IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i23p10670-d1537384.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics in Mountain Tourism Areas: A Case Study of the Core and Buffer Zones of Sagarmatha and Khaptad National Parks, Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Ankita Gupta

    (Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan)

Abstract

Monitoring land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics facilitates effective management and mitigation measures by providing timely and accurate information on the landscape. This study investigates LULC dynamics in Sagarmatha National Park (SNP), one of the most popular destinations for mountain tourism, and Khaptad National Park (KNP), which are emerging destinations, though popular among domestic tourists. A random forest classification algorithm was employed to generate LULC dynamics using Landsat data. High-resolution Planet Scope images and Google Earth images were used for accuracy assessment. Archived tourist and climatic data were analyzed to explore the impacts on LULC change. Cellular automata–artificial neural network (CA-ANN)-based LULC predictions were employed to predict future LULC. LULC dynamics of SNP revealed an increase in bare land, grassland, shrubland, glacial lakes, agriculture, and water bodies; however, snow/glacier and forest cover experienced substantial decreases of 140.25 km 2 and 15.36 km 2 , respectively, from 1989 to 2021. In KNP, LULC dynamics showed an increasing trend in grassland, agriculture, water bodies, and bare land; however, forest and shrubland experienced a decrease of 18.63 km 2 and 10.48 km 2 . The forest loss (19.33 km 2 ) in the buffer zone of KNP was greater compared to the buffer zone of SNP (13.45 km 2 ). The increment in built-up area was 0.80 km 2 in SNP and 1.11 km 2 in KNP, indicating escalating tourist activities and population growth. For SNP, the mean annual precipitation and temperature data from 1994 to 2023 showed decreasing and increasing patterns, respectively. However, the mean annual precipitation and temperature trends in KNP demonstrated an increasing pattern. Under the business-as-usual scenario, the estimated forest loss will be 1.61 km 2 in SNP by 2032 and 23.8 km 2 in KNP by 2030. A significant decline in snow/glaciers is projected for the core zone of SNP, with a loss of 22.84 km 2 expected by 2032. This study provides a baseline information on LULC changes in SNP and KNP. Further, it showcases the necessity of diversified national park policies as per the requirement.

