In recent decades, human activities have significantly transformed land use and land
cover (LULC) and the environment of the Central Himalayas region. LULC is a major component
of environmental and climatic research. The aim of this study was to determine the changes in
cropland status and its drivers in the Koshi River Basin (KRB) of the Central Himalayas region of
Nepal between 1978 and 2010. The cropland status in 1978 was obtained from the Land Resources
Mapping Project (LRMP) datasets. The cropland status in 1992 and 2010 was determined on the basis
of satellite imagery, with an object-oriented classification method, together with field investigations.
Advanced geographical tools were used for data processing and binary logistic regression models
were used for the statistical analysis of potential driving factors of cropland change. A noticeable
overall change in cropland area was found, with rapid increases from 1978 onward at differing rates
and to different extents. The cropland area covered 7165 km2
in 1978. It peaked at 7867.49 km2
in
1992, and had reduced slightly (by 90 km2
) to 7776.66 km2 by 2010. The change in cropland area
was mainly related to four potential driving factors: topography (elevation, slope, and soil types),
socioeconomics (population and foreign labor migration), climate (annual mean temperature and
precipitation), and neighborhood factors (roads, rivers, and settlements). However, the effects of
the different variables have occurred over various stages and at different rates. An understanding
of long-term changes in cropland status in the KRB would be useful, and this could be extended to
spatial reconstructions with the help of historical data, including cropland and climatic archives.