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Arabian Journal of Geosciences
ISSN 1866-7511
Arab J Geosci
DOI 10.1007/s12517-012-0761-9
Assessing the impacts of changing land
cover and climate on Hokersar wetland in
Indian Himalayas
Shakil Ahmad Romshoo & Irfan Rashid
1 23
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Assessing the impacts of changing land cover and climate
on Hokersar wetland in Indian Himalayas
Shakil Ahmad Romshoo &Irfan Rashid
Received: 31 March 2012 /Accepted: 31 October 2012
#Saudi Society for Geosciences 2012
Abstract Monitoring the spatiotemporal changes in wet-
lands and assessing their causal factors is critical for devel-
oping robust strategies for the conservation and restoration
of these ecologically important ecosystems. In this study, the
spatiotemporal changes in the land cover system within a
Himalayan wetland and its catchment were assessed and
correlated using a time series of satellite, historical, and field
data. Significant changes in the spatial extent, water depth,
and the land system of the Hokersar wetland were observed
from the spatiotemporal analysis of the data from 1969 to
2008. The wetland area has shrunk from 18.75 km
2
in 1969
to 13 km
2
in 2008 with drastic reduction in the water depth
of the wetland. The marshy lands, habitat of the migratory
birds, have shrunk from 16.3 km
2
in 1969 to 5.62 km
2
in
2008 and have been colonized by various other land cover
types. The land system and water extent changes within the
wetland were related to the spatiotemporal changes in the
land cover and hydrometeorological variables at the catch-
ment scale. Significant changes in the forest cover (88.33–
55.78 km
2
), settlement (4.63–15.35 km
2
), and water bodies
(1.75–0.51 km
2
) were observed in the catchment. It is con-
cluded that the urbanization, deforestation, changes in the
hydrologic and climatic conditions, and other land system
changes observed in the catchment are the main causes
responsible for the depleting wetland extent, water depth,
and biodiversity by adversely influencing the hydrologic
erosion and other land surface processes in the catchment.
All these causes and effects are manifest in the form of
deterioration of the water quality, water quantity, the biodi-
versity changes, and the decreasing migratory bird popula-
tion in the wetland.
Keywords Spatiotemporal changes .Catchment .Remote
sensing .Biodiversity .Hydrometeorology
Introduction
Wetlands occupy about 7 % of the Earth’slandsurface(MEA
2005; Mitsch and Gosselink 1986); and in the mountainous
region of Kashmir Himalayas alone, there are 3,813 wetlands
and water bodies (Romshoo et al. 2010). Sustainable manage-
ment of these wetland ecosystems is necessary as wetlands
provide a variety of services and functions and contribute
tremendously to the livelihoods and human wellbeing in the
region. Most important wetland ecosystem services affecting
the human wellbeing involve fisheries, food products, fresh-
water supplies, water purification and detoxification, and
global climate change regulation (Costanza et al. 1997;Davis
1993; Hruby 1995; MEA 2005). Wetlands deliver a wide
array of hydrological services, for instance, flood regulation,
promote groundwater recharge, and regulate river flows
(Bullock and Acreman 2003). Further, wetlands are among
the most productive ecosystems and a rich repository of
biodiversity and are known to play significant role in carbon
sequestration (Kraiem 2002). The world’s wetlands are
degrading at an alarming rate, more than other ecosystems
seriously affecting their biodiversity (Vorosmarty et al. 2010).
Due to accelerated rate of human intervention and human-
induced modification of natural processes, natural wetland
landscapes also are today under acute seasonal water scarcity.
Wetland areas have been gradually squeezing, permanent
wetland areas have transmuted into semipermanent wetlands
with groundwater table slashing down rapidly (Pal and
Akoma 2009). Permanent and seasonal changes within wet-
lands occur in response to a range of external factors, such as
the changes in the land systems at the catchment scale
(Dooner 2003; Gillies et al. 2003), fluctuations in water table
S. A. Romshoo (*):I. Rashid
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal,
Srinagar Kashmir 190006, India
e-mail: shakilrom@yahoo.com
Arab J Geosci
DOI 10.1007/s12517-012-0761-9
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(Funk et al. 1994), climate change (Kraiem 2002), or other
associated human activities. Climate change may exacerbate
impacts of threats to wetlands through predicted reductions in
rainfall and increased temperature, decreasing flow, and altering
timing and variability of flow regimes (Kingsford 2011). The
timing, magnitude, and frequency of rainfall or snowmelt in
many wetland catchments is predicted to change (Klausmeyer
and Shaw 2009;Palmeretal.2009; Viers and Rheinheimer
2011), with increasing temperatures predicted to augment flows
early in spring as snow melt and produce flow reductions in
summer (Aldous et al. 2011).
Worldwide, the lack of understanding of the values and
functions of the wetlands have led to their conversion for
agriculture, settlements, plantations, and other development
activities (Joshi et al. 2002; Wetlands International 2007).
