Research student profile: Ramita Manandhar
Project title
Land use and land cover change and its environmental and socioeconomic imprints in the Lower Hunter, New South Wales, Australia.
Project overview
My project aims to assess land use/cover changes in the Lower Hunter and determine environmental and socioeconomic imprints of the land use/cover change.
As land use/cover is one of the primary determinants of ecosystem vulnerability, a timely and accurate assessment of land use/cover change and its environmental impact can provide useful information for policy intervention on managing resources efficiently.
Time series land cover maps and “to and from” changes for Lower Hunter at 5-yearly time period from 1985 to 2005 have been produced. My research has shown that there have been a considerable change in the study area and the dominant signals of change are the exchanges between Pasture/scrubland and Vineyard, and Vineyard to Built-up. Built-up has increased more than two times of that of 1985 Built-up.
To tackle this project my research involves use of GIS, Remote sensing and modeling techniques. Classification of Landsat imageries was performed to derive land cover maps; ancillary data and knowledge-base were utilized to improve the accuracy of the classified maps. Change analysis was performed using extended change detection matrix. I have aims of projecting land cover changes towards near future and also link the land cover changes with socioeconomic and environmental parameters to see the imprints of land use/cover changes.
Findings till present day have enabled to visualize the major transitions hence potential to focus on future land cover transitions. The outcome of the remaining part of my research is hoped to address the socioeconomic and environmental parameters as influenced by the land cover changes, and also predict changes if the past trends continues thereby provide information for policy intervention in managing the bucolic environment of the landscape.
Background
I am an international student from Nepal and completed my B.Sc. agriculture from Kerala Agriculture University, Kerala, India under the Colombo Plan Scholarship, and Masters in agricultural systems from the Asian institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand under the AIT scholarship.
I have been granted an EIPRS scholarship by the Australian Government to pursue my PhD at the University of Sydney.
During the second and third year of my studies I had the fortune to travel to India, United Kingdom and to Darwin (NT), to attend conferences on GIS and Remote Sensing, and present papers on image classification and change detection utilizing landsat imageries and ancillary information.
Publications
- Manandhar, R., Odeh, I. and Ancev, T. (2008). Twenty years of land cover change in the Lower Hunter, New South Wales, Australia. In proceedings of 14th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Spatial Sciences Institute, Darwin, NT, 29 Sept. to 3 Oct. 2008.
- Manandhar, R. and Odeh, I. (2008). Land cover classification from remote sensing imagery: revisiting and evaluating classification accuracy. In proceeding of Map India 2008 organized by GIS Development Pvt Ltd, Noida, India. Available at: www.gisdevelopment.net/application/miscellaneous/mi08_171.htm, 12 pages.
- Manandhar, R. and Odeh, I. (2008). Analyzing land cover change using a knowledge-based image classification of bi-temporal Landsat imageries. In proceedings of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society Conference, University of Exeter, UK, 15-17 Sept 2008. 4 pages.
- Manandhar, R. and Khanal, M. P. (2005). Commercial fertilizers and their quality control in Nepal. In Proceedings on Micronutrients in South and South East Asia. Anderson, P., Tuladhar, J., Karki, K.B., and Maskey, S.L. (Editors). Pp. 97-107. Published by ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development), Kathmandu, Nepal. 8-11 Sept 2004. Available at: http://books.icimod.org/uploads/tmp/icimod-micronutrients_in_south_and_south_east_asia.pdf
- Manandhar, R. and Khanal, M. P. (2004). Chemical Fertilizer: Environment Friendly or Harmful? Environment and Agriculture, Publication of Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Nepal.
- Manandhar, R., Ranjit ,M., and Chaudhary, S.L. (2004). Effect of Nitrogen on nutritional status of Peach (Prunus persica L.) cultivar "Peregreen", A paper published in Nepal Horticulture Journal, Vol 4, Issue 1, 43-47.
- Basnyat, B.B., and Manandhar, R. (2003). Policy issues on the dissemination of IPNM technologies. In proceedings of National Workshop on Integrated Plant Nutrient Management for Sustainable Agriculture held in Kathmandu from 27-28 May 2003, organized jointly by Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Department of Agriculture, and the Nepal Agriculture Research Council.
- Manandhar, R. (2001). Integrated Plant Nutrient System in Nepal. Agro-Chemicals Report – a quarterly journal of FADINAP (Fertilizer Advisory Development and Information Network) for Asia and Pacific, UNESCO. Vol. 1, No. 4, Oct-Dec 2001.
- Jaishy, S.N., Fujimoto, T., and Manandhar, R. (1999). Current status of Soil Fertility in Nepal. In proceeding of 3rd National Conference on Science and Technology held on 8 - 11 March 1999, Kathmandu.
- Ranjit, M. and Manandhar, R. (1997). Effect of 1 H. Indole-3-butyric acid on rooting of hardwood cutting of apple rootstocks at Kirtipur, Nepal. Agrc. Res. Tril. 32-35.