Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Analysing Geospatial Techniques for Land Degradation Studies in Hindu Kush-Himalaya

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Environmental Change in the Himalayan Region

Abstract

Degraded land is predominantly considered as an unusable natural resource for sustaining livelihood practices such as agriculture, forestry and tourism. Land degradation poses far more grave threats in mountains where exploitable land is limited. A sustainable existence in mountainous area depends on the conservation practices adopted and a judicious utilisation of land and water resources. Due to the vastness of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH), trans-boundary issues and difficult terrain and weather conditions, geospatial techniques utilizing remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) play an important role in assessing the degree of land degradation. The main focus of this chapter is on analyzing the usability and effectiveness of the geospatial approaches and methods needed to study wide-scale land degradation in the HKH mountains. This Chapter further assesses the various aspects of land degradation in mountains and highlights the markers to study land degradation. It tries to analyze the degree of anthropogenic interference on land resources in the human-dominated Himalayan region. It provides an overview of significant studies that have dealt with the assessment of land degradation in the HKH using remote sensing and GIS methodologies. The Chapter offers suggestions that future studies using geospatial techniques in resource monitoring and assessment should take heed of. Additionally, it proposes conservation and livelihood strategies for sustainable development in these high mountains.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Arnold JG, Srinivasan R, Muttiah RS, Williams JR (1998). Large area hydrologic modeling and assessment part I: Model development. J. Amer. Water Resour. Assoc. 34, 73–89.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Asio VB, Jahn R, Perez FO, Navarrete IA, Abit Jr SM (2009). A review of soil degradation in the Philippines. Annals of Tropical Research 31, 69–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Awasthi A, Uniyal SK, Rawat GS, Rajvanshi A (2003). Forest resource availability and its use by the migratory villages of Uttarkashi, Garhwal Himalaya (India). Forest Ecol. Manage. 174, 13–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bajracharya SR, Shrestha B (eds) (2011). The status of glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region. Kathmandu: ICIMOD. (http://lib.icimod.org/record/9419).