Similar scenario is being witnessed in the mountainous
Himalayan region where unplanned urbanization, reckless
deforestation, and the depleting snow and glacier resources
are the major causes of the wetland depletion.
The need for management, protection, and restoration of
these valuable systems, as well as the need to understand the
wetland hydrology and ecology, have spurred the investigation
Fig. 1 Study area
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of new technologies for mapping and monitoring of wetlands
(Gondwe et al. 2010;Hessetal.1995; Lyon 2001; Tanis et al.
1994). Though the entire wetlands in the Indian Himalayas
have been mapped at 1:50,000 scale (Romshoo et al. 2010),
there is very little information, if at all, on how they have been
changing over the time in response to the changes in the
climatic variables and the land system changes occurring at
the catchment level (Anonymous 1990; Bourgeau-Chavez et
al. 2001;Gargetal.1998). It is therefore essential to use a time
series of satellite data for assessing the spatiotemporal changes
within the wetlands and the catchment areas to determine the
cause–effect relationship so that robust strategy for the man-
agement, conservation, and restoration of the wetland is devel-
oped. Multitemporal monitoring of wetlands using remote
sensing and geographic information systems gives a complete
understanding of distribution, structure, and functionality of
wetland ecosystem (Munyati 2000; Ramsey 1998;Romshoo
2004; Touzi et al. 2007) and the spatiotemporal dynamics of
various variables in the catchment areas (Basnyat et al. 2000;
Omernik et al. 1981;Saxenaetal.2000;Rashidetal.2011). A
number of studies related to limnological variables in lakes and
wetlands have been attempted using remote sensing (Birkett
1995; Kapetsky 1987; Olmanson et al. 2002; Ozesmi and
Bauer 2002; Roeck et al. 2008; Romshoo and Sumira 2010;
Romshoo and Muslim 2011).
In the present study, time series multisensor satellite data
was used to determine the spatiotemporal changes in Hoker-
sar wetland that has tremendous ecohydrological and socio-
economic importance. These spatiotemporal changes were
related with the changes at the catchment scale and hydro-
meteorology. Most of the studies conducted on the Hoker-
sar, the Queen of wetlands in Kashmir Himalayas are either
focused on the hydrobiology or hydrochemistry (Gangoo
and Makaya 2000; Handoo and Kaul 1982; Handoo 1978;
Kak 1990; Khan 2000; Kaul and Zutshi 1967; Kaul 1982;
Pandit 1980; Pandit and Kumar 2006; Rather et al. 2001).
However, very few studies have used the geoinformatics
approach to study spatiotemporal dynamics and limnologi-
cal variables of the Hokersar wetland (Humayun and Joshi
2000; Joshi et al. 2002; Romshoo et al. 2011). The present
study assumes significance, in view of the fact that a longer
time series of satellite and other spatial data stretching from
1969 to 2008 has been used to monitor and assess the
spatiotemporal evolution of the wetland for the last four
decades and the changes that have occurred in the land use
and land cover types within the catchment spread over an
area of about 732 km
2
. Further, the linkages between the
observed changes in the wetland have been correlated with
the hydrometeorological data to investigate if there are any
impacts of the changing climate on the wetland.
Fig. 2 Scheme of methodology
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Study area
Doodhganga, located in Kashmir Himalaya, India is one of
the major left-bank catchments of Jhelum River. It is situat-
ed between 33° 15′–34° 15′latitudes and 74° 45′–74° 83′
longitudes covering an area of 732.6 km
2
. It is bounded by
lofty Pir Panjal Mountain Range on south. The catchment
has a varied topography and exhibits altitudinal extremes of
1,548 to 4,634 m (above mean sea level (amsl)). Its relief is
diverse, comprising of steep slopes, plateaus, plains, and
alluvial fans. The plains of the catchment are very fertile,
hence, ideal for agriculture, whereas the higher reaches
comprise dense pine forests and lush green alpine pastures.
Geologically, the area consists of Panjal traps, limestone,
Karewa Formation, and Recent Alluvium. The characteristic
Karewa Formation in relatively lower elevations is ideal for
horticulture. The study area experiences temperate climate
with the average winter and summer temperatures ranging
from 5 to 25 °C, respectively. The average annual precipita-
tion is about 660 mm in the form of rain and snow. Doodh-
ganga stream, one of the important perennial tributaries of
river Jhelum, is the main drainage and water resource in the
catchment. Doodhganga stream flows for a course of about
56 km before emptying into Hokersar wetland.
