@article{Kandel_Caetano_Cabral_2010, title={Forest cover monitoring of Bara district (Nepal) using remote sensing and geographic information systems}, volume={20}, url={https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/BANKO/article/view/3506}, DOI={10.3126/banko.v20i1.3506}, abstractNote={This study uses Landsat TM of 1989 and ETM+ of 1999 and 2005 imagery to evaluate<br />forest cover dynamics during 1989-2005 in the Bara district of Nepal. The aim of the<br />study was to analyse the extent and trend of forest cover dynamics, spatial pattern of<br />forest and their driving forces. Forest cover change analysis was performed using objectoriented<br />classification approach applying a standard nearest neighbour algorithm to classify<br />the image in recognition. The overall classification accuracies were 85.71% and 88.23%<br />for the year 1999 and 2005, respectively. Land cover maps were produced with seven<br />land cover categories and were further reclassified as forest and non-forest areas to<br />analyse the forest cover dynamics. Post-classification and time series analysis were carried<br />out to detect the changes. Spatial metrics were computed for detecting the spatial pattern<br />of forest. The classifications suggested that the amount of forest land had decreased by<br />11.56% during 1989-2005. Spatial metrics revealed that forest area has been fragmented<br />and deforested with an annual rate of 0.72%. The overall result demonstrates that forest<br />area has experienced a significant shrinkage and mostly transferred into agricultural and<br />bare land. Expected change for the year 2021 was projected using Markov Chain Analysis<br />(MCA). The MCA result showed that forest area would decrease by 8.5% in the period of<br />2005-2021.<br /><br /><strong>Key words:</strong> Forest cover dynamics; geographical information systems; landsat; remote<br />sensing; spatial metrics<br /><br />DOI: 10.3126/banko.v20i1.3506<br /><em><br />Banko Janakari</em>, Vol. 20, No. 1 pp.30-36}, number={1}, journal={Banko Janakari}, author={Kandel, CM and Caetano, M and Cabral, P}, year={2010}, month={Aug.}, pages={30–36} }