Poster Session – I

NRDMS ACTIVITIES IN LOCAL LEVEL PLANNING – A GLIMPSE

IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM – AN APPROACH TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT AT DISTRICT LEVEL

P. Virupakshi
District NRDMS Center, Zilla Panchayat, Bijapur 586 101, Karnataka, INDIA

ABSTRACT

Watershed Development program is the single largest program in agriculture and rural development in India during recent years. The major objective of the program is through optimization of production system and allied horticulture and fuel in rain fed areas by practicing the improved soil and moisture conservation measures, better crop and land management practices and afforestation. This has to achieve by conservation of resources to safeguard them for future use and by maintaining ecological diversity.

Major thrust has been given to Watershed Development program in Karnataka under various Centarl, State Government schemes, External aided programs such as SDC (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), KWDP ( Danida Assisted) and KAWADA ( Overseas Development Assistance) are pioneer in introducing innovative concepts in watershed development since last two decades involving NGOs.

The first Phase of Tidagundi watershed development Program with an area of 6000 Ha. implemented by SDC with a holistic approach completed during 1999. The action plans have been generated and implemented by District watershed Development Program, Bijapur and social acceptability, economic viability and institutional sustainability by YUVKA VIKAS KENDRA, Bijapur an Non Governmental Organization and Peoples living the in the project area.

The Project approach starts with baseline survey of Phase-I area by conventional techniques and preparation of phased developmental Plans. The action plans are implemented for stabilization of drainage line treatment and construction of water harvesting structures, wasteland reclamation to establish the vegetative cover, agro-forestry and agro-horticulture development etc. The generated/created assets are handed over to Village Development Committees at the end of the implementation activity.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT:

It is essential to holistically assess and evaluate the long-term effects and the impact of the activities through reliable methods. Satellite remote sensing data substantiated by field data generated through Phase-I implementation and the ground water data plays a vital role in this connection by depicting the status of the watershed before and after implementation, indicating the changed scenario of the project area.

The scenario/status of the up gradation of the existing resources has been assessed after the implementation of the project to know the lacunas in planning, implementation and monitoring of the Phase-II continued activities. Remarkable advances in Remote sensing and GIS technology and its applications in the last two decades established immense potential in planning, monitoring, management, impact assessment and conservation of Natural resources including water land and bio-resources. The main objectives of the present study is,
* To assess the Biophysical status of the resources in the area.
* To evaluate the Land use Land cover changes after implementation.
* The actual transformation of Land use land covers categories.
* Status and sustainability of implemented works.
* Representation of the physical work on the cadastral maps.
* Correlation of rainfall with water levels in water bodies.
* Estimation of ground water before and after implementation.
* Suggesting suitable site specific measures for the Phase-II implementation with reference to the needs and potentiality of the resources.

The methodology used in the study are the biophysical changes after implementation the scenario the IRS LISS II 1993 and LISS III 1999 summer season data in which preceding year rainfall almost similar are chosen supplemented by season data. The FCC are interpreted by visual interpretation and sufficient ground checks and prepared land use/ land cover maps. The actual transformations are derived by overlay of pre and post land use/land cover maps using Mapnifo GIS. The major activities of implementation such as soil and water conservation areas of afforestartion and horticultural plantation are mapped on cadastral scale and verified in the field and their validation. The ground resource estimated before and after implementation based on Revised norms as envisaged by Ground Water Resources Committee, Ministry of Water Resources, and Government of India, 1977. The suggestions are made based on impacts and strategies are recommended for the Phase II area of the watershed.

BIO-PHYSICAL CHANGES:

Land use/ Land cover is one of the most important theme in evaluating the land use changes over a period of time. The Post implementation land use/land cover pattern shown significant positive development in the watershed during 1993 and 99. The irrigated area has been increased by 6%, double cropped area by 14%, and there is a significant reduction in the extent of fallow lands by 21% and the negative change only 1.5% in the watershed. The soil and moisture conservation activities enhanced towards increase of irrigated area by 372 Ha. and double cropped area by 862 ha by transforming kharif and fallow lands in to productive category. About 1265 Ha. of fallow lands have been converted in to Kharif and double-cropped areas in the watershed. The actual land cover transformations after the implementation fromm 1993 to 1999 are as follows.