Hokersar wetland (34° 06′N latitude, 74° 05′E
longitude) lying in the Northern most part of Doodh-
ganga catchment is a protected wildlife reserve and a
Ramsar site at an altitude of 1,584 m (amsl). The
wetland harbors about two million migratory waterfowl
during winter that migrate from Siberia and the Central
Asian region. The wetland is fed by two inlet streams—
Doodhganga (from east) and Sukhnag Nalla (from
west). The wetland attains a maximum depth of 2.5 m
in spring due to appreciation in discharge from the
snow-melt water in the upper reaches of Doodhganga
catchment. The water depth in autumn is minimum at
0.7 m. Figure 1shows the location of the study area.
Fig. 3 Hokarsar boundary extents at different points in time
Table 1 Spatial extent
of the Hokersar wetland
at different points in
time
Year Area (km
2
)
1969 18.75
1992 14.94
2001 14.71
2005 14.33
2008 13.00
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Materials and methods
Datasets used for changes in Hokersar wetland
Multitemporal datasets from various sources from 1969 to
2008 were used for analyzing changes in Hokersar wetland.
Survey of India (SOI) topographical maps of 1969 at 1:50,000
scale were used for generating the base map of the Hokersar
wetland. Time series of satellite data from various satellites
was chosen for monitoring the spatial and temporal changes in
the wetland. In order to minimize the impacts of the changing
season on the mapping, it was ensured, wherever possible, to
use the data of the same season with minimum possible gaps
between them. Landsat TM (15 Oct 1992) with a spatial
resolution of 30 m and Path/Row 149/36; Landsat ETM+ (30
Sept 2001), with a spatial resolution of 30 m and Path/Row-
149/36; IRS LISS-III (19 Oct 2005) with a spatial resolution of
23.5 m and Path/Row-92/46 and IKONOS (11 Jan 2008) with
a spatial resolution of 1 m were used. Though, all the satellite
data, except IKONOS, pertain to the autumn season, when the
discharge and water depth of the wetland is at the minimum,
however, due to unavailability of the cloud-free satellite data in
autumn, the January IKONOS data was used for monitoring
the changes in the wetland up to 2008.
Datasets used for changes in the catchment of Hokersar
Time series of satellite data (1972–2005) from various sat-
ellites was used to analyze changes at catchment level.
Landsat MSS (17 Nov 1972) with a spatial resolution of
57 m and Path/Row 160/36; Landsat TM (15 Oct 1992) with
a spatial resolution of 30 m and Path/Row 149/36; IRS
LISS-III (19 Oct 2005) with a spatial resolution of 23.5 m
and Path/Row-92/46, 92/47 were used.
Hydrometeorological data
A time series of the hydrometeorological data comprising of
precipitation and river discharge data from 1979 to 2009 was
statistically analyzed to investigate if there is any link between
the changing climate and the declining water extent of the
Hokersar wetland.
For accomplishing the research objectives, the multi-
source and multitemporal satellite data was used at two
spatial scales; at the catchment scale and the wetland scale.
The flowchart of the methodology adopted in this research
is given in Fig. 2. In this research, we adopted two
approaches for extracting the information from the images;
(a) onscreen digitization of the image data to delineate the
Fig. 4 Land use and land cover types delineated from the scanned topographic map of 1969
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wetland boundaries and for mapping the land use and land
cover within the wetland boundary and (b) digital image
classification for extracting land use and land cover infor-
mation at the catchment scale.
For delineating the wetland boundary from the topo-
graphic map, onscreen digitization method was employed.
Using the digitized boundary of the wetland from SOI map
as the base map, the wetland boundary extents at different
points in time were delineated from the satellite images. The
land use and land cover types within the wetland boundary
were also digitized from the scanned map and the satellite
images in order to determine the spatiotemporal changes
that have occurred during the observation period (1969–
2008). For extracting the land use and land cover informa-
tion in the catchment of the Hokersar wetland, supervised
image classification technique based on the maximum
likelihood classifier was used (Fu 1976; Tso and Mather
2001). National Natural Resources Management System
(NNRMS) standards (ISRO 2005) were used for cate-
gorizing land use and land cover in the Doodhganga
catchment that drains into the Hokersar wetland. While
choosing various training samples for the maximum
likelihood classifier, homogeneity of the samples was
ensured for achieving higher classification accuracy.