Suggested Citation

  • Ankita Gupta, 2024. "Analyzing Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics in Mountain Tourism Areas: A Case Study of the Core and Buffer Zones of Sagarmatha and Khaptad National Parks, Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-27, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10670-:d:1537384
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10670/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10670/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Megersa Kebede Leta & Tamene Adugna Demissie & Jens Tränckner, 2021. "Modeling and Prediction of Land Use Land Cover Change Dynamics Based on Land Change Modeler (LCM) in Nashe Watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-24, March.
    2. Ram Avtar & Apisai Vakacegu Rinamalo & Deha Agus Umarhadi & Ankita Gupta & Khaled Mohamed Khedher & Ali P. Yunus & Bhupendra P. Singh & Pankaj Kumar & Netrananda Sahu & Anjar Dimara Sakti, 2022. "Land Use Change and Prediction for Valuating Carbon Sequestration in Viti Levu Island, Fiji," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Alejandro del Pozo & Giordano Catenacci-Aguilera & Belén Acosta-Gallo, 2024. "Consequences of Land Use Changes on Native Forest and Agricultural Areas in Central-Southern Chile during the Last Fifty Years," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Rimal, Bhagawat & Sharma, Roshan & Kunwar, Ripu & Keshtkar, Hamidreza & Stork, Nigel E. & Rijal, Sushila & Rahman, Syed Ajijur & Baral, Himlal, 2019. "Effects of land use and land cover change on ecosystem services in the Koshi River Basin, Eastern Nepal," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Tim Newbold & Lawrence N. Hudson & Samantha L. L. Hill & Sara Contu & Igor Lysenko & Rebecca A. Senior & Luca Börger & Dominic J. Bennett & Argyrios Choimes & Ben Collen & Julie Day & Adriana De Palma, 2015. "Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity," Nature, Nature, vol. 520(7545), pages 45-50, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huixin Wang & Yilan Xie & Duy Thong Ta & Jing Zhang & Katsunori Furuya, 2025. "Assessing Ecosystem Service Value Dynamics in Japan’s National Park Based on Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes from a Tourism Promotion Perspective," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cheng He & Kangning Xiong & Yongkuan Chi & Shuzhen Song & Jinzhong Fang & Shuyu He, 2022. "Effects of Landscape Type Change on Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Ecological Assets in a Karst Plateau-Mountain Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Long Li & Wei Fu & Mingcan Luo, 2022. "Spatial and Temporal Variation and Prediction of Ecosystem Carbon Stocks in Yunnan Province Based on Land Use Change," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Nematollah Kohestani & Shafagh Rastgar & Ghodratolla Heydari & Shaban Shataee Jouibary & Hamid Amirnejad, 2024. "Spatiotemporal modeling of the value of carbon sequestration under changing land use/land cover using InVEST model: a case study of Nour-rud Watershed, Northern Iran," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(6), pages 14477-14505, June.
    4. Wenfei Zhang & Leilei Zhao, 2024. "Value Objective, Game Analysis and Approach to Rule of Law for Comprehensive Supervision of Agricultural Natural Resource Assets in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-24, November.
    5. Yuxin Qi & Yuandong Hu, 2024. "Spatiotemporal Variation and Driving Factors Analysis of Habitat Quality: A Case Study in Harbin, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Law, Elizabeth A. & Macchi, Leandro & Baumann, Matthias & Decarre, Julieta & Gavier-Pizarro, Gregorio & Levers, Christian & Mastrangelo, Matías E. & Murray, Francisco & Müller, Daniel & Piquer-Rodrígu, 2021. "Fading opportunities for mitigating agriculture-environment trade-offs in a south American deforestation hotspot," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 262.
    7. Mohamed Fomba & Zinash Delebo Osunde & Souleymane Sidi Traoré & Appollonia Okhimamhe & Janina Kleemann & Christine Fürst, 2024. "Urban Green Spaces in Bamako and Sikasso, Mali: Land Use Changes and Perceptions," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, January.
    8. Sonu Thaivalappil Sukumaran & Stephen J. Birkinshaw, 2024. "Investigating the Impact of Recent and Future Urbanization on Flooding in an Indian River Catchment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-22, July.
    9. repec:osf:osfxxx:th8j6_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Guangdong Li & Chuanglin Fang & James E. M. Watson & Siao Sun & Wei Qi & Zhenbo Wang & Jianguo Liu, 2024. "Mixed effectiveness of global protected areas in resisting habitat loss," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    11. Sarah R. Weiskopf & Forest Isbell & Maria Isabel Arce-Plata & Moreno Di Marco & Mike Harfoot & Justin Johnson & Susannah B. Lerman & Brian W. Miller & Toni Lyn Morelli & Akira S. Mori & Ensheng Weng &, 2024. "Biodiversity loss reduces global terrestrial carbon storage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    12. Shuangshuang Liu & Qipeng Liao & Mingzhu Xiao & Dengyue Zhao & Chunbo Huang, 2022. "Spatial and Temporal Variations of Habitat Quality and Its Response of Landscape Dynamic in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-20, March.
    13. Hu Liao & Hu Li & Chen-Song Duan & Xin-Yuan Zhou & Qiu-Ping Luo & Xin-Li An & Yong-Guan Zhu & Jian-Qiang Su, 2022. "Response of soil viral communities to land use changes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    14. Karlsson, Johan O. & Röös, Elin, 2019. "Resource-efficient use of land and animals—Environmental impacts of food systems based on organic cropping and avoided food-feed competition," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 63-72.
    15. Alexander McBratney & Minhyung Park, 2025. "Agriculture over the Horizon: A Synthesis for the Mid-21st Century," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-20, October.
    16. Gyanendra Prasad Joshi & Fayadh Alenezi & Gopalakrishnan Thirumoorthy & Ashit Kumar Dutta & Jinsang You, 2021. "Ensemble of Deep Learning-Based Multimodal Remote Sensing Image Classification Model on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Networks," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(22), pages 1-17, November.
    17. Tuan Nguyen Tran, 2024. "Comparing the process of converting land use purposes between socio-economic regions in Vietnam from 2007 to 2020," Environmental & Socio-economic Studies, Sciendo, vol. 12(3), pages 51-62.
    18. Sèna Donalde Dolorès Marguerite Deguenon & Castro Gbêmêmali Hounmenou & Richard Adade & Oscar Teka & Ismaila Imorou Toko & Denis Worlanyo Aheto & Brice Sinsin, 2023. "Simulation of the Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on Coastal Ecosystems in Benin Using a Combined Approach of Machine Learning and the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-17, November.
    19. Hanwen Zhang & Yanqing Lang, 2022. "Quantifying and Analyzing the Responses of Habitat Quality to Land Use Change in Guangdong Province, China over the Past 40 Years," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-23, May.
    20. Nele Lohrum & Morten Graversgaard & Chris Kjeldsen, 2021. "Historical Transition of a Farming System towards Industrialization: A Danish Agricultural Case Study Comparing Sustainability in the 1840s and 2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-15, November.
    21. Zhang, Yan & Wu, Tong & Song, Changsu & Hein, Lars & Shi, Faqi & Han, Mingchen & Ouyang, Zhiyun, 2022. "Influences of climate change and land use change on the interactions of ecosystem services in China’s Xijiang River Basin," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10670-:d:1537384. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.