Dynamics of Forest Cover Changes in Hindu Kush-Himalayan Mountains Using Remote Sensing

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to explore the dynamics of forest cover changes in Indus Kohistan Palas valley, Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain of Pakistan. The impacts of population growth, accessibility and management and mechanism of forest cover are a challenging research area, and this research will help to explore the relationship between forest cover by rapid population growth and expansion of the road networks. In the study area, increase in population, roads and their expansion has engulfed forest land, and the subsequent infrastructural development has caused deforestation. The direct and indirect influences of forest cover change on human and environment have also been underlined in this chapter. Forest cover in Hindu Kush-Himalayan Mountains experienced a dramatic change due to intensive human activities, such as population growth, proximate causes, accessibility, unstable political situations, failure of government policies and poverty. In this study, we have used remote sensing techniques and trajectory to detect forest cover dynamics. Changes in forest cover were found out by classifying the time-series satellite images Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+ and Sentinel 2A. The images were classified, and change detection maps were prepared for each period. Then impact of population growth and accessibility on forest cover was discovered by the Buffer analysis technique. The primary data were collected through focused group discussions, interviews and ground verification. Population data were collected from census reports of district Kohistan, Pakistan, and road network data were collected from Communication and Works Department, Kohistan. Satellite imageries were obtained from United State Geological Survey, Global Land Cover Facility websites and classified in ERDAS imagine 2014 and ESRI ArcGIS 10.2.1 using supervised classification-maximum likelihood algorithm. The analysis revealed that a substantial reduction in forest cover has taken place, and on the average, more than 460 hectares of forest cover have been converted into other uses annually from 1980 to 2017.