Thesis Topic:

WATERSHED PLANNING FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS :

A CASE STUDY OF TINAU WATERSHED, PALPA, NEPAL

Space Technology : Applications and Research Program

School of Environment, Resources and Development

Asian Institute of Technology

Bangkok, Thailand

August, 1996

ABSTRACT

Nepal is a mountainous country with thousands of subwatersheds. The main problem of Nepal is soil erosion, because of heavy concentrated monsoon rainfall, geologically young and slopy fragile mountains, rugged surface topography, uncontrolled grazing, high demand of food, fodder, fuelwood and shelter for over growing livestock number and population beyond the carrying capacity, improper land use practices, deforestation, faulty rules and regulations forced to implement by government such as Forest Nationalization Act 2013, and inappropriate infrastructure development such as road and irrigation channel construction along the vulnerable slope failure and plate tectonics sensitivity sites. The problem of soil erosion is big, which affects not only the country but the region as a whole. It is urgent need to combat this problem as soon as possible. But, it is not feasible to implement Soil Conservation and Watershed Management (SCWM) programs all over the country immediately at once where it need; because of constraints in budget, manpower and technology. Therefore, prioritization of subwatersheds with simple and accurate methods is necessary for country like Nepal. However, use of advanced technology such as integrated use of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is necessary to simplify the things. Prioritization of subwatersheds is aimed to design excellent watershed management planning for betterment of mountainous people�s living standard in sustainable way along with the best conservation of natural resources. Hence, watershed planning of the area is carried out with due consideration and compromization of three components : watershed priority, people�s priority and implementation capacity.

The results of research show that it is not necessary the method to be sophisticated to find out accurate results. Highly acceptable results are achieved successfully in this research with the application of simple methods. The area with high population, steep terrain and sloping agriculture terraces such as Bhainskatta Khola, Kusum Khola and Hulangdi Khola subwatersheds have been found high Soil Erosion Status. The areas with steep slope but covered with good forest, have found medium Soil Erosion Status (e.g. Lower Tinau Khola subwatershed). The areas with gentle slope, dense forest cover and less population have found low Soil Erosion Status (e.g. Sukhajor Khola Subwatershed). Watershed planning of the priority subwatersheds of the study area is also formulated for five years with due consideration of future implication of SCWM programs in the area. Because the sudy area, Tinau Khola watershed, lies in the middle part of the country, is appropriate for demonstration of SCWM programs implementation.