REDD Field work in Chitwan, Gorkha & Dolakha Districts

01-Feb-2010

Kathmandu- Under the Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) Project, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has carried out field work jointly with Community Forest Users Group of Nepal (FECOFUN) and Asian Network for Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB) in Kayer Khola Watershed in Chitawan District, Ludi Khola Watershed in Gorkha District and Charnawati Watershed in Dolakha District of Nepal.

The major objectives of this field work were to attain:
1) Community Forest (CF) Boundary delineation
2) Ground truthing for accuracy assessment of high resolution GeoEye1 satellite imagery (0.5m)
3) Sample plot collection for land cover mapping.

For the delineation of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) in three watersheds, participatory approach was adopted and for the verification of area covered by each community forest GPS based survey was conducted with the participation of local person. In Kayer Khola Watershed, 15 CFUGs, Ludi Khola Watershed 31 CFUGs and in Charnawati Watershed 58. CFUGs were identified and mapped.

A Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) receiver made by Leica Geosystems SR20 was used for accuracy assessment of Keyhole data set and collection of sample plots for land cover mapping. Permanent reference points were acquired from Survey Department, Nepal to fix the reference DGPS set at that particular point. Random points were collected by using the rover DGPS set. DGPS based survey is very useful for the mapping of natural resources at high resolution satellite images with some limitations