Year: 2022 | Month: March | Volume 9 | Issue 1
Impact of Land-Use Land-Cover Changes on Ecosystem Services of Jammu and Kashmir, India
Ishrat F. Bhat
F.A. Shaheen
N.A. Kirmani
K. Gautam
F.A. Lone
Baseerat Afroza
D. Baghishree
DOI:10.30954/2394-8159.01.2022.14
Abstract:
The services of ecological land-use land-cover (LULC) changes, mostly unplanned, have emerged as one of the drastic problems the world is facing in recent times. These changes often manifest in the form of environmental/ecosystem degradation, water shortage, declining food security and ecosystem service recession globally. One of the most dominant forces responsible for changing the global landscape includes the changes in LULC as prompted by a string of interconnected forces. The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocks that produce them are critical to the functioning of the earth’s life-support system. These issues made us to conduct this study to primarily focus on various LULC changes and their impact on ecosystem services in Jammu & Kashmir, India by employing secondary data with effect from 1960-61 to 2020-21. It was observed that the most notable changes of land use were observed in the form of increase in farmland and a decline in grassland. In proportionate terms while the farmland has increased by 22.4 per cent, the grassland has lost 1.4 per cent of area (64000 ha). The study revealed that the major/valuable land-use classes i.e., farmland and forest provide more ecosystem services than other land classes like barren/built-up, grassland and lakes/water bodies etc. Furthermore, results revealed that forest land-use class generate appreciably higher ecosystem services values generating 84.5 per cent of total value from all different land-use classes during 2020. During the past over six-decade period, the total economic value on the whole has declined by 1.09 million dollars between 1960 and 2020. Meanwhile, the total economic value of farm land and marshy land increased by 0.44 and 0.28 million dollars, respectively on account of increase in area under these land types. The individual ecosystem service like soil generation and fertility followed by the gas regulation provides more ecosystem services than other. The LULC changes have been driven by various forces ranging from physical, socio-economic/demographic factors resulting in pressures on land with various environmental effects and their outcomes. The study outlines for implementation of holistic land-use planning through proper balancing of human needs with integration of sustainable ecosystems.
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