Author : Krishna P. Bhandari and Rotchanatch Darnsawasdi

Soil erosion is a serious problem in Phewa Watershed. Knowledge of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) and soil erosion risk represents the foundation for sustainable soil erosion management. Stakeholders’ perspectives play key roles in implementing conservation measures in soil erosion management. This study identifies and quantifies major LULC changes over the past 15 years (1995-2010) in the Phewa Watershed, Nepal. Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) in combination with Remote Sensing and GIS are used to produce potential soil erosion risk maps and to estimate the rate of soil erosion in the watershed. Sensitivity of soil erosion risk increases from 1995to 2010.The extreme sensitivity mainly caused by a major decrease in dense forest, an increase in open forest and increase in human settlement (384.34 to 797.14 ha) in the watershed. Frequent human activities contribute to increase soil erosion. Result of sensitivity analysis helps to stakeholders for the reduction of the soil erosion. The sensitivity of soil erosion in north and west region was higher than south and east region. The high sensitivity area of soil erosion was mainly disturbed in middle hill and mountain of Phewa watershed.

Keywords: Land Use Land Cover (LULC), change detection, Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), soil erosion

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.4,No.3 (June- 2014)