Journal of Environmental Sciences Juniper Publishers

  Abstract Mapping and monitoring of forest area suffering from deforestation and forest degradation using satellite images and remote sensing has been an achievable activity for the sustainable forest management and conservation. Mapping of disturbance and degradation of forest is gaining momentum through Remote Sensing despite, major challenges still exist. The present study was conducted to quantify the forest area of deforestation and degradation within the Maya Devi collaborative forest of Terai region located at Kapilvastu district of Nepal. This study based on the optical satellite data (Landsat 7 ETM of 2000 and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS of 2016) and spectral un-mixing of these datasets which produced fractional cover (proportion of vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation and bare soil). Under the environment of CLASlite tools, mapping of damaged canopy, exposed soil and dead vegetation were produced. With the gap of 15 years two Landsat Image of 2000 and 2016 we...

  Abstract Water is so essential for living organisms that it is said “ save water, save life ”. Pollution of water, scarcity of water (drought), excess of water (flood) and excessive snow-fall are the different forms in which water becomes unusable/creates problems for the survival of many organisms. Therefore, saving water in its usable form is essential for the existence of life on the earth. One of the ways to save water is its judicial use, which is essential for increasing water productivity. Availability of water in sufficient amount, for those who require it, is necessary for ecological integrity as well as ecological efficiency. While ecological efficiency is related with resource utilization and the extent to which resources are converted into biomass, ecological integrity is crucial for biodiversity conservation. About two-third of the available fresh water is utilized for agricultural activities, and any imprudent/imbalanced use of water in agriculture w...

  Abstract The relation of evaporation deriving meteorological parameters particularly wind speed, solar radiation and vapor pressure deficit with evaporation schemes namely Class A pan evaporation (Ep), potential evapotranspiration (PET) and reference evapotranspiration (ETo) at Tharandt, Germany for the summer half-year of 2004-2013 was investigated. PET was calculated using three methods: 1. Haude (2005), 2. Wendling (1991), 3. Penman (1963); whereas, ETo was calculated according to Food and Agricultural Organization-Penman Monteith method. The results showed that the evaporatin schemes were mainly driven by solar radiation (R2 ≥ 0.69, RMSE ≤ 0.76mm d-1) and vapor pressure deficit (R2 ≥ 0.53, RMSE ≤ 0.92mm d-1). The effect of wind speed at 2m in deriving the evaporation schemes was negligibly small (R2 < 0.12). An equation is derived for estimation of Ep from measured meteorological parameters alone which makes this study special. In another scenario, Class A ...