Author(s)

Ankit Kandel^1,2, Kismat Pokhrel²

¹Department of Geography, Geology and Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
²Golden Gate International College, Battisputali, Kathmandu.

The Kathmandu Valley has seen substantial urbanization over the past decades while being the nation’s economic centre. Built-up areas have expanded quickly along with the population, having a significantly negative influence on the environment. Recently, Kathmandu was named as the most polluted city in Asia. Urban sprawl has had a negative influence on Kathmandu’s residents in several ways. The state of urban sprawl and the effects it has had on the Kathmandu Valley have been examined using land sat imagery. In this study, IDW was used in GIS to analyze the pollution status using data of PM 2.5 and PM 10 obtained from various monitoring sites. A supervised classification was used to create a LULC map of Kathmandu for the years 2015, 2018, and 2020. To assess the state of the vegetation and determine whether the Kathmandu Valley is being affected by urban heat, NDVI and Land sat temperature calculations were also made. The study’s results were obtained using remote sensing and GIS technology. The built-up area in Kathmandu Valley has grown by 20% over the past five years, impacting land use patterns and deteriorating vegetation cover. Due to the rise of built-up area, which is a good heat absorber, the temperature in the Kathmandu Valley is rising along with the degradation of the vegetation cover. The pollution in the Kathmandu Valley is at its worst, and residents are compelled to breathe air that is significantly more polluted than the prescribed limit.

Urban Sprawl, Pollution, Land Use, Landsat Image, Builtup Area

Kandel, A. and Pokhrel, K. (2024) Study of Urban Sprawl and Its Impact on Vegetation, Land Surface Temperature and Air Pollution Using Remote Sensing and GIS in Kathmandu Valley from 2015 to 2020. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 12, 28-53. doi: 10.4236/gep.2024.123003.