Hydrological Impacts of
Reforesting Degraded Pasture Lands in the
Middle Mountains of Central Nepal
Researcher: C.P. Ghimire
Current affiliation: ITC,
Enschede, The Netherlands
Supervisors:
Collaborators:
- C. Joshi - Nepal Ministry of Environment, Kathmandu
- Chr. Van
der Tol - ITC-UT, Enschede, the Netherlands
Duration: 2009-2013
Funding: Co-funding between VU and ITC-UT
Research questions
In response to local land degradation and downstream flooding and
sediment problems, large tracts in the Nepalese Middle Hills were
reforested with conifers in the 1970s. At the same time, several
recent reports by influential bodies have stressed the high water use
of forest plantations compared to crop- or grassland, claiming that
tree planting will invariably lead to diminished water yields. This
'modern' view is at odds with the traditional view that a good forest
cover provides stable seasonal flows and that this regulating capacity
may be lost if deforestation is followed by poor land husbandry
practices. Whilst it is theoretically possible that the higher water
use of the newly planted trees may be compensated by enhanced
infiltration afforded by soil improvement after tree planting -
thereby restoring the original dry-season baseflows - no single study
has made the necessary hydrological process measurements at a
sufficiently large scale. Thus, 'baseflow boosting' by reforestation
has rarely - if ever - been demonstrated in practice. This project
seeks to quantify the water use of natural broad-leaf vegetation,
mature pine plantation, and degraded grassland as well as the soil
water-, and hillslope runoff generation dynamics associated with these
three land covers near Dhulikhel, Middle Mountains, Central
Nepal.
Project publications
- Ghimire, C.P., Bruijnzeel, L.A., Lubczynski, M.W. and Bonell
M. (2014). Negative trade-off between changes in vegetation water use
and infiltration recovery after reforesting degraded pasture land in
the Nepalese Lesser Himalaya . Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 18:
4933-4949.
- Ghimire, C.P., Lubczynski, M.W., Bruijnzeel, L.A. &
Chavarro-Rincon, D. (2014). Transpiration, canopy conductance and
decoupling coefficients of two contrasting forest types in the Lesser
Himalaya of Central Nepal. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 197,
76–90.
- Ghimire, C.P. (2014). Hydrological impacts of reforesting degraded
pasture land in the Middle Mountain Zone of Central Nepal. Doctoral
Dissertation, VU University and Twente University, 275 pp.
- Ghimire, C.P., Lubczynski, M.W. and Bruijnzeel,
L.A. (submitted). Transpiration, canopy conductance and decoupling
coefficient for two contrasting forest types in the Lesser Himalaya of
Central Nepal. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.
- Ghimire, C.P., Bonell, M., Bruijnzeel, L.A., Coles, N.A. and
Lubczynski, M.W. (2013). Reforesting severely degraded grassland in
the Lesser Himalaya of Nepal: Effects on soil hydraulic conductivity
and overland flow production. Journal of Geophysical Research,
Earth Surface, doi: 10.1002/2013JF002888
- Ghimire, C.P., Bruijnzeel, L.A., Bonell, M., Coles, N.,
Lubczynski, M.W. and Gilmour, D.A. (2013). The effects of sustained
forest use on hillslope soil hydraulic conductivity in the Middle
Mountains of Central Nepal. Ecohydrology, doi:
10.1002/eco.1367.
- Ghimire, C.P., Bruijnzeel, L.A., Lubczynski, M.W. and Bonell,
M. (2012). Rainfall interception by natural and planted forests in the
Mid dle Mountains of Central Nepal. Journal of Hydrology 475:
270-280.
Related publications
- Bruijnzeel, L.A. (2015). Hillslope hydrological functioning in the
Lesser Himalaya: What do we really know? Presentation held at the
Indian National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, and the International
Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, February
2015.
- Baral, T. (2011). Evapotranspiration from natural and planted
forest in the Middle Mountains of Nepal. Masters Thesis,
ITC-University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlnds, 63
pp.
- Gilmour, D.A., Bonell, M. & Cassells, D.S. (1987). The effect
of forestation on soil hydraulic properties in the Middle Hills of
Nepal: A preliminary assessment. Mountain Research and Development 7,
239-249.
Last modified: Wed Dec 30 13:04:45 CET 2015