The land use and land cover map of 2005 at the
catchment scale was validated in the field to determine
its accuracy. Seventy-one sample points were chosen for
verification of the land use and land cover map in the
field. The accuracy estimation is essential to assess
reliability of the classified map (Foody 2002). Kappa
coefficient, the robust indicator of the accuracy estima-
tion for the final land use and land cover map, was
estimated by the following formula:
k¼
NP
r
i¼1
Xii P
r
i¼1
Xiþ:Xþi
ðÞ
N2P
r
i¼1
Xiþ:Xþi
ðÞ
Fig. 5 Land use and land cover types delineated from 1992 satellite data
Table 2 Land use and
land cover types delin-
eated from the scanned
topographic map of
1969
Class name Area (km
2
)
Marshy 16.30
Open water 1.74
Plantation 0.64
Road 0.05
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where ris number of rows in error matrix
x
ii
is number of observations in row iand
column i(on the major diagonal)
x
i+
is total of observations in row i(shown as
marginal total to right of the matrix)
x
+i
total of observations in column i(shown as
marginal total at bottom of the matrix)
Nis total number of observations included in
the matrix
In addition, the overall accuracy, user’s accuracy, pro-
ducer’s accuracy, errors of omission and commission were
also computed to assess the accuracy of the land use and
land cover at the catchment scale. The wetland boundary
and the land use and land cover types within the wetland
were extensively verified on the ground with respect to
2008 data only as the ground truth was not available for
the other time periods. In order to determine the changes in
the land use and land cover within the wetland, that
have occurred over the observation period from 1969
to 2008, change detection analysis was performed (Bak-
er et al. 2007;Schmidetal.2005). Similarly, the
change detection analysis was also performed at the
catchment scale between 1972 and 2005.
Fig. 6 Spatial distribution of the land use and land cover data for the year 2001
Table 3 Area covered by different land use and land cover types from 1992 to 2008 within Hokersar wetland
Class name Area 1992 (km
2
) Area 2001 (km
2
) Area 2005 (km
2
) Area 2008 (km
2
) Change from 1992 to 2008 (km
2
) % Change
Agriculture 4.26 3.69 3.23 4.95 0.69 3.69
Aquatic vegetation 2.5 3.48 4.56 4.46 1.96 10.73
Built up 0.01 0.05 0.12 0.11 0.1 0.55
Fallow 0.88 0.21 0.27 0.48 −0.4 −2.22
Marshy 7.74 8.06 7.27 5.62 −2.12 −11.86
Open water 0.85 0.43 0.31 0.36 −0.49 −2.72
Plantation 1.82 2.18 2.32 2.16 0.34 1.83
Road 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0 0
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Results and discussion
Wetland depletion
The wetland has shrunk and depleted over a period of time.
During the observation period from 1969 to 2008, the spatial
extents of wetland have reduced from 18.75 km
2
in 1969 to
13.00 km
2
. The extent of the wetland area at different points in
time is given in Table 1. As is evident from the data, an area of
5.75 km
2
has been lost during the last four decades. Figure 3
shows the thematic representation of the Hokersar boundary
extents at different points in time. There is progressive deple-
tion of the wetland area from 1969 to 2008.
Land use and land cover changes within the wetland
To analyze and map the land use and land cover within the
wetland area, onscreen digitization approach was adopted.
Eight types of land use and land cover classes were delineated
from the satellite data (1992, 2001, 2005, and 2008) and the
scanned topographical map (1969) at a 1:25,000 scale. The
land use and land cover types are agriculture, fallow, planta-
tion, marshy lands, aquatic vegetation, built up, open water,
and road. For delineating the land use and land cover types
from the images, image elements and other contextual infor-
mation was used for improved accuracy. Figure 4shows the
land use and land cover types delineated from the scanned
topographic map that has symbols for these types. From the
analysis of Fig. 4and Table 2, we can see that the area under
marshes was 16.30 km
2
, plantation was 0.64 km
2
, and open
water was 1.74 km
2
(which includes flood channel 0.07 km
2
)
out of the total area of 18.75 km
2
. There is no built up,
agriculture, fallow, and aquatic vegetation category shown
on the topographic map and hence these three categories are
missing in Fig. 4. It could be assumed that there was no built-
up, agriculture and fallow within the wetland in 1969. How-
ever, the marshy land category shown on the map may con-
stitute some aquatic vegetation as well that has been shown
under marshy land.
From analysis of the 1992 data, as shown in Fig. 5and
Table 3, all the eight categories of the land use and land
cover are present in the wetland. Marshy lands dominate the
wetland area covering an area of 7.74 km
2
that constitutes
42.7 % of the wetland area. Agriculture, that was non-
existent in 1969, is the second major land use type in the
wetland covering about 23.51 % of the wetland area. Sim-
ilarly, the built up has emerged within the wetland that was
not present before 1969 and covers an area of 0.01 km
2
Fig. 7 Distribution of the land use and land cover types mapped during the 2005
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(0.09 %). The area under the open waters has also drastically
reduced in 1992 compared to the baseline data (1969). The
open water body within the wetland has drastically reduced
from 1.74 km
2
in 1969 to 0.85 km
2
in 1992.
Figure 6shows the spatial distribution of the land use and
land cover data within the wetland for the year 2001 mapped
from the LANDSAT ETM+ data. From the analysis of the
data in Table 3, we observe that marshy lands are predom-
inant in the wetland followed by agriculture. The area under
built up has increased from 0.01 km
2
in 1992 to 0.05 km
2
in
2001. However, the open water body has shrunk by more
than a half from 0.85 to 0.43 km
2
.