SL.No Land use Transformations Area (Ha.)
1. Irrigated/ Plantations area to Land without scrub 15
2. Irrigated/ Plantations area to Fallow land 41
3. Kharif area to Irrigated/plantation area 77
4. Kharif area to Double crop area 96
5. Kharif area to Land without scrub 34
6. Kharif area to Fallow land 140
7. Double crop to Irrigated/plantation area 360
8. Double crop to Kharif area 66
9. Double crop to Land without scrub 14
10. Double crop to Fallow land 172
11. Land without scrub to Irrigated/ plantation area 27
12. Land without scrub to Kharif area 36
13. Land without scrub to Fallow land 50
14. Fallow land to Irrigated/ Plantation area 295
15. Fallow land to Kharif area 160
16. Fallow land to double crop area 1084
17. Fallow land to Land without scrub 1042

The project implementation has created assets in common as well as private lands. The activities under taken in are Check dams 29, Nala Bunds 96, Boulder Checks 43, Ravine Reclamation Structures 28, Farm Ponds 12 in addition to moisture conservation activities such as contour bundling etc. The block plantation 34 Ha., Silvi Horticulture 7 Ha., Farm Forestry 428 Ha., Nala Bund Plantation 5 Km., Bund Plantation 220 Km. and Road side plantation 41 Km. has been raised in common lands and private lands. The Horticulture plantations like Mango, Lime, Pomegranate, Ber in 957 Ha. in the watershed.

The Groundwater occurs under unconfined water table conditions in the weathered and decomposed material over hard rock and in the joints and fractures in the upper zone of weathered hard trap. Groundwater exploitation for irrigation by 247 dug wells and Dug-cum bore wells and 43 Bore wells in the watershed during 1994. As the availability of ground water increases the dug wells and dug-cum bore wells increased to 262 and bore wells 96 during 2000. The total extent of irrigation by wells is 930 Ha. during 2000. The Major portion of ground water is used for horticultural crops such as Grapes, Ber, Pomegranate, Banana and lime that bring good economic returns to the farmers. Prior to the implementation of the project most of open wells get dried up during summer and irrigation during this period is through dug-cum bore wells and bore wells. After the project implementation farmers increased the area under wells and getting summer crops also.

The average annual ground water recharge by all sources is estimated 516 and 774 Hem. Net annual ground water recharge available is 439 (85% of 516) Hem. and 689 (85% of 774 ) Hem. during 1994 and 2000 respectively. After the implementation of the project the available of ground water perish much of the area has been brought under assured commercial crops like horticulture etc. The Number of ground water structures increased from 370 to 474 with an average of 27 % in 5 years i.e. about 5.4% per annum. The project implementation has contributed towards bringing down the ground water development by 11% from 59% during 1994 to 48% during 2000.

Based on the resource profiles existing in the phase-II area recommendations future strategies area made component wise and to achieve sustainability of the resources in the watershed.

EDUCATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM THROUGH GIS

B.S.Paruti and A.B.Uchagonkar
NRDMS Centre, NRDMS Centre, Office of the Deputy Commissioner,
Belgaum- 590 002, Karnataka, INDIA


ABSTRACT

To achieve the milestone “Education for all”, Government is providing education facilities in all villages under various programmes. Management of these provided facilities is equally important to achieve the success in providing education effectively. The education management is a complex phenomenon, which requires enormous amount of data to support the decision. The district authorities require an information system, which will be able to monitor the planning regulations and will work as early warning system.

In this context, local education authorities are in the process of data building and updation of existing education facilities database (school-wise) in the district. With the help of this MIS package one can take a tabular report, which is voluminous, non-spatial and difficult to browse quickly for simple queries. Nowadays the application of GIS in the planning and management is very common in various sectors. In this paper an attempt has been made to utilize GIS for management of education system at district, taluka, cluster and village level for management of education system.

At district level Zilla Panchayat is the governing body to review the activities of the education system. The maps are generated through various queries like schools having single teacher, single building, enrollment, student teacher ratio, drinking water facility etc. These maps are extensively referred in the review meeting of Zilla Panchayt to make effective strategies. All these query based maps can be customized for the purpose of planning and management of education system by gathering and updating database, managing database suitable for GIS application.