  • Barber R (1984). Ethiopian highland reclamation study. An assessment of the dominant soil degradation processes in the Ethiopian highlands: Their impacts and hazards. EHRS Working Paper 23. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/United Nations Development Program (UNDP)/GOE (Government of Ethiopia), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, p 82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beasley DB (1977) ANSWERS: A mathematical model for simulating the effects of land use and management on water quality. Unpublished PhD thesis, Purdue University, West Lafayette. pp 266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beven KJ, Kirby MJ, Schoffield N, Tagg A (1984). Testing a physically-based flood forecasting model TOPMODEL for three UK catchments. Journal of Hydrology 69, 119–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown D, Schreckenberg K (1998). Shifting cultivators as agents of deforestation: Assessing the evidence. Natural Resource Perspectives, Overseas Development Institute, 29, pp 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cerdan O, Souchère V, Lecomte V, Couturier A, Le Bissonnais Y (2002). Incorporating soil surface crusting processes in an expert-based runoff model: sealing and transfer by runoff and erosion related to agricultural management. Catena 46, 189–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cerdan O, Le Bissonnais Y, Govers G, Lecomte V, Van Oost K, Couturier A, King C,. Dubreuil N (2004). Scale effect on runoff from experimental plots to catchments in agricultural areas in Normandy. Journal of hydrology 299, 4–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Champion HG, Seth SK (1968). A Revised Survey of the Forest Types of India. Government of India Press, New Delhi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coulthard TJ, Macklin MG, Kirkby MJ (2002). A cellular model of Holocene upland river basin and alluvial fan evolution. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 27, 269–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coulthard TJ, Neal JC, Bates PD, Ramirez J, Almeida GAM, Hancock GR (2013). Integrating the LISFLOOD FP 2D hydrodynamic model with the CAESAR model: implications for modelling landscape evolution. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 38, 1897–1906.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dent D (2007). Land. In UNEP (Ed.), Global environmental outlook GEO4. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme, pp 81–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Roo APJ, Offermans RJE, Cremers NHDT (1996). LISEM: a single event physically based hydrological and soil erosion model for drainage basins: I Theory, input and output. Hydrological Processes 10, 1119–1126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dhar, TN (2000). Land policies, land management and land degradation in the Hindu kush-Himalayas. India Study Report. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dhruvanarayana VV, Rambabu (1983). Estimation of soil loss in India. J Irrig Drain Eng 109, 419–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyhrenfurth GO (1955). To the Third Pole: The history of the High Himalaya (1st edn). London, UK: Ex Libris, Werner Laurie.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dregne, HE (2002). Land degradation in the drylands. Arid Land Research and Management 16, 99–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • El Baroudy AA (2011). Monitoring land degradation using remote sensing and GIS techniques in an area of the middle Nile Delta, Egypt. Catena 87, 201–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO (1980) Report on the Second FAO/UNFPA Expert Consultation on Land Resources for Populations of the Future, FAO, Rome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Favis-Mortlock D, Boardman J, Parsons T, Lascelles B (1998). Emergence and erosion: a model for rill initiation and development. Abrahart RJ (Ed.) Proceedings of the Third International Conference on GeoComputation (CD), University of Bristol, 17–19 September.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster GR (1982). Modelling the erosion processes. In: Hann CT, Johnson HP, Brakensick DL (eds) Hydrologic Modeling of a Small Watershed. American Society of Agricultural Engineers, ASAE, St. Joseph, Michigan, USA, pp 297–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster GR, Meyer LD (1972). A closed-form soil erosion equation for upland areas. In: Shen HW (ed) Sedimentation (Einstein), Chapter 12, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabus A, Hawthorne A (2008). Biofuels from dedicated tropical plantation forests: It is time for detailed studies of the lignofuels options. International Forestry Review 10, 563–572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao J, Liu Y (2008). Mapping of land degradation from space: a comparative study of Landsat ETM+ and ASTER data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 29, 4029–4043.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gansser A (1981). The geodynamic history of the Himalaya. In: Gupta HK, Delany FM (eds) Zagros, Hindu Kush, Himalaya geodynamic evolution, vol 3. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C., pp 111–121.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gisladottir G, Stocking M (2005). Land degradation control and its global environmental benefits. Land Degradation & Development 16, 99–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gomarasca MA (2010). Basics of geomatics. Applied Geomatics 2, 137–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Govers G, Vandaele K, Desmet P, Poesen J, Bunte K (1994) The role of tillage in soil redistribution on hillslopes. European Journal of Soil Science 45, 469–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grainer A (1993). Controlling Tropical Forest Deforestation. Earthscan Publications Ltd., London, p 310.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hagos F, Pender J, Gebreselassie N (1999). Land degradation in the highlands of Tigray and strategies for sustainable land management. Socioeconomic and policy research working paper No. 25. International Livestock Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2014). Climate change 2014: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A:Global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of working group II to the fifth assess-ment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UnitedKingdom and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jasrotia AS, Singh R (2006). Modeling runoff and soil erosion in a catchment area, using the GIS, in the Himalayan region, India. Environmental geology 51, 29–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson DL (2006). Land degradation: Creation and destruction. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaushik N, Kumar K, Kumar S (2007). Potential of Jatropha curcas for biofuels. Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy 1, 301–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinnell PIA (2000). AGNPS-UM: applying the USLE-M within the agricultural non point source pollution model. Environmental Modelling & Software 15, 331–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knisel WG (ed) (1980) CREAMS: A field-scale model for chemicals, runoff and erosion from agricultural management systems. USDA Conservation Research 26, p 640.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laflen JM, Elliot WJ, Flanagan DC, Meyer CR, Nearing MA (1997). WEPP-predicting water erosion using a process-based model. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 52, 96–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laflen JM, Lane LJ, Foster GR (1991) WEPP - a new generation of erosion prediction technology. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 46, 34–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Land Degradation Assessment in Dry lands (LADA) ((2009)). Accessed April 9, 2015 from http://www.fao.org/nr/lada.

