Environmental Management

Through the use of GIS

• Environment is the combination of external physical conditions that affect and influence the growth, development, and survival of organisms • Management is the effective utilization and coordination of resources to achieve defined objectives with maximum efficiency. • Environmental management is a systematic approach to finding practical ways for saving water, energy, and materials, and reducing negative environmental impacts.

Environment affects us We have an impact on the environment  Population growth  Rapid pace of agricultural, urban and industrial development Collate, analyze, model and monitor diverse data Communicate readily

• Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.(ESRI) says:

“ESRI believes that geography is the key component for successful environmental management. The idea of using geography as the intellectual backbone to which all environmental data can be attached by location was the foundation that ultimately led to the development of GIS.”

GIS comes into Play • Integrates ever increasing volumes of data • Common use of environmental data sets minimizes duplication of effort • What if type models for decision making • Identify and delineate spatial changes in environmental conditions over time. • A measure of flexibility and timeliness

Areas of Environmental Management in which GIS can be Applied

Environmental resource inventories

Vector based map of fields & Roads Interviews from local farmers Land use survey results as codes on excel sheet Data is linked with map

Environmental resource inventories

Purpose: determine accurate length of coastline Shore line classification Monitoring erosion Mapping biological resources Habitat assessment Natural & manmade disasters

Environmental resource inventories

Environmental resource inventories

Enables the study at a variety of scales Habitat corridors Migration patterns Influence of parks, reserves & sanctuaries for wildlife conservation

Environmental resource inventories

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

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Rasht-Anzali railway (Iran) Environmental Impacts and Maps River Road Cultural heritage Geology Soil Comparative weight of parameters

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

Location of the study area in Iran and its Landsat color composite image 321(RGB)

Two Rasht-Anzali alternative railway routes (computed in GIS) overlaid on the Land cover map of the study area

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

GIS helps in • Data & information integration • Combines disparate data • Regional & local scale • GIS spatial analysis:  Multivariable map weighting  spatial decision support system

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

CO predictions

• Analyzing satellite image, aerial photos and field survey data results in finding seismic faults and flood prone areas • Representation stored in database • Information on earthquake from GIS:  Seismic faults  Surface geology,  Terrain slope  Water table levels  Inventories of epicentres and landslide occurrences

• Hazard layers:  Elevation,  Surface Geology  Water Table Level  Landslide Inventory Data,  Liquefaction Hazard • Overlaying geology with water table level data