Use of Spatial Technology for Land Cover Change Assessment in Protected Area Management

Land cover assessment and monitoring of land cover dynamics are important to understand social and ecological processes in protected areas and it is helpful in monitoring, modeling and detection of environmental changes. Land cover is the characteristics of the physical material on the ground surface. Change in land cover is among the most important human alteration affecting the surface of earth that directly impacts on biological diversity. Such changes affect and increase the vulnerability of population, environment and ecosystem to global phenomena of climate change. This study has assessed the changes in land cover in Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park (SNNP) along with its Buffer Zone during twenty-seven years. The main objective of this study is to identify the changed scenario on land cover condition of the study area based on available topographic maps (1994), Google Earth images (2021) and Key Informant Interview (KII). The study has adopted Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) approach supported by secondary data and focus group discussion for classification and mapping of land cover. Among the different land cover classes, forest land, sandy area, water bodies and others land particularly built up area have been increased whereas, the bush/shrub land, cultivated land and grass land have been found decreased in the park area. On the other hand, the cultivated land, grass land and water bodies have been found decreased, while the bush/ shrub land, forest land, sandy area and others land particularly built up areas have been found significantly increased during 1994 to 2021 in the BZ area. It will provide a baseline for planners and policy makers to make proper plans to sustainably manage the protected area’s land cover.