Assessment of land use land cover dynamics and its impact on springs water in Ritung Khola Sub-Watershed, Myagdi district, Nepal

Abstract

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Change has emerged as a significant environmental issue and a worry for the sustainable use of natural resources. This study was performed to determine the rate in change of land cover and its significant impact on springs water in the Ritung Khola sub-watershed of Myagdi district, Nepal, between 2010 and 2020. This study analyzes LULC dynamics and it’s impact on springs water using satellite imageries (Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS) and focus group discussions with the inhabitants. We used Supervised Maximum Likelihood Classification algorithm to classify attributes of the LULC changes. The results demonstrated a significant change in LULC during those ten years (2010-2020). The area covered by agricultural land and human settlements significantly increased by 313.54% and 367.14%, respectively. On the contrary, barren land, water bodies and forest cover have been reduced by 37.52%, 13.16% and 5.26%, respectively. The number of active springs followed decreasing trend as many of them were completely displaced or dried due to erosions and frequent landslides. The findings from this study are expected to facilitate the planning process adopted to prevent springs under the threat of extension and mitigate the water scarcity problem.