Spatiotemporal Vegetation Variability and Linkage with Snow-Hydroclimatic Factors in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Google Earth Engine (GEE)

Abstract

The mountain systems of the Himalayan regions are changing rapidly due to climatic change at a local and global scale. The Indian Western Himalaya ecosystem (between the tree line and the snow line) is an underappreciated component. Yet, knowledge of vegetation distribution, rates of change, and vegetation interactions with snow-hydroclimatic elements is lacking. The purpose of this study is to investigate the linkage between the spatiotemporal variability of vegetation (i.e., greenness and forest) and related snow-hydroclimatic parameters (i.e., snow cover, land surface temperature, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), and Evapotranspiration (ET)) in Himachal Pradesh (HP) Basins (i.e., Beas, Chandra, and Bhaga). Spatiotemporal variability in forest and grassland has been estimated from MODIS land cover product (MCD12Q1) using Google Earth Engine (GEE) for the last 19 years (2001–2019). A significant inter- and intra-annual variation in the forest, grassland, and snow-hydroclimatic factors have been observed during the data period in HP basins (i.e., Beas, Chandra, and Bhaga basin). The analysis demonstrates a significant decrease in the forest cover (214 ha/yr.) at the Beas basin; however, a significant increase in grassland cover is noted at the Beas basin (459 ha/yr.), Chandra (176.9 ha/yr.), and Bhaga basin (9.1 ha/yr.) during the data period. Spatiotemporal forest cover loss and gain in the Beas basin have been observed at ~7504 ha (6.6%) and 1819 ha (1.6%), respectively, from 2001 to 2019. However, loss and gain in grassland cover were observed in 3297 ha (2.9%) and 10,688 ha (9.4%) in the Beas basin, 1453 ha (0.59%) and 3941 ha (1.6%) in the Chandra basin, and 1185 ha (0.92%) and 773 ha (0.60%) in the Bhaga basin, respectively. Further, a strong negative correlation (r = −0.65) has been observed between forest cover and evapotranspiration (ET). However, a strong positive correlation (r = 0.99) has been recorded between grassland cover and ET as compared to other factors. The main outcome of this study in terms of spatiotemporal loss and gain in forest and grassland shows that in the Bhaga basin, very little gain and loss have been observed as compared to the Chandra and Beas basins. The present study findings may provide important aid in the protection and advancement of the knowledge gap of the natural environment and the management of water resources in the HP Basin and other high-mountain regions of the Himalayas. For the first time, this study provides a thorough examination of the spatiotemporal variability of forest and grassland and their interactions with snow-hydroclimatic factors using GEE for Western Himalaya.