ABSTRACT
Land-use/land-cover (LULC) changes have become a central component in current strategies for managing natural resources and monitoring changes. Urban expansion due to the development of hydroelectric power (HEP) projects has brought serious losses of agricultural land, vegetation and water bodies. The present study illustrates an integrated approach of remote sensing and GIS for detection of LULC change due to major hydropower projects in the upper Beas river basin. In the study area, land use is classified with the help of satellite remote sensing techniques along with the topo-sheets (base map), ground truth verification by GPS and satellite images of years 2004 and 2018 which were used to prepare accurate LULC maps. Temporal changes in land cover were also monitored and quantified the LULC in the two distinct major HEPs with different altitudinal locations varying from 1,300 to 2,800 m. The images of the study area were categorized into eight different classes, viz. built-up area, agricultural land, plantation, forest, shrubs, stream and open land. From the year 2004 to 2018, the built-up area along Allian Duhangan HEP near Manali (2,800 m) and along Parbati Stage-II HEP near Sainj (1,300 m) increased, respectively, by 0.1% and 0.2%. It is observed that the other land categories such as forest, plantation and shrubs have also increased about 5%, 0.75% and 1% in Parbati Stage-II and along the Allian Duhangan forest area (4%), plantation (3%) and shrubs (2%) are increased due to the Compensatory Afforestation Program by the state government of Himachal Pradesh. The area under other lands observed that the difference in agricultural area and open area was decreased due to the construction of dam site, powerhouse site, residential colonies, etc. in agriculture and open land in both the HEPs, i.e. 2.3% and 2.9% in Parbati Stage-II and 1.5% and 4.9% in Allian Duhangan, respectively. Finally, the study finds that land-use planning has a very important role in minimizing negative social and environmental effects, thus creating sustainability of the hydropower projects. It is also found that the land-use planning, stakeholders and their role, governance, policy, social structure, etc. are the basic requirements of land-use planning for sustainable development of hydropower projects.