The distribution of the land use and land cover types
mapped during the 2005 is shown in Fig. 7and the propor-
tionate spatial statistics are given in Table 3.Fromthe
analysis of the data, it is observed that the area under the
aquatic vegetation has significantly increased from 3.48 km
2
in 2001 to 4.56 km
2
in 2005. Similarly, the built-up is
showing an increase. Marshy lands that have tremendous
ecological importance for the migratory birds as they nest
and breed in these areas are showing a decrease from 8.06 to
7.27 km
2
during the 2001–2005 period.
Figure 8shows the areal distribution of the land use and
land cover types delineated from 2008 IKONOS data. Table 3
gives the area estimates and the proportionate spatial statistics
for each of the land use and land cover type observed within
the wetland. From the analysis of the data, it is observed that
the area estimates of the land use and land cover types derived
from 2008 high-resolution IKONOS data are not showing
consistent trend as observed from 1969 to 2005 except for
marshy and aquatic vegetation categories. In fact, due to dif-
ferent image acquisition date of 2008 data, i.e., January, when
the water discharge is usually a bit higher than the autumn
when it is at the minimum, there is increase in the water extent
observed from the 2008 data. However, compared to the area
estimates of the dominant land cover types observed in 1969,
there are sharp changes in the open water body, marshy lands,
aquatic vegetation, and built-up area observed in 2008.
Land use and land cover change in the catchment
In order to analyze the causes of this deterioration and
depletion of the Hokersar wetland, multitemporal land use
and land cover of the Doodhganga catchment of the wet-
land, spread over an area of 732.6 km
2
, was determined
using the three date satellite data from 1972 to 2005. Thir-
teen land use and land cover classes were delineated based
on NNRMS standards; agriculture, exposed rock, fallow,
Fig. 8 Spatial distribution of the land use and land cover types delineated from 2008 IKONOS data
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forests, orchards, pasture, plantation, river, riverbed, scrub,
settlement, snow, and water body from all the satellite data.
Figure 9shows the thematic map of the land use and land
cover types of 1972. It is observed from the information that
fallow was the dominant class covering 38.59 % area.
Agriculture covered 20.6 % of the area followed by forest
(11.37 %), snow (11 %) while as the area under orchards
and settlements was 2.79 and 0.63 %, respectively (Table 4).
Fig. 9 Spatial distribution of
land use and land cover types in
1972
Table 4 Area under different land use and land cover classes from 1972 to 2005 of Doodhganga catchment
Class Name Area 1972 (km
2
) Area 1992 (km
2
) Area 2005 (km
2
) Change from 1972 to 2005 (km
2
) % Change
Agriculture 150.92 140.42 130.67 −20.25 −2.76
Exposed rocks 27.66 49.18 61.58 33.92 4.63
Fallow 282.71 246.51 200.16 −82.55 −11.27
Forest 83.33 78.44 55.78 −27.55 −3.76
Horticulture 20.46 70.88 99.44 78.98 10.78
Pasture 11.3 10.74 7.54 −3.76 −0.51
Plantation 29.71 31.22 55.3 25.59 3.49
River 6.96 5.93 5.93 −1.03 −0.14
River bed 12.42 9.65 9.65 −2.77 −0.38
Settlement 4.63 12.4 15.35 10.72 1.46
Scrub 20.13 40.6 49.99 29.86 4.08
Snow 80.62 36.03 40.7 −39.92 −5.45
Water body 1.75 0.6 0.51 −1.24 −0.17
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The land use and land cover map of 1992 is shown in
Fig. 10. From the analysis of the thematic and the tabular
data, it is observed that the area under agriculture and
fallow, taken together, has marginally decreased between
1972 and 1992 (Table 4). Similarly, the area under the
pasture and plantation has almost remained static. The areas
under snow and forest have shown a decline. The built-up
area has significantly increased from 4.63 to 12.4 km
2
.
Similarly, the land under orchards, scrub, and exposed rock
has shown marked increase in area.
Figure 11 shows the spatial distribution of the land use
and land cover types in the catchment delineated from the
2005 IRS LISS-III data. From the analysis of the data, it is
evident that the agriculture and fallow, taken together, show
a significant decrease in areal extent. Similar trend is ob-
served in case of forest, which has decreased by about
22.66 km
2
compared to 1992 data. The area under settle-
ments has increased to 15.35 km
2
in comparison to 12.4 km
2
in 1992 (Table 4). Plantation, orchards, and exposed rock
are also showing increase in their spatial extents.
