Research Article
Monitoring Forest Cover Change of Margalla Hills Over a Period of Two Decades (1992-2011): A Spatiotemporal Perspective
Noora Khalid, Sheikh Saeed Ahmad*, Summra Erum and Amna ButtDepartment of Environmental Sciences, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
- *Corresponding Author:
- Sheikh Saeed Ahmad
Department of Environmental Sciences
Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Tel: +00 92 321 5167726
E-mail: drsaeed@fjwu.edu.pk
Received date: October 09, 2015; Accepted: December 08, 2015; Published: December 15, 2015
Citation: Khalid N, Ahmad SS, Erum S, Butt A (2015) Monitoring Forest Cover Change of Margalla Hills Over a Period of Two Decades (1992-2011): A Spatiotemporal Perspective. J Ecosys Ecograph 6:174. doi:10.4172/2157-7625.1000174
Copyright: © 2015 Khalid N, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Forests play a critical role in the provision of the ecological interconnectedness, and essential ecosystem services. Deforestation is a serious environmental problem throughout the world including Pakistan where a striking depletion of forest reserves has been an ecological concern for quite some time. Remote sensing techniques have been used to monitor land use and forest cover changes. The present study aims at visualizing the potential impacts of climate change and declining forest reserves on Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP). ERDAS Imagine 9.1 and ArcGIS 10.2 softwares were employed for the spatial and temporal analysis and visualization of over the past two decades. Our analysis revealed a great increase in the built-up area, barren soil and agricultural land, whereas diminishing trend is shown by the classes such as water body, lower vegetation, scrub and conifer forest. The conditions of the region are unsatisfactory and require conservation practices to be carried out in order to avoid susceptibility against ecological and socio-economic disturbances.