  • Lanly J (2003). Deforestation and forest degradation factors. In: XII World Forestry Congress, Quebec City, Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard RA, Knisel WG, Still DA (1987) GLEAMS: Groundwater loading effects of agricultural management systems. Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers 30, 1403–1418.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu D, Batistella M, Mausel P, Moran E (2007). Mapping and monitoring land degradation risks in the Western Brazilian Amazon using multitemporal Landsat TM/ETM+ images. Land Degradation and Development 18, 41–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luo W, Stravers JA, Duffin KL (2005). Lessons learned from using a web-based interactive landform simulation model (WILSIM) in a general education physical geography course. Journal of Geoscience Education 53, 489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • May L, Place C (2005). A GIS-based model of soil erosion and transport. Freshwater Forum 23, 48–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milton SJ, Dean WRJ, du Plessis MA, Siegfried WR (1994). A conceptual model of arid rangeland degradation. BioScience 44, 70–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Molnar P (1988). A review of geophysical constraints on the deep structure of the Tibetan Plateau, the Himalaya and the Karakoram, and their tectonic implications. Royal Society of London Philosophical Transactions 326, 33–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore ID, Burch GJ (1986). Modeling erosion and deposition: topographic effects. Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineering 29, 1624–1630.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan RPC, Quinton JN, Smith RE, Govers G, Poesen, JWA, Auerswald K, Chisci G, Torri D, Styczen ME (1998). The european soil erosion model (eurosem): a dynamic approach for predicting sediment transport from fields and small catchments. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 23, 527–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nandy S, Kushwaha SPS, Dadhwal VK (2011). Forest degradation assessment in the upper catchment of the river Tons using remote sensing and GIS. Ecological Indicators 11, 509–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norbu C, Baillie IC, Dema K, Jamyang, Dema Y, Tamang HB, Tshering K, Turkelboom F, Norbu S (2003). Types of land degradation in Bhutan. Journal of Bhutan Studies 8, 88–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oldeman LR (1994). The global extent of soil degradation. In: Greenland DJ, Szabolcs I (eds) Soil resilience and sustainable land use, CAB International, Wallingford (UK), pp 99–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Loughlin EM (1981). Saturation regions in catchment and their relation to soil and topographic properties. Journal of Hydrology 53, 229–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pandey A, Mathur A, Mishra, S K, Mal, BC (2009). Soil erosion modeling of a Himalayan watershed using RS and GIS. Environmental Earth Sciences 59, 399–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panta M, Kim K, Joshi C (2008). Temporal mapping of deforestation and forest degradation in Nepal: applications to forest conservation. Forest Ecology and Management 256, 1587–1595.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plieninger T, Gaertner M (2011). Harnessing degraded lands for biodiversity conservation. Journal for Nature Conservation 19:18–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2010.04.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prabhakar R, Somanathan E, Mehta BS (2006). How degraded are Himalayan forests? Curr. Sci. 91, 61–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahman MR, Shi ZH, Chongfa C, Dun Z (2015). Assessing soil erosion hazard-a raster based GIS approach with spatial principal component analysis (SPCA). Earth Science Informatics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-015-0219-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rajagopal D (2008). Implications of India’s biofuel policies for food, water and the poor. Water Policy 10:95–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rashid M, Lone MA, Romshoo, SA (2011). Geospatial tools for assessing land degradation in Budgam district, Kashmir Himalaya, India. Journal of earth system science 120, 423–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renard KG, Foster GR, Weesies GA, McCool DK, Yoder DC (1997). Predicting soil erosion by water: A guide to conservation planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Handbook No. 703, pp 404.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renschler CS (2003). Designing geo‐spatial interfaces to scale process models: The GeoWEPP approach. Hydrological Processes 17, 1005–1017.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose CW, Williams JR, Sander GC, Barry DA (1983a). A mathematical model of soil erosion and deposition processes: I. Theory for a plane land element. Soil Science Society of America Journal 47, 991–995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose CW, Williams JR, Sander GC, Barry DA (1983b). A mathematical model of soil erosion and deposition processes: II. Application to data from an arid-zone catchment. Soil Science Society of America Journal 47, 996–1000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosgen DL (2001). A practical method of computing streambank erosion rate. In Proceedings of the Seventh Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference 2, 9–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saikia A (1998). Shifting cultivation, population and sustainability: the changing context of north-east India. Development, 41, 3, 97–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saikia A, Hazarika R, Sahariah D (2013). Land-use/landcover change and fragmentation in the Nameri Tiger Reserve, India, Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography, 113, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sanders DW (1986). Sloping land: soil erosion problems and soil conservation requirements. In: W. Siderius (Ed.) Land evaluation for land use planning and conservation in sloping areas. International Workshop, Enschede, The Netherlands, 17–21 December, pp. 40–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sartori F, Lal R, Ebinger MH, Eaton JA (2007). Changes in soil carbon and nutrient pools along a chronosequence of poplar plantations in the Columbia Plateau, Oregon, USA. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 122, 325–339.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt J (1991). A mathematical model to simulate rainfall erosion. In: Catena Supplement 19, 101–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sfeir-Younis A (1986). Soil conservation in developing countries. Western Africa Projects Department/The World Bank, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma K, Robeson SR, Thapa P, Saikia A (2017) Landuse/land-cover change and forest fragmentation in the Jigme Dorji National Park, Bhutan, Physical Geography, 38, 18–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith RE, Goodrich DC, Woolhiser DA, Unkrich CL, Singh VP (1995). KINEROS-A kinematic runoff and erosion model. Computer models of watershed hydrology, pp 697–732.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M, Chen Z, Marquis M, Averyt KV et al. (2007). IPCC, 2007: Climate change 2007: The physical science basis. In Contribution ofworking group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel onclimate change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stocking MA (2001). Agrodiversity: a positive means of assessing land degradation and sustainable rural livelihoods. In: Conacher AJ (ed) Land degradation, Kluwer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, pp 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stocking M, Murnaghan N (Eds.) 2001. Handbook for the field assessment of land degradation. Earthscan, London (UK).