An accuracy assessment of the land use land cover types
derived from the supervised classification of the 2005 satel-
lite data was also carried out. The accuracy of the land use
land cover delineated from 2005 satellite data was 94.09 %
(Table 5). The error of omission, i.e., probability of exclud-
ing a pixel that should have been included in the class was
highest for river bed (0.30) followed by exposed rock (0.11),
plantation (0.272), scrub (0.087), horticulture (0.066), and
fallow (0.076). Similarly, the error of commission which is
the probability of including a pixel in a class when it should
have been excluded was highest for river bed (0.125) fol-
lowed by exposed rock (0.11), scrub (0.087), fallow (0.076),
and pasture (0.071).
Kappa is lower than overall accuracy and differences in
these two measures are to be expected in that each incorpo-
rates different forms of information from the error matrix.
While overall accuracy only includes the data along the
major diagonal and excludes the errors of omission and
commission, kappa incorporates the non diagonal elements
of error matrix as a product of row and column marginal.
Fig. 10 Spatial distribution of
land use and land cover types in
1992
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Kappa coefficient for the classified data of 2005 was found
to be 0.935.
Hydrometeorological data analysis
A time series of the hydrometeorological data comprising of
temperature, precipitation, and river discharge data from
1979 to 2009 was analyzed to investigate if there is any link
between these parameters and the declining water extent of
the Hokersar wetland. Temperature data shows an increas-
ing trend Fig. 12a with r
2
of 0.08. Lowest temperatures was
recorded in 1991 (10.63 °C) while as highest temperature
was recorded in 2001 (14.73 °C). The last decade (2000–
2009) was the hottest decade with an average temperature of
13.75 °C as compared to average of 12.74 °C from 1979 to
1999. The precipitation data shows a declining trend, even
though weak, as seen from the Fig. 12b with r
2
of 0.14.
Highest precipitation of 943 mm has been recorded in 1983
while 2000 recorded the lowest precipitation of 423 mm.
Relatively low precipitation has been recorded in late 2000s
as compared to that in early 1980s. Similarly, the analysis of
the time series of the discharge data of the Doodhganga
tributary from 1970 to 2009, the main feeder tributary of
the wetland, at both the head (Branwar) and tail (Barzulla)
indicate decreasing tendency of the river discharge with r
2
of 0.26 and 0.15 respectively (Fig. 13a, b). The lowering of
water discharge may be attributed to the depleting snow
cover and reduction in annual precipitation in Doodhganga
catchment. The decreasing extent of water spread and depth
of the Hokersar could partly be attributed to the changing
climate in the Himalayan region (Akhtar et al. 2008; Dahal
2005; ICIMOD 2009). The decreasing trend in precipitation
and discharge of Doodhganaga stream has a direct bearing
on the changing land use land cover in Doodhganga catch-
ment. Particularly, agriculture lands are being converted to
apple orchards as the latter require less amount of water and
hence are climatologically more viable.
The depletion in the wetland extent are mainly attributed
to the encroachment by the farmers, increase in the settle-
ments, conversion of wetland area into agriculture, planta-
tion and built-up, and climate change (Joshi et al. 2002;
Kraiem 2002). From the data, it is evident that the open
water extent in the wetland has receded from 1.74 km
2
in
1969 to 0.31 km
2
in 2005 (Fig. 14a). However, the 2008
Fig. 11 Distribution of the land
use and land cover types
delineated from 2005 IRS
LISS-III data
Arab J Geosci
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high-resolution IKONOS data shows an increase of
0.05 km
2
in the water extent with respect to the 2005 data
mainly due to its acquisition in winter when the discharge
from the feeder stream is higher compared to the autumn
season when all other images, used in the spatiotemporal
analysis, were acquired. Similarly, the marshy lands that
have tremendous ecological importance for the migratory
birds, serving as the nesting and breeding grounds, have
showed consistent decline from 16.3 km
2
in 1969 to
5.62 km
2
in 2008. The marshy land was the predominant
land cover in 1969 covering more than 85 % of the wetland
area. The depletion of the marshy lands within the wetland
has adversely affected the breeding patterns of the migra-
tory birds. The emergence of the built-up areas within the
wetland and its immediate surroundings has also responsi-
ble for the destruction of the wetland ecology and func-
tionality (Fig. 14b). The built up, that was non-existent
within the wetland in 1969, has emerged and has colonized
almost 0.11 km
2
of the wetland in 2008. Due to these
encroachments and human settlements, the agriculture and
olericulture activity has got a boost within the wetland
boundary and large areas of the wetland, spread over an
area of 5.40 km
2
, have come under agriculture/fallow since
1969. All these anthropogenic influences within the wet-
land have accelerated the deterioration of the wetland
structure and functions. There are umpteen studies that
have demonstrated the adverse impacts of the human influ-
ences on the wetlands all over the world (UNEP 2007)
Further, the land use and land cover dynamics in the
catchment of the wetland have profound impacts on the
functionality and health of the wetland. From the spatial
and temporal analysis of the land use and land cover in the
catchment, it is observed that there have been significant
changes from 1972 to 2005. There is marked increase in
the horticulture, plantation, scrub, settlements, and exposed
rock while as the area under agriculture, fallow, forest,
pasture, and water resources has decreased. Settlements
have increased about four times from 4.63 km
2
in 1972
to 15.35 km
2
in 2005. Similarly, horticulture and plantation
show a significant increase in area from 1972 to 2005.
