Land Use Planner – LUPWY

Software published:

1. Thakur, J. K., K. Khanal, et al. (2017). “LUPWY: land use planner for water yield for environmental change analysis.” Modeling Earth Systems and Environment 3(1): 44.
2. JK Thakur*, K Khanal, K Poudyal (2017) Land cover changes for enhancing water availability in watersheds of Tanahun and Kaski, Nepal, Journal of Water and Climate.
3. JK Thakur*, K Khanal, K Poudyal (2017) Assessment of Regional Changes for Enhancing Water Availability, Environmental Systems Research, 6:19
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40068-017-0096-3

LUPWY – Land Use Planner for Water Yield, a software – was developed to assess the watershed situation and determine the optimum land use practice for enhancing the water service for the catchment. The target of the software is such that it combines the primary and secondary data as well as information pertaining to the study location and then combine the process based representations of terrestrial vegetation dynamics and land-atmosphere carbon and water exchanges in the modular framework. Prediction of the results changes in vegetation patterns, water quality, and runoff production requires an accurate representation of the relationships between hydrology, vegetation, and climate.

The software was calibrated with 3 watersheds of 2 districts of Chitwan Annapurna Landscape (CHAL) region in Nepal.

1. Tanahun district:
- Chhabdi Khola watershed, Damauli
- Guhe Khola watershed, Khairenitar
2. Kaski district:
- Bhoti Khola watershed

Software development process:

1. Model selection and development
2. Study area change detection, field visit, and data collection (land cover, climate, socio-economic, etc.
3.Software programming – defining problem to solve – design – programming – testing and debugging
4. Calibrate and implementation of model and software output
5. User and developer manual development

Software download: https://github.com/uizentrum/lupwy