land use pattern though research provides sufficient room for further research in this area of study.
Introduction
Kaski—one of the seventy five districts of Nepal and
headquarter of Western Development Region—lies in the heart
of two Himalayas viz. Mt. Annapurna and Mt. Machhapuchhre
(Fishtail) which discharges into two major lakes Phewa and
Begnas in Pokhara. Being regional headquarter and second
largest tourism place of Nepal (Poudel, 2008), land cover change
is becoming challenge to Kaski district as it attracts large
population from surrounding area, suggesting a sign of regional
economic vitality, and also has one of the highest growth rates of
population (Rimal, 2011b). Annual urban growth rate of Nepal is
8% about six times higher than population growth rate. There
has been a noticeable increase in the proportion of population
moving from rural to urban areas (25.5% in 2001 to 33.5% in
2011) throughout the country and 36.4% (in 2011) in Western
region, Kaski being major part of it, which is higher than national
migration rate (CBS). Kaski district is selected as study area
because of its rapid urbanization process, population growth and
changing pattern of land use.
Land use/land cover change is an important component
to understand land status as it shows earth in different period of
time and thus has become central component of natural
resource management as well as monitoring environmental
changes (Kumari, Das and Sharma, 2014; Rimal, 2011a). Remote
Sensing has been powerful tools to understand land cover
change as it provides fundamental tools useful to investigate
problems from village to national level (Rimal, 2011a; Rimal
2011b). Furthermore, it provides cost effective as well as
accurate great potential for understanding landscape dynamics,
especially to detect identify, map and monitor difference in land
use change and cover pattern over period of time (Jansen, 1996).
This research aims to identify land cover change
percentage and its pattern in Kaski, Nepal due to rapid
urbanization and increase in population in Pokhara, Kaski.
• Determine percent land cover and land cover change in study
area over two different period of time.
• To figure out possible reason for the land cover change in
study area.
Supervised classification with maximum likelihood
parameter was used to classify the image. For the
classification, training samples were obtained and
converted into signature file which is imported for
classification. Post processing of images was done to
remove the sand and pepper effects in processed image
using majority filter and boundary clean tools. Graph of
each classified image representing different land covers was
prepared using image attributes and graph tool.
The land cover percentage for each image was
compared along with total area of different land cover and
district from both classified image was recorded and
plotted in excel to prepare table and graph.
Percentage of change in each land cover was
calculated in to figure out percentage of land cover change
in this nine year period.
Results
Figure 1 shows the temporal change in land cover over two
different time period which is represented graphically in figure 3
and statistically in table 2. Ash white color in figure 1 represents
snow mountain; light orange color represents barren land; green
color represents forest land; red color represents developed or
urban area and blue color represents water bodies.
References
CBS, Central Bureau of Statistics. Population Monograph of Nepal (Population Dynamics). Vol. I. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics,
2014. 24 04 2015. <http://cbs.gov.np/wp-
content/uploads/2014/12/Population%20Monograph%20of%20Nepal%202014%20Volume%20I%20FinalPrintReady1.pdf>.
Jansen, John R. Introductory Digital Processing A Remote Sensing Perspective (2nd Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 1996.
Kumari, Maya, et al. "Change detection analysis using multi temporal satellite data of Poba reserve forest, Assam and Arunchal Pradesh."
International journal of Geomatics and Geosciences 4.3 (2014): 517-525. 23 04 2015.
<http://www.ipublishing.co.in/jggsarticles/volfour/EIJGGS4045.pdf>.
Rimal, Bhagawat. "APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS, LAND USE/LAND COVER CHANGE IN KATHMANDU METROPOLITAN CITY,
NEPAL." Journal of Theoritical and Applied Information Technology 23.3 (2011): 80-86. 23 04 2015. <http://jatit.org/volumes/research-
papers/Vol23No2/3Vol23No2.pdf>.
Rimal, Bhagawat. "Urban Growth and Land Use/Land Cover Change of Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City, Nepal." Journal of Theoritical and
Applied Information Techonology 26.2 (2011): 118-129. 23 04 2015. <http://www.jatit.org/volumes/research-
papers/Vol26No2/8Vol26No2.pdf>.
Poudel, K. R. (2008). Urban Growth and Land Use Change in the Himalayan Region: A Case Study of Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City,
Nepal. GIS Ostrava, 1, 27-30.
Methodology
Temporal Landsat 7 EMT+ data of 30M resolution
from 2000 and 2009 were obtained from USGS Glovis,
Earth Explorer and Landsat database of University of
Maryland using 142/40 as path/row number respectively.
The compressed Landsat data in .tar format was extracted
using 7- zip software.
The boundary of study area was obtained by
clipping (using clip tool in Image Analysis) the study area
(using attribute table) from whole country boundary
dataset and dissolved to remove VDC boundary using
ArcGIS 10.3. The data were projected in Universal
Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection system (Zone 44N,
World Geodetic System 84) which was also used by Rimal,
2011b.
Demographic data were obtained from Central
Bureau of Statistics, Nepal.
Table 2. Percentage of Land cover change observed in nine years period in
Kaski District of Nepal. Negative sign signifies the decrease in percentage of
land cover where as positive sign signifies increase. Percentage of area under
developed land has increased by 47.86% whereas that of forest and water
decreased by 26.25% and 54.08% respectively which could be because of
urbanization in the district.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank Dr. Buddhi Gyawali and Mr. Ken
Bates for providing support and guidance in the research.
Figure 2. Location of study site (red boundary) and associated country,
Nepal (yellow boundary)
Territory Total Population Population
Density
Population
Estimation
2001 2011 2001 2011 2026 2031
Kaski 380,527 492,098 189 243.98 643,183 683,513
Nepal 23,151,423 26,494,504 181 157 32,144,91 33,597,032
Table 1. Demographics comparison of Kaski district with that of nation and
its future projection. (CBS, 2014)
Figure 1.
Upper Row: Land Cover Classification of Kaski District (2000) and its corresponding graph representing percentage of each land covers.
Lower Row: Land Cover classification of Kaski District (2009) and its corresponding graph representing percentage of each land covers.
Land Cover Types Land Cover %
(2000)
Land Cover %
(2009)
Land Cover
Change %
Water 0.98 0.45 -54.08
Snow Mountain 12.79 17.19 34.40
Barren Land 19.91 17.88 -10.20
Developed Area 21.02 31.08 47.86
Forest 45.3 33.41 -26.25
0.98 12.79
19.91
21.02
45.3
0.45
17.19
17.88
31.08
33.4
-54.08
34.40
-10.20
47.86
-26.27
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
Water Snow Mountain Barren Land Developed Area Forest
Land Cover and Land Cover Change Percentage in Kaski from 2000 to 2009
Land Cover % (2000) Land Cover % (2009) Land Cover Change %
Figure 3. Chart Showing different land cover and its change in Kaski.
Conclusion and Discussion
The result shows that developed land has increased by 47.86%
percentage in this nine year period. Increase in snow over the
mountainous region could be accounted to cold winter and snow
deposition over mountain as both images were taken in the month
of December and snowfall varies year to year. Heavy snowfall in
higher altitude might affect area of barren land as well. Heavy
change in water resource could also be accounted for water seen in
high Himalayan region in classified image of 2000 which is covered
by snow in later one.
So, we can come to conclusion that the change in land use
pattern and increase in urbanization is putting direct pressure in
forest areas though its effect in barren lands and water bodies
cannot be neglected. It gives further room for the research in
effect of land cover change in barren land outside urban areas and
water resources.