BYT.HARISH

APPLICATIONS OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS IN

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

APPLICATIONS

FOREST COVER AND TYPE MAPPING.BIODIVERSITY CHARACTERIZATION.ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDIES.MONITORING OF ENVIRONMENT

SENSITIVE AREAS.MONITORING OF WETLAND AREAS.FOREST FIRE AND RISK MAPPING.

FOREST COVER AND TYPE MAPPING

Mapping is done at 1:50,000 scale using aerial photographs and SOI toposheets.

Visual interpretation done through stereoscope followed by ground verification

Thematic maps depict forest types, species composition and other land uses

Used for updating stock maps, working Plan preparation and management of forest resources.

BIODIVERSITY CHARACTERIZATION

Biodiversity characterization is generated through spatial information at three levels, they are: Satellite based primary information (vegetation type map, road layer, fire occurrence, etc.) Geospatially derived or modeled information, GPS tagged stratified field sample plot information.

The vegetation type map was prepared using two season satellite data to take into consideration the seasonal variations in the various land cover in the region.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDIES

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), for any project like dam construction on the Man river, Gujarat, India, was performed using GIS and Remote Sensing software-Arc/Info and ERDAS Imagine.

Efficient management of irrigation water can be suggested using recent information of the command area by processing imageries through ERDAS Imagine.

The impact of the dam in terms of catchment area and command area was computed to assess the net benefit to the society.

GIS can also help in the site selection for the rehabilitation and infrastructure location.

MONITORING OF ENVIRONMENT SENSITIVE AREAS

There are many different types of monitoring systems.

Many of them automate the process of data collection and (pre-) processing – a task often hidden from the ordinary user.

Monitoring itself may be implemented in several different ways depending on the type of system under study.

Depending on the specific task, monitoring may have been done with the assistance of one or more specialised standard systems, such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems.

MONITORING OF WETLAND AREAS

Remote sensing data in combination with Geographic Information System (GIS) methods are 'effective tools for wetland conservation and management.

The application encompasses water resource assessment, hydrological modeling, flood management, reservoir capacity surveys, assessment and monitoring of the environmental impacts of water resources projects and water quality mapping and monitoring.

FOREST FIRE AND RISK MAPPING

 A rapid assessment of the forests for their proneness to fire could be worked out using a combination of information generated from remote sensing and other means.

A dynamic fire spread model using a combination of biophysical parameters including wind direction, speed and live fire events could be worked out to predict the fire spread.

For inputing spatial data in GIS, it is necessary that the resource information is in the form of map.

Remote sensing, coupled with limited ground checks, is the most ideal way for generating resource maps.