This Education Management Information System allows the user to query on a number of spatial information items related to education including route maps for supply of education materials to different schools at the village level.


DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR HEALTH FACILITIES USING
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

Hemanth Kumar, H.
Karnataka State Council of Science and Technology
Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore 560 012, INDIA


ABSTRACT

Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS) is an information system to aid spatial planning and management of natural resources like land, water, forest, infrastructure etc., at smaller area levels. The purpose of spatial planning involves collection, collation, organization and storage of relevant data in a database. One of the objectives of NRDMS is to develop application models on natural resources based on specific norms / criteria to suit the needs of planners & implementers at district level. An application model on the status of health facilities has been developed using Geographic Information System (GIS).

The purpose of the application is to locate existing health facilities and indicate upgradation / new location of medical facilities as per the health department norms. During the process of developing the model and several interactions with planners and implementers a few additional guidelines were evolved and were considered apart from the existing guidelines of the department for optimal spatial distribution of health facilities. Initially the application has been developed using the datasets of Dakshina Kannada district and later on it has been modified to accommodate different types of population distribution. The application has been successfully tried and tested for Dakshina Kannada district and it has been installed in several district NRDMS centres to assist in planning.

Medical facilities of one type or the other are available in some inhabited villages of every district like Primary health units (PHU), primary health centres (PHCs), Community health centres (CHCs) etc., The norms considered for locating PHCs are:

Norms
Population in Plain area for every Population in hilly/tribal area for every Type of health center Minimum distance between two centers
5000 3000 Sub center
30,000 20,000 PHC 8 Km
200,000 100,000 CHC

The programming language MAPBASIC under MAPINFO was used for developing the application and it requires a 486 and above machine to run the model. The datasets required for the model are digital taluka map with village boundaries and village location, database on health facilities in a tabular form and digital road map.


UTILITY OF GIS FOR PRIORITIZATION FOR PROVIDING DRINKING WATER FACILITIES IN RURAL HABITATION OF BHADRAVATI TALUK, SHIMOGA DISTRICT, KARNATAKA

U.T. Vijay
District NRDMS Centre,
D.C.Office, Shimoga-577 201, Karnataka, INDIA


ABSTRACT


The objective of this study is to highlight the importance of Geographic Information System (GIS) in infrastructure development at local level to identify and create spatial database on different types of existing drinking water facilities and find out the problematic villages which are having inadequate drinking water supply. This application helps in prioritizing the villages for providing new drinking water facilities with the required per capita water supply as per norms set by the Ministry of Rural Development in rural habitation of Bhadravati taluk, Shimoga district.

Water is the basic necessity of human life. Drinking water should be adequate and free from physical, chemical and biological contamination. According to norms of Ministry of Rural Development, the supply of potable Drinking Water for rural habitation should be more than 55 LPCD. The existing drinking water facilities in the district are Bbore wells with hand pumps, Mini-Water Supply, Piped Water Supply and Open wells. In some taluks, the sources of drinking water are M.I. Tanks, rivers, and canals. For any planning and development effort, a reliable data on the type, contents and locations are very much essential.

Shimoga District is predominantly a Malnad district and it was noted for heavy rainfall. But, the rainfall has come down to nearly normal in the past 5 Years. During the year 2000, the district received average total annual rainfall of 1951.1 mm against the normal rainfall of 1813.2 mm., which is slightly more than normal. The study area, Bhadravati taluk, which is having 69010 hectares of Geographical area is located between Longitude of 750 35’ 30” to 750 52’ 4” East and Latitude of 130 42’ 1” to 140 6’ 36” North. This Taluk has been divided into 3 hoblies covering 153 revenue villages and it has 554 BW/HP, 83 of MWS and 70 PWS schemes as source of existing drinking water facilities providing at rate of 35LPCD average per capita drinking water supply. After creating both spatial and nonspatial database in Mapinfo GIS software, problematic villages can be identified and prioritized by using join & SQL query options .

