Land use/cover changes, extreme events and ecohydrological responses in the Himalayan region
✍ Scribed by R. B. Singh
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 408 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6087
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✦ Synopsis
Land use describes human activities on the earth, and forms a major element of the terrestrial ecosystem modi®ed by humans in the Himalayan region, where developmental activities are increasing rapidly to support the tourism infrastructure. The unprecedented growth in population is putting extremely high pressure on the limited land available for cultivation. Land use and agricultural practices have undergone drastic changes since the mid-1960s through the introduction of development programmes and the application of various newly developed techniques in agrosciences. An analysis of the land use as it has occurred over the last 70 years suggests that it and property rights in the Upper Beas Basin are complex and dynamic. For example, people are giving importance to orchards because of their high pro®tability. Thus, some agricultural land has been encroached on by orchards. In addition, wastelands are now being used by people for orchards, agriculture and residential and commercial building. Since the Upper Beas River Basin is mountainous, it is fragile and prone to processes like soil erosion, slope instability, landslides and ¯oods. Risks from natural hazards are increasing. However, the state of ecohydrological responses highlight that human-induced ecological changes can be largely proved at the microwatershed level. The ®ndings are not extended to the Himalayan scale. There is also an uncertain correlation between anthropogenic activities (deforestation) in the mountains and hazards in the plains such as ¯oods. Owing to a lack of basic research, there is little eective information which cannot be used for long-term eective monitoring of ecological and hydrological responses to global change. Such an uncertain situation calls for integrated watershed management and development using geographical information systems (GISs).