Climate change impact on forest cover and vegetation in Betwa Basin, India

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effect of climate change (described in terms of temperature and rainfall) on forest cover and vegetation (described in terms of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) in the Betwa river basin, a tributary of River Yamuna in Central India. Temperature and rainfall data of 18 stations, forest cover and vegetation (derived using 5 years data from Landsat images employing ERDAS Imagine and ArcGIS) were used in the analysis. The effect of climate change was studied for both the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. In this study, the simple regression method was used to evaluate their relationship. In pre-monsoon season, temperature and forest cover analysis shows regression coefficient value of 0.6876 and, temperature and vegetation analysis shows regression coefficient value of 0.5751. Further, in post-monsoon season analysis rainfall and forest cover shows regression coefficient value of 0.8417 and, temperature and vegetation analysis shows regression coefficient value of 0.6854. The study reveals that, in pre-monsoon season temperature was significantly related with forest cover and vegetation. In post-monsoon season rainfall exhibited positive response to forest cover and, temperature exhibited negative response to vegetation in the Betwa river basin.