The case study concludes that, after considering the existing drinking water facilities with the present per capita water supply and the norms specified by the Ministry of Rural Development, 31 villages are found problematic which are having in- adequate drinking water facilities. Out of these, 13 villages require Bore wells with hand pumps, 5 villages require MWS, and 13 villages require PWS schemes. It is also found that 19 problematic villages which are having less than 10 LPCD drinking water supply, should be taken up on priority basis for providing drinking water supply at the rate of 55 LPCD as per norms followed by other villages as shown in the resultant map which is prepared using Geographic Information System techniques.


Poster Session II

COST EFFECTIVE INTERNET/INTRANET GIS SOLUTION FOR DECISION MAKERS USING OPEN SOURCE GIS

Gosain, A. K.; Rao, Sandhya, Srinivasa Rao, K.
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016

ABSTRACT

Need of the day is to provide client specific GIS applications which are easy to use and cost effective. Idea here is not to provide a full-featured GIS system to everybody, but to provide enough core functionality to support a wide variety of web GIS applications. The core functionality of most of the GIS users include browsing, querying and printing GIS data. The development and maintenance of the GIS applications is the domain of a very small section of domain experts. Therefore the deployment of very expensive GIS software should only be confined to such users.

This paper briefly describes the development of an Internet/Intranet Infrastructure Information system for IIT Delhi campus (IITInfo) using one such free Java based mapping toolkit. This mapping toolkit allows Maps to be viewed interactively on web browsers without the need for dedicated server side support. All of the components used for this development are released under Open Source licenses. Open Source programs are applications of which the source codes are accessible to public. This application provides the means to allow users to see and manipulate geospatial information.

The primary objective is to demonstrate the technology and cost effectiveness of such technology, which can be developed and used for any client specific spatial applications.
IITInfo has two components, a map applet for display and manipulation of spatial information and the non spatial database query component. Map applet is a Java applet and the database component is developed using Java servlet technology

Functions Implemented
Search facility
Search for a Staff member for Personal details, office location and residence location
Search for a student for Personal details, Hostel Location, time table with room location
Security Information
Security outposts, security group deployment location and schedule
Facility Information
Query for all the rooms held by a particular department. Department-wise space utilisation can be used for various planning purposes.

Components of the Layout

The Map Applet
This is the area where the map data gets rendered. This applet has buttons which provide various common GIS rendering facility like pan, zoom, full extent. Tooltip is provided for all the GIS entities which gets displayed on the map when the mouse moves over them.

Locator Panel
The panel at the lower left corner shows an overview of the entire map. The extents of the Map Applet are indicated by a rectangular outline in the Locator map. At each instance of map Zoom In, Zoom Out or Pan in the Map Display Area, the rectangle is changed to show the current position. This panel also supports Pan functionality by clicking at a point on the panel where one needs to pan.

Navigation Facility
The viewer provides basic Map Navigation facilities
Zoom In - This allows the user to zoom to a specific area
Zoom Out - This helps to zoom out or reduce the map extent.
Pan - This allows panning of the map.
Full Extent - The complete map is displayed in the Map Display Area.
Identify

This functionality provides for selecting individual entities on the map and displaying the relevant attributes attached to it.
Select
This selects one or more spatial entities, which the user selects. The data attached to these selected entities can be displayed using the seldata button

Development Environment
Map Applet: Open Source GIS
Database: Ms Access/mySql
Internet: Java Web Server
Platform: Developed using Windows NT, but is a platform independent application
Some of the screen shots of the applications are shown in the figures.
Such efforts can be replicated for all those applications where dissemination is wide spread and can be very expensive with the conventional solutions

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF AN ACTION PLAN FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE OF GOA

Joseph S. R. de Souza and N.P.S. Varde
Goa State Remote Sensing Centre
C/o Department of Science, Technology & Environment
Opposite Saligao Seminary, Saligao, Bardez, Goa


ABSTRACT

The entire State of Goa, geographically spread over an area of around 3702 Km2, has been selected by the Department of Space (DoS), GoI, for the execution and implementation of a national project entitled "Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development"(IMSD). The project has adopted an integrated approach to generate Site Specific Action Plan (SSAP) for suitable development and use of land and water resources with due regard to the socio-economic and demographic status of the localities in question.

