REMOTELY SENSED INVESTIGATIONS OF FOREST CANOPY DENSITY DYNAMIC IN TROPIC COMBINE WITH LANDSAT AND FIELD MEASUREMENT DATA

Forest canopy density is an essentially important for maintaining the diversify flora and fauna in the tropic. But, the natural and human disturbances have an influence over the inconsistency of forest canopy density. So, forest canopy density (FCD) has been threatened in the tropic since a decade. The objective of this study was to examine the dynamics change of the forest canopy density in tropical forest Chitwan, Nepal combine with field survey and remote sensing data. The field survey data of 2001 such as canopy cover percentage, dbh so on and some human disturbances were used. Similarly, Landsat TM 1988 and ETM+ 2001 have also used to predict the dynamic changes of the FCD over the period. Moreover, nonparametric Kruskal- Wallis test has performed for the validation of the results. Data analysis revealed that very few factors i.e. the number of trees, path, and fire had realized statistically significance at P=<0.05. Therefore we concluded that detail analysis could be needed incorporate with additional socioeconomic, climatic, biophysical and institutional factors for the better understanding of the forest canopy dynamic in particular location.