Nepal is in great need of systematic and scientific land use planning.Fertile cultivation lands declination,climate change,forest area declination are affecting the environment. .The issue of land use planning is to be addressed soon.

1. LAND USE PLANNING IN NEPAL
Date:21 January 2013
Presented By:Suroj Dahal (suroj.rocks@gmail.com) during Undergraduate
study at Kathmandu University

2. Abstract
Land is important property and economic source
where all development activities take place.
A scientific and long term land use planning is
required for overall progress of a country.

3. Introduction
 Planning aims beneficial to land users in a sustainable
manner and which safeguard land resources and the
environment rather than exhausting or degrading them.
 Farmland, forest, pasture, urban settlement, parks and
conservation areas has to be managed to keep its
productivity at a certain level and its exploration optimally
beneficial for both the individual land users and society as a
whole.
 Land use becomes a playground for individual land users
who intend to maximize their economic profit and simply
disregard environmental or social needs and desires or
longer-term negative effects

4. ….cont
A lack of effective land-use policy and
planning mechanisms has affected the overall
governance in the country.
 Traditional land management is an
obstruction rather than an aid for
implementing community-driven sustainable
land-use planning.

5. Fig:A glance to topographical variation in nepal

6. Present situation
Landlocked country.
Lowland 60 meters from sea level to 8848
meters (Mt.Everest).
30 million population
18 national parks
2150 cultural heritages
Over 50 lakes
Over 6000 rivers

7. Objectives
To classify the land for the use of agriculture,
forestry, grazing, settlement, and other uses.
To classify further the agricultural land for most
productive crops as per geographical speciality,
land capability and soil quality of land.
To classify the land of the municipalities for land
use planning to conserve water, forest and bio-
diversity.
To identify and plan environmentally the
transitional major settlements of Nepal.

8. History of land use plan
 Periodic development planning began back in 1956.
 From 1956 to 1964, transport, communication and
public works were given priority,
 The next ten-year period (1964-1974) mainly
addressed agricultural development.
 The 1974-1984 period emphasized reform in land-
management systems to increase agricultural
production and conserve natural resources in order to
reduce economic inequality across the 75 districts.
 From 1984 to 1996, the main policy was to increase
productivity, first in the agricultural segment and then
in forestry and other land uses.

9.  In the next period (1996-2001), land use was recognised as a
major means for socio-economic development and pieces of
land were pinpointed for specific uses such as agriculture,
forestry, pasture, settlement, urban development and
industrialisation.
 The tenth ‘Five Year Plan' (2001-2006) emphasised social
justice, poverty alleviation and good governance through
developing an effective and trustworthy land administrative
system based on modern technology and also addressing
historical and religious heritage and Guthi land through
community participation.
 The 2007-2010 plan focused on land ownership, productivity
and management and on preparation of land-use zoning
regulations.

10. The prevailing
plan (2010-2013)
stresses the
importance of
proper land
management for
social and
economic
transformation.

11. Ways to get there
 Putting land-use zoning in place
 Controlling and discouraging unauthorised land use
 Maintaining balance between development and
environment
 controlling the fragmentation of land and haphazard
urbanisation
 Determining allowed land use of specific land parcels,
and ensuring this is implemented and monitored
 Determining appropriate policy measures
 Developing strategic plans for effective
implementation.

12. Procedures
Establishment of co-ordinating, monitoring
and implementing Mechanism
Legal Aspect
Technical aspects of land Use Planning

13. Technical aspects
 Convert the spatial and attribute data into digital form.
 existing maps and data for accuracy and to revise or
update these digital data using remote sensing or
digital photogrammetric technique, field surveys and
other appropriate methods.
 To develop capability maps, norms arrange legal bases
and prepare land use zoning of the areas for
agricultural, forest, grazing, settlement using GIS tools.
 To develop macro and district levels Land Use Planning
maps and data systematically.
 To develop the VDC and Municipality level Land Use
Plan.

14. Food production situation
Topographical maps
Agricultural/foresty
survey data
Land utilization maps
Population maps

15. Land capacity maps
Topographic maps
Geological maps
Land system maps
Hydrological maps

16. Environmental situation
Population maps
Land utilization
maps
Heritage maps
Land capability maps

17. Sustainable Development
Planning
Population maps
topographic maps
Land utilization maps
Land capability maps
Master plans

18. Data requirement
Maps and data relation
Settlement areas
Field works
Master plans, norms, research findings

19. Treatment of maps and data
 All maps and data are required to convert in
spatial digital form in one projection, system,
uniform scales.
The digital maps and data must be updated or
revised by the method of remote sensing or
photogrammetry or field survey method as
per the changes occurred.

20. Fig: Aerial Photography

21. Development of softwares
GIS
Other appropriate softwares

22.  Large scale maps or high resolution GIS is
required to prepare the land use plans of VDC
or Municipality.
Cadastral records like land classification, land
use information may be used to relate land
use planning information.

23. Conclusion
Land use plan will have long term impact on
environmental, sustainable development and
overall economical development.
The human resources base should be
strengthened through seminars, workshops,
interaction programmes, media and site visits.

24. References
• Oli, P. P, Spatial Data For Land Use Planning In Nepal
• Government Of Nepal, National Land Use Project
• http://www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id1796-
Land_Use_Issues_in_Nepal.html
• Eschborn (1999) , Land Use Planning -Methods, Strategies and
Tools
• Mattingly ,M. & Winarso,H. ,INTEGRATED ACTION PLANNING
IN NEPAL: SPATIAL AND INVESTMENT PLANNING IN URBAN
AREA

25. THANK YOU