Visual interpretation of satellite data products of IRS-1A, IRS-1B & IRS -1C (LISS-II and LISS III) on 1:50,000 scale coupled with ground truth surveys were used for detailed thematic mapping of the state. Thematic maps were generated on transportation network, settlement pattern including village boundaries, land use & land cover, slope, soil types, hydrogeomorphology, water bodies, drainage & watersheds, rainfall distribution, isohythal data, infrastructure and socio-economic status.

On integration of these thematic maps a Land Resources Action Plan map has been generated, suggesting sites environmentally compatible for agro-forestry, horticulture, agro-horticulture, intensive agriculture, vegetable and pulses, forestry, social forestry, forest nurseries, fish farming, residential use and industrial siting, etc. Similarly, for conservation and sustainable use of water resources, a Water Resources Action Plan map has been generated, suggesting suitable water and soil conservation measures such as check dams, percolation tanks, farm ponds, contour bunds, nallah bunds, silt traps, channels, etc.

The paper elucidates the details of resource inventories & mapping, data integration & analysis and consequent evaluation of the natural resources of the state. The project was executed by the Goa State Remote Sensing Centre under the Department of Science, Technology & Environment (Goa) and the Department of Space (GoI), Bangalore.


RS - GIS APPLICATION IN INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT – A CASE STUDY FROM TRIVANDRUM DISTRICT, KERALA, INDIA
Mahamaya Chattopadhyay and R.S.Resmi
Centre for Earth Science Studies, Trivandrum, INDIA

ABSTRACT

Road transportation network development is considered to be one of the vital components of infrastructure development . Trivandrum district in Kerala with an area of 2192 km2 and a total road length of 1841.73 kms according to Kerala Public Works Department (PWD) has a road density of 0.84 km/km2. This is exclusive of the roads built by local bodies and other departments. However, absence of a database on road network of the district and its current status was felt a major hindrance in prioritising improvement/ development of the roads for better traffic efficacy. Realising this, the Kerala PWD approached CESS to prepare an up to date digital road map for preparing an elaborate digital database, incorporating many layers of information. To support this initiative, road network from the high resolution PAN imagery (IRS-1C, Sept-December, 1999, 1:25,000 scale) was visually interpreted and incorporated on 1:25,000 scale Survey of India base maps. Field verification was carried out to identify and categorise the PWD roads as per their administrative sections. 17 road sections were marked from the imagery in 18 map quadrants. These final maps were used for digitisation in Arc/Info environment. Transformation and projection of the coverage have been attended to and the coverage was formatted. Finalisation and supply of digital data in various layers were part of the study. Final output has been prepared in 4 forms: a) map showing road network for the entire district, b) separate maps showing dense city and cantonment sections, c) maps of individual quadrants sections and d) maps of individual quadrants.

Interpretation of satellite remote sensing images and aerial photographs provided quantifiable information about terrain conditions. These data sources point out the terrain–road network interrelationships which greatly improve the knowledge base available to road system planners. Incorporating the height source and elevation data in the value field and taking mass points as inputs, a TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) model effectively established the terrain-road network interrelationship. Our case study in parts of Trivandrum district established that this methodology could be used to define alternative and efficient route corridors, with particular emphasis on the selection of the least cost route and prioritization of repair. The latter exercises were conducted in a portion of Trivandrum district near Vellanad, 22 km east of Trivandrum.


BYPASS ROAD SELECTION USING REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM TECHNIQUES

N.K. Kalra and Ashok Gahlot
State Remote Sensing Application Centre (SRSAC)
Department of Science and Technology
Government of Rajasthan, Jodhpur, INDIA

ABSTRACT

Rapid growth of urban sprawl, increasing population pressure, fast rate of industrialization and mammoth increase in road traffic along with fast means have put up tremendous pressure on communication system which needs alternate routes for traffic movement. Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) have been used for Bypass Road Selection for Kailashpuri, Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Using Indian Remote Sensing IRS-1C LISS-III data and Black and White aerial photographs information on land use / land cover, soil, drainage, water bodies, settlements, slope, aspect, and existing routes were generated. Information on land ownership, and traffic status were gathered from collateral sources and for land Capability and CD works type of information, these were derived from the above remote sensing and collateral inputs. All these were converted into separate digital layers as GIS inputs and integrated in GIS environment on workstation. Each layer was grouped into three different categories with different weightage values.

