Assessment of land degradation changes in mountain areas in Tashkent province

Abstract

Analyzing the trend of land degradation changes and its cause and consequence in the mountain ecosystem is a matter of concern for sustainable development. It's important to know that only 10% of the world's population in rural areas depends directly on natural resources for their livelihood and 40% depends indirectly, i.e. water, biodiversity, and ecosystem. This study focuses on the assessment of land degradation changes in mountain areas of Tashkent province using GIS techniques. The study area is located lowland in the western part of the Tian Shan mountains. The results show that overgrazing significantly affects the mountain ecosystem, which decreased up to 29 thousand ha of pasture land over ten years between 1989-1998. However, changes during 2008-2018 show a significant rise in the pasture area, ending with 45 thousand ha of land. In conclusion, during last decades in Uzbekistan rehabilitation achievements be due to (i) complex measures taken by government and ecologists, who clearly recognized that if the previous scenario will continue, the ecosystem of high altitude areas could be irreversibly damaged; (ii) cutting trees from a forest which leads to decrease forest area and increase pasture area.