Permanent snow cover has decreased by about 40 km
2
resulting in increase in the area of exposed rock. Area
under agriculture and fallow has decreased by about
100 km
2
responsible for increase in spatial extent of horti-
culture and plantation. Similarly, forest and pasture areas
have been transformed into scrub because of deforestation
from the past 33 years. These changes observed in the
catchment have adverse impacts on the wetland ecology
and hydrology. The impacts of these changes in the catch-
ment and those in the vicinity of the wetland are reflected
Table 5 Accuracy assessment of land use land cover delineated from 2005 satellite data
Reference data
AG ER FA FO HO PA PL RI RB SE SC SN WB Row
total
User’s
accuracy
(%)
Classification data
AG 19
a
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 95.00
ER 0 8
a
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 88.89
FA 0 0 12
a
0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 13 92.31
FO 0 0 0 32
a
0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 34 94.12
HO 0 0 0 0 14
a
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 93.33
PA 0 0 0 0 0 13
a
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 14 92.86
PL 0000008
a
0 0 0 0 0 0 8 100.00
RI 000000012
a
0 0 0 0 0 12 100.00
RB 000000007
a
0 1 0 0 8 87.50
SE 00000000116
a
0 0 0 17 94.12
SC 010000001021
a
0 0 23 91.30
SN 000000000006
a
0 6 100.00
WB 0000000000007
a
7 100.00
Column total 19 9 13 32 15 13 11 12 10 16 23 6 7 186
Producer’s
accuracy (%)
100.00 88.89 92.31 100.00 93.33 100.00 72.73 100.00 70.00 100.00 91.30 100.00 100.00
a
Overall accuracy = [(19 + 8 + 12 + 32 + 14 + 13 + 8 + 12 + 7 + 16 + 21 + 6 + 7)/186] × 100 = 94.09 %
AG agriculture, ER exposed rock, FA fallow, FO forest, HO horticulture, PA pasture, PL plantation, RI river, RB river bed, SE settlement, SC scrub,
SN snow, WB waterbody
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in the form of changes in the marshy and aquatic vegeta-
tion within the wetland. Increase in spatial extent of ex-
posed surfaces is responsible for enhanced silt load in
Doodhganga stream which finds its entry into the Hokersar
wetland thereby decreasing the depth and water retention
capacity. The changes in the composition and distribution
of marshy land and aquatic vegetation are showing adverse
impacts on the migratory birds, hydrobiology, and hydro-
chemistry of the wetland (DEARS 2001;Khan2000;
Pandit and Kumar 2006).
Further, the symptoms of the wetland deterioration are
attributed to the reckless use of fertilizers and pesticides
for agriculture and horticulture in the catchment, which
ultimately find their way into wetland through Dudhganga
River. This fact has been substantiated by the physico-
chemical characteristics of the wetland as reported by
Pandit and Kumar (2006). The analysis shows an increase
for nitrate and ammonical nitrogen from 1978 to 2002.
Due to the increase of these nutrients, the ecology of the
wetland is changing and adversely affecting the aquatic
flora and fauna. This nutrient enrichment boosts the
growth of aquatic vegetation (Fig. 14c) found in the
wetland like Nymphoides peltatum,Myriophyllum verticil-
latum,Trapa natans,Typha angustata,andPhragmites
australis (Dar et al. 2002).
Within the wetland, various changes have been ob-
served in the composition and distribution of the aquatic
vegetations. Some macrophytes like Nelumbo nucifera,
Euryale ferox,andAcorus calamus have disappeared
and some new species have been observed like Meny-
nanthese trifoliate (Kaul and Zutshi 1967). The main
reason for the disappearance of these macrophytes is
attributed to the increase of silt load to the wetland
brought from the catchment by Doodhganga Nallah. An
increase in the number of macrophytic species from 24
(Pandit 1980) to 46 (Pandit and Kumar 2006) has been
reported. A possible reason for this may be the improve-
ment in the flood situation following dry weather con-
ditions leading mostly to summer draw-down during the
recent years (Pandit and Kumar 2006). As a result of this
Fig. 12 a Graph showing
average annual temperature
from 1979 to 2009. bGraph
showing total annual
precipitation from 1979 to 2009
Arab J Geosci
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increased aquatic vegetation, a drop in the oxygen con-
tent has been observed causing eutrophication which has
direct effects on aquatic fauna like fishes. Vegetable
gardens and paddy fields, that have come up in the
vicinity of the wetland since 1969, have also increased
the nutrient loading to the wetland as the use of fertil-
izers and irrigation in large quantities is practiced in
these vegetation gardens and paddy fields.