In all apart from existing routes, three alternate bypass routes were selected, and weightage values for different attributes such as private land, Government land, forest land, span of route, number of CD works, land capability, Number of bends, etc. were added and one with least value was considered to be the best suitable bypass route.

The approach adopted may be a model for bypass road selections and can be replicated in other parts of state / country also.


USE OF GIS IN DEPICTING STATUS OF HIV INFECTION IN INDIA

M.Bhattacharya* and S.K.Yadav#
*Department of Community Health Administration
#Assistant Research Officer,
#Department of Community Health Administration, National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi- 110067, INDIA

ABSTRACT

HIV/AIDS is an emerging problem for the country and it is estimated that there are 3.8 million HIV infections in the country. National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi has been entrusted by National AIDS Control Organisation to undertake the monitoring and supervision of the Annual sentinel surveillance activities in the country since 1998 and estimate the status of HIV infection in the country. A country report is made based on the surveillance data.

Since the objective of the surveillance is to monitor trends in the population groups for HIV infection over time and place, the GIS technology is suitable for presentation of data. Integration and analysis of the spatial and the non-spatial data enable the health administrator to assess situations better and plan accordingly. For non technical persons, GIS helps them to visualize data comprehensively and hence helps in advocacy which is essential for success of any health programme. HIV being an infection with iceberg phenomenon i.e. majority of the infections in the community cannot be identified as they are apparently healthy, the extent of the problem is not adequately mapped. The various techniques available under GIS technology are helpful in depicting the gradient of HIV infections across regions with different population characteristics. In the present study the GIS technology has been applied to present data on prevalence of HIV infection in the country.

The data was collected from sentinel sites situated in hospitals in the urban areas for the year 2000. In these sites HIV screening was done for two groups of persons, high risk represented by patients attending the STD Clinic (250 from each STD site). Another a low risk group represented by antenatal mothers 400 from each ANC site. All cases were taken during the period 1st August - 31st October 2000 from 232 sentinel sites. The strategy adopted was unlinked anonymous and blood samples were tested by ELISA to elicit the number of HIV positive samples. The data was analysed and has been presented in form of GIS maps of India. The maps based on GIS technology show the HIV infection in the various states of India, by age, sex, rural, urban distribution and the gradient of infection amongst antenatal mothers and persons suffering from sexually transmitted diseases across the country.

Conclusion

GIS technology is a very good method of communication for HIV/ AIDS related topic as the magnitude, extent and groups affected are focused simultaneously, besides the GIS techniques like Krigging help to establish infection levels for areas where actual data are not available on HIV infection.

MAPPING OF TREES OUTSIDE FORESTS (TOF) USING PANCHROMATIC DATA OF IRS IC AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE RESOURCE IN GIS

Subhas Ashutosh
Deputy Director, Forest Survey of India
Kaulagarh Road, Dehradun - 248 195
E-mail:subhashashutosh[at]usa[dot]net

ABSTRACT

A large number of trees grow outside forest areas. This segment of tree resource plays an important role in the ecology of rural environment, besides meeting the woody material demand of the society in significant way. Trees outside forests (TOF) occur in variety of shapes, sizes, species, locations etc. s they are planted or allowed to grow naturally, for variety of purposes. Proper development of TOF and sustained accrual of benefits from it necessitates basic information about its spread, extent, distribution and growth parameters.

Assessment of TOF by conventional method is an enormous task. Even low-intensity sampling based inventory based inventory design may involve quite a large number of villages or areas for field enumeration, which in turn will require huge amount of funds and several years to implement the survey. The level of accuracy of assessment by such method will have intrinsic limits that may not be acceptable for all applications, particularly for district level planning. Synoptic view offered by the remote sensing images, perhaps, provides a solution to the problem. High-resolution remote sensing data offers great potential in this regard (Ashutosh & Chhabra, 1999).

The study presents a digital image processing based approach for using IRC IC PAN (panchromatic) data for mapping of TOF and spatial analysis of the tre cover map in GIS for suggesting an inventory design for assessment of growing stock etc.

APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS IN WILDLIFE HABITAT MAPPING OF PALPUR-KUNO SANCTUARY, SHEOPUR DISTRICT
MADHYA PRADESH

S. Khan, R.K. Singh, A. Choudhary, P. Kawishwar, M. Jyotishi, V. Shrivastava
Remote Sensing Applications Centre
MP Council of Science & Technology, Bhopal, INDIA

ABSTRACT

Protection of wildlife by creation of wildlife reserves is a very effective means of conservation of nature as a part of overall environmental preservation. Preservation of wildlife requires a complete knowledge about their spatial requirements commonly referred to as habitat. The major biotic and abiotic components are vegetation, water, soil, geomorphology, topography and landforms. Human activities, which affect the habitat, are location of settlement, cultivation, roads and waterholes etc.

Management of wildlife reserves requires baseline information on habitat parameters like vegetation, landuse/landcover, hydrogeomorphology, slope, drainage, waterbodies etc. and their integration for a meaningful management plan. Remote sensing technique can be effectively utilized for collecting information on location, extent and spatial distribution of habitat and Geographic Information System (GIS) can be helpful in integration of various themes.

The present study has been carried out in Palpur sanctuary of Madhya Pradesh, which is nicely protected area on Vindhyan Hills of Gwalior region. Various thematic maps pertaining to habitat parameters have been prepared using remote sensing technique. Integration of thematic maps was carried out through GIS for analysis the habitat suitable for translocation of Asiatic Gir Lion.

LOCAL LEVEL INTEGRATED WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PLANNING USING REMOTE SENSING & GIS IN NEEMUCH DISTRICT, M.P.

D.K. Soni, V.K. Katare, P. Kavishwar, T.Habib, S. Khan
Remote Sensing Applications Centre
MP Council of Science & Technology, Bhopal, INDIA

ABSTRACT

The study is aimed at assessing the present status of the land and water resources and suggesting environmental friendly locale specific sustainable development plans. Remote Sensing and GIS techniques have been used to support the study along with information gathered from the local area after discussions with the local people and decision makers. The Rojri Sub-watershed of Neemuch district of MP falls in the semi-arid climatic zone characterized by erratic rainfall, lack of irrigation facilities, depletion of ground water level, excessive erosion and un-controlled grazing. Alternate landuse practices along with water harvesting structures have been suggested with the prime aim of development and management of natural resources with particular reference to reclamation of wastelands. Multi-thematic data integrated with socio-economic status of the local population has helped in suggesting Microwatershed-wise locale specific sustainable development plan, which will form the base information for implementing agencies. The awareness programme suggested in the study will increase the acceptability of this integrated approach by the local people. The implementation of the activities will create opportunities for employment of the local people, which in turn will check their migration to the adjacent districts.


FOREST INVENTORY AND MANAGEMENT OF FOREST RESOURCES-IN SOUTHERN PART OF WEST BENGAL- RS & GIS APPROACH

S.Sudhakar and A.K.Raha
Regional Remote Sensing Service Centre, Department of Space/ISRO, IIT Campus, Kharagpur
West Circle, State Forest Department, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata

ABSTRACT

The State of West Bengal has a total geographical area of 88,750 Sq. Km. i.e. 13.4% of its land area is under recorded forest. Out of this recorded forest area, nearly 34% of the forest has been brought under Protected Area network which includes National Parks and Sanctuaries. West Bengal has one of the highest population densities in the country and there is tremendous pressure on forest land. During the Sixties and Seventies of twentieth century, because of a series of development activities and population explosion, there had been large-scale degradation of natural forest. However, from the early Eighties, with the adoption of the technique of Joint Forest Management, the process of degradation could not only be stopped but also reversed. Peoples’ participation in management of forest and sharing of usufruct from the resuscitated forest was the key to success of Joint Forest Management. Since the natural eco-system has been undergoing rapid changes in the recent times, the conventional methodology of forest vegetation monitoring through the long-term process of preparation of forest stock maps through manual survey has become almost obsolete. For better management of this dynamic eco-system, a more realistic method has been felt necessary. The modern technology of GIS and vegetation mapping through Satellite remote sensing provides an opportunity for such real-time monitoring of the eco-system. Rapid appraisal of the forest inventory will help identification of the correct strategy to achieve the desired goal of conservation of forests and bio-diversity.

