Abstract

Application of GIS and remote sensing in watershed management
Track: Environmental Management
Authors: Kabir Uddin, Basanta Shrestha

Soil erosion by water is the major cause of soil degradation in Nepal, especially in the high mountain region. Using object based image analysis (OBIA) and geographic information system (GIS) land cover and land cover change, number of tree crowns and characterizing the forest fragmentation were derived from the very high spatial resolution (VHSR) satellite image from QuickBird satellite of Nov 18, 2006 and IKONOS-2 of Oct 24, 2011 and were integrated in GIS environment to obtain the soil erosion prone area for the watershed area. Analysis shows the largest part of wangling watershed soil erosion prone area with seen 38 percent area medium; 7 per cent very higherosion prone area. These results suggest that the derived information can assist in developing management strategy and provide options to policy makers for reducing soil erosion problem in the most efficient manner for prioritization of watershed areas for treatment.