Spatiotemporal Changes in Forest and Settlement / Built-Up and Its Impact on the Environment: The Case of Kakching District

Dr. Naorem Sarita Devi, Chungkham Lalit Singh

Abstract: The various human activities and process of rapid urbanisation has altered the landscape of an area or a region. It means that human beings have become the dominant agent for changing the landscape. Increased land cover/land use changes (LCLUC) can impact agricultural production efficiency including environmental impacts on urban, sub-urban, rural communities and natural areas. Human settlement / built-up increases the amount of impervious surfaces as a result of the building of roads and houses. This effect becomes an issue in the foothill, woodland. A detailed analysis of forest land covering and built-up area was conducted. This analysis provides insights into landscape-scale changes that have occurred as a result of human settlement. The significance of these changes for fire hazard, forest hydrology, and wildlife habitat are discussed. Forest is one of the key precious resources that support human well-being by providing ecosystem services. Unfortunately, the forest cover has decreased over time due to natural and anthropogenic factors. Forest cover has been declined in the study area for a variety of reasons, including fire wood collection, charcoal and timber extraction, semi-forest and settlements. Loss of forest cover can have significant implications for environmental sustainability, as forests have played an important role in ecosystem services, such as climate regulation, clean air, flood control, carbon sequestration, soil protection against soil erosion, and increased environmental resilience to the impacts of climate change. The present study aims to assess the spatiotemporal forest cover changes and built-up coverage and its implication on environmental sustainability. Low rates of economic growth indicate low adaptive capacities and therefore, high vulnerability to climate change and human induced pressures on ecosystems (Shukla et al., 2008; Lobell et al., 2008). LCLUC in the region is disrupting and perturbing biodiversity, regional climate, biogeochemical cycles, water resources and other ecosystem services (Turner and Annamalai, 2012; Madson, 2013). Understanding LCLUC requires addressing spatial scale issues, technological innovations, policy and institutional changes (IGBP, 2001).

Keywords: Forest, Climate regulation, LCLUC, Built-up, Spatiotemporal