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In mountainous regions, the resource management practices in the upstream areas, especially land and water management, have a direct impact on the downstream communities; at the same time, water availability can directly affect livelihood-related activities in both areas
. Upstream-downstream linkages occur at different scales (from micro-watersheds to river basins), across physiographic regions (mountains to plains), across different administrative divisions (wards to countries), and between countries. Studies have found that good watershed management practices in upstream areas can bring opportunities to downstream communities in the form of sustained spring flow, whereas poor watershed management practices have the potential to increase the likelihood of landslide events upstream and contribute to low water-flow in the dry season downstream. Thus, downstream communities have both opportunities and potential threats linked to the management of water in upstream areas
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Crop productivity is directly dependent on soil fertility
. High organic carbon content in soil is vital as it leads to improved soil quality, increased productivity, and stable soil aggregates. In addition, with the signing of the climate agreement, there is growing interest in carbon sequestration in landscapes. This paper looks at how soil organic carbon (SOC) can be increased so that it contributes not only to the reduction of atmospheric CO2, but also translates to the increased food production, thereby enhancing food security. This synergy between climate change mitigation and enhancing food security is even more relevant for mountain landscapes of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region where there remains huge potential to increase CO2 sequestration and simultaneously address food security in the chronic food deficit villages. Soil samples were collected from seven transects each in Bajhang and Mustang and from four land use types in each transect. Samples of soils were taken from two depths in each plot: 0–15 cm and 15–30 cm below the soil surface to compare the top soil and subsoil dynamics of the soil nutrients. The lab analysis was performed to assess the soil texture, soil acidity in “power of hydrogen” (pH), and macro-nutrients reflecting soil fertility. Secondary data was used to analyze the level of food deficit in the villages. The pH value of soil from Bajhang ranged from 5.3 to 9.1. The pH value of soil ranged from 5.7 to 8.8 in Mustang. SOC contents of sampled soils from Bajhang ranged from 0.20% to 7.69% with a mean amount of 2.47% ± 0.17%. SOC contents of sampled soils from Mustang ranged from 0.51% to 8.56% with a mean amount of 2.60% ± 0.25%. By land use type, forest land had the highest carbon (C) content of 53.61 t·ha−1 in Bajhang, whereas in Mustang, agricultural land had the highest C content of 52.02 tons·ha−1. Based on these data, we can say that there is potential for increasing SOC through improved soil health and crop production holistic soil management should be practiced for higher productivity, and incorporating livestock for farmyard manure would fertilize cultivated soils, which increases soil productivity. Increasing productivity would aid in enhancing the access and availability of food in these mountain village
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Forests offer an important basis for creating and safeguarding more climate-resilient communities over Hindu Kush Himalayan region
. The forest ecosystem vulnerability assessment to climate change and developing knowledge base to identify and support relevant adaptation strategies is realized as an urgent need. The multi scale adaptation strategies portray increasing complexity with the increasing levels in terms of data requirements, vulnerability understanding and decision making to choose a particular adaptation strategy. We present here how such complexities could be addressed and adaptation decisions could be either directly supported by open source remote sensing based forestry products or geospatial analysis and modelled products. The forest vulnerability assessment under climate change scenario coupled with increasing forest social dependence was studied using IPCC Landscape scale Vulnerability framework in Chitwan-Annapurna Landscape (CHAL) situated in Nepal. Around twenty layers of geospatial information on climate, forest biophysical and forest social dependence data was used to assess forest vulnerability and associated adaptation needs using self-learning decision tree based approaches. The increase in forest fires, evapotranspiration and reduction in productivity over changing climate scenario was observed. The adaptation measures on enhancing productivity, improving resilience, reducing or avoiding pressure with spatial specificity are identified to support suitable decision making. The study provides spatial analytical framework to evaluate multitude of parameters to understand vulnerabilities and assess scope for alternative adaptation strategies with spatial explicitness
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Land cover and its change analysis across the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is realized as an urgent need to support diverse issues of environmental conservation
. This study presents the first and most complete national land cover database of Nepal prepared using public domain Landsat TM data of 2010 and replicable methodology. The study estimated that 39.1% of Nepal is covered by forests and 29.83% by agriculture. Patch and edge forests constituting 23.4% of national forest cover revealed proximate biotic interferences over the forests. Core forests constituted 79.3% of forests of Protected areas where as 63% of area was under core forests in the outside protected area. Physiographic regions wise forest fragmentation analysis revealed specific conservation requirements for productive hill and mid mountain regions. Comparative analysis with Landsat TM based global land cover product showed difference of the order of 30–60% among different land cover classes stressing the need for significant improvements for national level adoption. The online web based land cover validation tool is developed for continual improvement of land cover product. The potential use of the data set for national and regional level sustainable land use planning strategies and meeting several global commitments also highlighted
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Land cover (LC) is one of the most important and easily detectable indicators of change in ecosystem services and livelihood support systems
. This paper describes the decadal dynamics in LC changes at national and sub-national level in Bhutan derived by applying object-based image analysis (OBIA) techniques to 1990, 2000, and 2010 Landsat (30 m spatial resolution) data. Ten LC classes were defined in order to give a harmonized legend land cover classification system (LCCS). An accuracy of 83% was achieved for LC-2010 as determined from spot analysis using very high resolution satellite data from Google Earth Pro and limited field verification. At the national level, overall forest increased from 25,558 to 26,732 km2 between 1990 and 2010, equivalent to an average annual growth rate of 59 km2/year (0.22%). There was an overall reduction in grassland, shrubland, and barren area, but the observations were highly dependent on time of acquisition of the satellite data and climatic conditions. The greatest change from non-forest to forest (277 km2) was in Bumthang district, followed by Wangdue Phodrang and Trashigang, with the least (1 km2) in Tsirang. Forest and scrub forest covers close to 75% of the land area of Bhutan, and just over half of the total area (51%) has some form of conservation status. This study indicates that numerous applications and analyses can be carried out to support improved land cover and land use (LCLU) management. It will be possible to replicate this study in the future as comparable new satellite data is scheduled to become available
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The degradation of forest and soil contribute significantly to carbon emission to the atmosphere leading to the build–up of carbon dioxide in atmosphere and contributing to global warming
. Consequences of climate change are not only the rise in global temperatures, but also changes in the precipitation patterns, which could affect agricultural production, food security, human health and long-term ecosystem properties balance. The deforestation and land degradation are major sources of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. International negotiations and dialogues on REDD+ mechanism are held for both national and local level mitigation policies formulation for the reduction of carbon emission from land use, land use change and forestry sector. The reduction of emissions from fossil fuel combustion and avoidance of deforestation and forest/land degradation constitute lasting and long-term solutions for mitigating climate change. There is an urgent need of relevant and efficient methods of measuring forest and soil carbon through application of the latest geospatial technologies, i.e., GIS (geographic information system), Remote Sensing and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). These technologies can support the precise measurement of carbon stocks, as well as, offer cost effective and interoperable data generation methods. The REDD+ mechanism is being promoted worldwide mainly to reduce the diminishing of forest in developing countries. Such an approach must consider use rights, sustainable management of forests, ensuring and safe-guarding the benefit sharing mechanism and good governance, along with the legal framework and local livelihood concerns
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