    Google Scholar 

  • Takken I, Govers G, Jetten V, Nachtergaele J, Steegen A, Poesen J (2001a). The effect of tillage on runoff and erosion patterns. Soil and Tillage 61, 55–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Takken I, Govers G, Steegen A, Nachtergaele N, Guérif J 2001b. The prediction of runoff flow directions on tilled fields. Journal of Hydrology 248, 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takken I, Jetten V, Govers G, Nachtergaele J, Steegen A (2001c). The effect of tillage-induced roughness on runoff and erosion patterns. Geomorphology 37:1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tilman D, Hill J, Lehman C (2006). Carbon-negative biofuels from low-input high-diversity grassland biomass. Science 314, 1598–1600.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tolcha T (1991). Aspects of soil degradation and conservation measures in Agucho catchment, West Hararghe. Soil conservation Research project, 19, University of Bern, Switzerland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uddin K, Chaudhary S, Chettri N, Kotru R, Murthy M, Chaudhary RP, Ning W, Shresthta SM, Gautam SK 2015. The changing land cover and fragmenting forest on the Roof of the World: A case study in Nepal’s Kailash Sacred Landscape. Landscape and Urban Planning 141:1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNEP (1986). Sands of change: Why land becomes desert and what can be done about it; UNEP Environmental Brief No 2. United Nations Environment Program, Nairobi, Kenya.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Oost K, Govers G, Desmet P (2000). Evaluating the effects of changes in landscape structure on soil erosion by water and tillage. Landscape ecology 15, 577–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner LE (2013). A history of wind erosion prediction models in the United States Department of Agriculture: The Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS). Aeolian Research 10:9–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams JR, Jones CA, Dyke, PT (1984). A modeling approach to determining the relationship between erosion and soil productivity. Transamerican Society of Agricultural Engineering 27:129–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wischmeier WH, Smith DD (1978). Predicting rainfall erosion losses. Agriculture Handbook No. 537, USDA-Science and Education Administration. p 58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodward DE (1999). Method to Predict Cropland Ephemeral Gully Erosion. Catena 37, 393–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yiran GAB, Kusimi JM, Kufogbe SK (2012). A synthesis of remote sensing and local knowledge approaches in land degradation assessment in the Bawku East District, Ghana. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 14, 204–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young A (1994). Land degradation in South Asia: Its severity causes and effects upon people. World Soils Resources Report 78, Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations, Rome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young RA, Onstad CA, Bosch DD, Anderson WP (1989). AGNPS: A nonpoint-source pollution model for evaluating agricultural watersheds. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 44, 168–173.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, 97187, Sweden

    Anshuman Bhardwaj & Lydia Sam

  2. Department of Environmental Science, Sharda University, Greater Noida, India

    Anshuman Bhardwaj, Rajesh Kumar & Lydia Sam

  3. Institut Für Kartographie, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Lydia Sam

Authors
  1. Anshuman Bhardwaj
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rajesh Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lydia Sam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anshuman Bhardwaj .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Gauhati University, Guwahati, India

    Anup Saikia

  2. Department of Geography & Planning, Sherubtse College, Royal University of Bhutan, Kanglung, Bhutan

    Pankaj Thapa

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bhardwaj, A., Kumar, R., Sam, L. (2019). Analysing Geospatial Techniques for Land Degradation Studies in Hindu Kush-Himalaya. In: Saikia, A., Thapa, P. (eds) Environmental Change in the Himalayan Region. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03362-0_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation