Assessment of Ecosystem Services by using Decision Tree Approach in the Leimatak River Basin, North East India

Abstract

Leimatak River basin is witness a degrading trend of watershed  ecosystem since 1988 after the agreement signed between the government of Manipur and NHPC for the construction of Loktak Downstream Hydroelectric Project. Many people are migrating  in this basin mainly the workers and neighboring villagers in search of developmental programme  but there is slow progress in the construction of project. As result, they heavily depend on the environment which have much impact on the ecosystem, now it need a proper watershed management to save  the region from the future disaster. Assessment of ecosystem services and the factors that threaten them is an important first step to support watershed management.  In this present paper, decision tree approach has been adopted to assess protection, biodiversity, and production services of ecosystem in the study area.

Keywords: watershed, ecosystem, decision tree, biodiversity