The massive deforestation in the upper reaches of the
catchment has increased the silt load to the downstream
water bodies including Hokersar wetland. Due to the in-
creased siltation, the predominant land cover type in the
wetland, the marshy lands, has fragmented and is replaced
by several land use and land cover classes, particularly
aquatic vegetation. Excess load of siltation has also adverse-
ly affected the depth of the wetland which was 1.12 m
(Pandit 1980) and has reduced to 0.63 m only (Rather and
Pandit 2002). Currently, the depth of the water has further
reduced resulting in decrease in the water spread.
The time series analysis of the precipitation and dis-
charge data of the Doodhganga catchment from 1979 to
2009 shows a declining trend. This means that the re-
duction of the water inflow to the wetland, as a conse-
quence of climate change, is responsible for the reduction
in the depth and spread of the water level of the wetland.
Wetland biodiversity, ecosystem, and services are indeed
under threat from the impacts of the climate change but
proper management of the wetlands can reduce these
impacts (O’Reilly et al. 2003; Verburg et al. 2003). The
drastic reduction in the area of marshy lands, the water
depth, and the water spread, have changed the ecological
conditions within the lake and thus, adversely affected
the arrival of migratory birds, as less number of water
fowl has been reported since the past few years. Analysis
of time series temperature data of Doodhganga catchment
from1979to2009showedanincreasingtrend.The
increasing temperatures are possibly cause for bloom of
alien aquatic invasive tropical water fern Azolla sp. in
Hokersar wetland which causes decrease in light penetra-
tion, dissolved oxygen content of Hokersar wetland be-
sides competing with the macrophytic species within the
wetland (Uheda et al. 1999). Dissolved oxygen shows an
Fig. 13 a Graph showing
discharge of Doodhganga
stream at head (Branwar). b
Graph showing discharge of
Doodhganga stream at Tail
(Barzulla)
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inverse relationship with temperature as per Henry’s Law
(IUPAC 1997,b). Hence, the increasing temperatures are
also responsible for reduction in dissolved oxygen con-
tent in the Hokersar wetland. Further, the direct discharge
of the effluents and sewage from the surrounding areas
into the wetland because of increase in spatial extent of
settlements has increased the nutrient loading of the
wetland. The construction of the network of roads around
the wetland and the proliferation of the willow planta-
tions within the wetland has hampered the natural flow
of the drainage adversely affected the wetland hydrology
and the environmental flows. Willows have been recog-
nized as a serious threat to wetland as they cause a range
of deleterious morphological and ecological changes to
wetlands and aquatic ecosystems (Poppe et al. 2006).
Conclusion
Various land use and land cover changes within the
wetland and its catchment have tremendous ecological
and socio-economic importance and it aptly depicts the
way people are treating the wetland ecosystems in the
mountainous Himalayan region. The water quality of the
wetland has deteriorated and changes in the vegetation
composition and distribution have been very significantly
affecting the biodiversity of the wetland. The wetland
depletion has serious implications not only on our flora
and fauna but also on livelihood of the people dependent
on the service and goods provided by the wetland. The
depletion and degradation of this wetland shall have
adverse impacts on the efficacy of the wetland in retain-
ing flood waters during peak discharge and flash floods
and thus endanger the lives and property of the Srinagar
city dwellers. The degradation of the marshy habitat of
the millions of the migratory birds from Siberia and
Central Asia has affected the arrival of these birds as
noticed by their less numbers in the recent years. De-
creasing trend in the precipitation has a direct bearing on
land use land cover dynamics in Doodhganga catchment.
Agriculture lands are getting converted in orchards main-
ly because less amount of water is required in the latter
case. Increase in temperature causes interference in the
hatching of eggs of birds besides disturbing the species
composition of natural vegetation. From the analysis and
discussion of the results, it is thus concluded that the
main reasons for the deterioration of the Hokersar wet-
land are increase in the nutrient and silt load from the
catchment due to deforestation and reckless use of pesti-
cides and fertilizers, encroachment, unplanned urbaniza-
tion in the vicinity of the wetland, and the decreased
discharge to climate change observed in the region. It is
suggested that an appropriate mechanism is established
for continuous monitoring of the wetland, its immediate
surrounding and the catchment for land system changes,
hydrochemistry, biodiversity, and wetland hydrology so
that a robust strategy and action plan is developed for
the conservation and restoration of this important wet-
land, commonly called the Queen of Wetlands in
Kashmir Himalayas.
Fig. 14 a Loss in water spread due to ingress of silt from Doodhganga
catchment and partly because of the encroachment. bBuilt-up areas
coming-up just around the main wetland body as a consequence of
faulty regulatory framework. cReckless growth of macrophytes within
the main wetland body as a consequence of urbanization and agricul-
tural practices around Hokersar
Arab J Geosci
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