Forest stock maps constitute the basis of Working Plan for the territorial Forest Divisions. They contain detailed spatial information on extent of recorded forest lands including the administrative jurisdiction at various levels, infrastructure and communications facilities, water resources and the status of forest vegetation. The last component include categorisation of forest into density classes, species distribution, assessment of growing stock, growth data for various species and age distribution. All these information are extremely vital in presenting the management options like afforestation of blank areas, reforestation of degraded forests, harvesting of mature crop (plantation) followed by regeneration, restoration of bio-diversity in monoculture areas, and management of Protected Areas for Bio-Diversity Conservation.

The total recorded Forest land in the 3 South West Bengal Districts of Midnapur, Bankura and Purulia is 4067 ha. The vegetation is predominantly sal (Shorea robusta) forests, which had been managed in the past few decades under coppice rotation. The rotation age followed was between 10 years and 15 years. The forests are characterised by their fragmented nature, and the patches vary between a few hectares to a few hundred hectors. The disjointed forest patches are interspersed with heavily populated villages with sizeable Scheduled Caste / Schedule Tribe population. The people in the fringe villages are predominantly agriculturists with small / marginal farmers dominating the scenario.

However, the major difficulty in prescribing a strategy for their management was lack of real-time information on age / quality of the various patches of the sal forests which had been subjected to repeated illicit felling in the past. The conventional method would have been to carry out enumeration of these forests, using sample plots, and prepare detailed stock map of each and every forest Mouza. But the available infrastructure is the main drawback towards such effort. With a handful of field level staff under the Working Plan Division, it will perhaps take more than a decade to complete the enumeration and prepare the stock maps. And, by the time the last Stock Map is updated, the earlier ones would have become out-dated, unrealistic and unfit for future planning.

With these constraints in hand, the current endeavor is to prepare and upgrade Stock Maps using the modern technology of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System. However, during the present study, IRS-1D LISS III of January, 2000 data covering Salboni Police Station (PS)/ Block, Midnaapore was geometrically and radiometrically corrected and subjected to MXL classification after intensive ground truth verification. The Salboni PS map was rectified and digitized the mouza boundaries. The Salboni PS map area was extracted from classified data and overlaid the mouza boundaries to depict the forest resources of dense sal, open sal, degraded sal and sal coppiece, scrublands along with other landuse/landcover classes for agriculture lands, wastelands, plantations. Further, IRS -1D LISS III and PAN data covering Salboni PS area was fused (IRS-1D P+XS) and overlaid mouza boundaries. Five density classes could be extracted within the sal forests and also mapped plantation areas precisely.

A detailed study on Mouza Bankisole, J.L.NO. 131, under Salboni PS in the Midnapur District of West Bengal was taken up for the case Study. The mouzas had predominantly sal as forest cover on the recorded forest land. The non-forest land comprised of habitations as well as wasteland. The statistical data (class and it area) of different categories segregated within the mouza is given below.

Bankisole 131 Recorded Forest land = 679.59 ha
Dense sal Forest = 376.97 ha.
Young Sal coppiece = 182.16 ha
Open Sal Forest = 28.77 ha
Plantations = 34.78 ha
Degraded Forests = 50.34 ha

Total Forest Cover On Forest Land = 622.68 ha
This indicates that some of the waste lands have been rehabilitated through afforestation, whilst small chunks of forest land have become degraded. This updated forest stock map is much more realistic, as compared to the old conventional stock map, with regard to management planning. However, the classified output is based on limited ground truth verification and can be further improved through more intense ground truth collections. Application of RS & GIS technology has enabled to prepare updated stock maps of at least 350 Mouzas in a span of one month and it will be possible to generate up-dated stock maps of more than a few hundred forest bearing Mouzas in Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts, West Bengal every year.

The direct benefit of such study with the aid of modern technologies of RS & GIS in the inventory of forest resource and their management would bring about a total change in the concept of preparation of forest working plans and also make it more realistic and capable of coping with technological changes in the New Millennium.