- Nepal has adopted a land classification system that categorizes land use into cultivated lands, non-cultivated lands, grasslands, forested lands, and other lands. - The dominant land use in Kathmandu valley is agriculture (53.83%), followed by other lands, forestry, urban/built up areas, shrub/waste lands, and water. - Land use in the valley has changed significantly between 1967-2001 with decreases in agriculture land and forested areas and increases in urban/built up areas and other lands.

1. Prepared By
Pradeep Baral

2. “Nepal is a land scarse country in terms of arable land with per
household land holding of 0.6 ha”
-FAO, 2010
Nepal has adopted Land Resource Mapping Project (1986)
classification system for the categorization of land use as follows:
• Clutivated lands
• No cultivated inclusions
• Grasslands
• Forested lands
• Other lands: All lands not included in above categories and may
include rocky areas, lakes, ponds, waterways, settlements and
industrial land use etc.

4. • Location: 27º 32’ 13” and 27º 49’ 10” North
85º 11’ 31” and 85º 31’ 38” East
• Climate and Precipitation
 Sub-tropical cool climate
 Maximum temperature 350 C
 Minimum temperature -30 C
 Rainfall: 1400 mm
• Administrative division
 Comprises 3 districts, Kathmandu, Lalitpur and
Bhaktapur together which cover an area of 899 km2
 Encloses entire area of Bhaktapur district, 85% area of
Kathmandu district and 50% area of Lalitpur district

5. • Demography
 Population: 2.6 millions (CBS, 2011)
 Annual growth rate: 4.2% (CBS, 2011)
 Density: 2889/km2
• Poverty: 12% population living under poverty line
• Literacy rate: 77%
• Transportation and Health facilities
 Total length of motorable roads 1236 km
 Population influenced per km of road 2100
 Number of health facilities available: 145 (UNEP, 2007)
• Electricity
 95% households connected to electricity
• Accessibility to drinking water
 74.6% of population

8. Dominant land use type in Kathmandu valley is
cultivated land followed by other land uses and
forestry.
Land Use Type Area in Hectare %
Agriculture area 36854 53.83
Forest 13301 19.43
Urban/built up 9717 14.19
Shrubs/waste lands 7150 10.44
Water 1266 1.85
Open space 171 0.26
Total 68459 100
(Thapa, 2009)

10. “the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a
certain land cover type to produce, change or maintain it”
-FAO, 1999
Inputs
• (Raw) Materials, Labor, Capital, Management practices etc.
Products
• Cultivated Land- Agricultural crops, vegetables, fruits
• Forested Land- U
• Urban/built up- End use products, Human capital, Social capital, Financial
capital, Environmental externalities
• Shrubs/waste lands- Regulating and supporting services
• Water- Water for drinking, household and agriculture, Regulating and
supporting services
• Open Space- Recreational services

11. • Subsistence as well as commercial farming
practices
 >40% of the seasonal vegetables consumed in
Kathmandu metro area comes from the valley itself
 1/3 of the rice consumed in Kathmandu valley
produced in valley itself
• Independent on fuel wood and fodder
• >75% of Schima-Castanopsis and <50% Dalbergia
sisoo timbers used in Kathmandu valley comes
from the outskirts of the valley
• Half of the medium and large scale industries in
Nepal situated in the valley with market
capitalization worth $ 4 billion
• Largest exporter of handicrafts and processed
NTFPs
• Externalities

12. Year 1967 1978 1991 2001
Land Use Types Hectare % Hectare % Hectare % Hectare %
(Thapa, 2009)
Agriculture area
35649 52.07 35186 51.40 38652 56.46 36854 53.83
Forest
15800 23.08 16311 23.83 13887 20.29 13301 19.43
Urban/built up
2010 2.94 3362 4.91 6313 9.22 9717 14.19
Shrubs/waste lands
13563 19.81 12124 17.71 8129 11.87 7150 10.44
Water
1337 1.95 1380 2.02 1341 1.96 1266 1.85
Open space
100 0.15 95 0.14 135 0.20 171 0.25
Total
68458 100.00 68458 100.00 68458 100.00 68458 100.00
Accuracy - 80.66 84.44 83.33

15. Factors Representation Characteristics
Population growth High population influx (5.2%/yr)
Physical conditions
Topography, slope and soils. Eg. Hillocks preferred
for residence and hospitality business
Accessibility
Education, health services, transportation,
commercial services, recreational facilities etc.
Economic
opportunities
Opportunities in tourism, finance, industry, health,
education, wholesale and retail
Land market
Rising land prices make people transform their
cultivated lands into commercial plats
Centralization
Government services, business, industries, politics
and infrastructures centralized in Kathmandu

17. (Thapa, 2007)

18. • Declining Agricultural land and productivity
• Food Insecurity
• Deforestation and Degredation of Forests
• Declining water resources
• Increased intensity and frequencies of hazards like
flooding, fire, erosion etc.
• Environmental Pollution
• Poverty and Unemployment

19. • Land Zoning, particularly agricultural lands
• Formulation of urban land use and management
policy for Kathmandu valley
• Delineation of urban and rural boundaries for
separate treatment
• Decentralization policies
• Discourage conversion of agricultural lands to
commercial plats through policy actions
• Delineate existing forests as protected forests or hand
over to community as community forests. Afforest
and reforest in degraded forested lands.
• Using un-productive barren and shrub lands for
residential and industrial purposes

20. Feedback??