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

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 inventoriesEnvironmental resource inventories

Purpose: determine accurate length of coastline

Shore line classification

Monitoring erosion

Mapping biological resources

Habitat assessment

Natural & manmade disasters

Environmental resource inventoriesEnvironmental resource inventories

Environmental resource inventoriesEnvironmental resource inventories

Enables the study at a variety of scales

Habitat corridors

Migration patterns

Influence of parks, reserves & sanctuaries for wildlife conservation

Environmental resource inventoriesEnvironmental resource inventories

Environmental resource inventoriesEnvironmental resource inventories

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTSENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

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

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

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTSENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

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

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

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTSENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTSENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTSENVIRONMENT 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