PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 14: GIS and Remote Sensing
Tuesday, August 9, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Conservation of Ecosystems: A GIS Approach -Case Study of Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala, India.

Abhijatha, Tripti^*,1, ¹ Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, Karnataka State, India

ABSTRACT- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is one of the most powerful tools available to accomplish the task of evaluating the land cover and land use patterns of any given area. This abstract illustrates a case study on -Terrain Evaluation using remote sensing and GIS in Neyyar Wild Life Sanctuary, Kerala, INDIA. Kerala, southern most state of the Indian subcontinent, has a land area of about 39,000 sq. km. The state holds many important wildlife sanctuaries of the country, bestowed with a plethora of rare plants and animals. The forests claim to have a colourful statistics of around 3780 kinds of angiospermic plants, 101 species of mammals and 503 species of birds! The upper catchment of the Neyyar River in Kerala hosts one of the important wildlife sanctuaries of the country viz., the Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Since it lies physiographically in the high land category and also the forest degradation is proven to be excessive in the area, conservation of land and water resources become a matter of utmost significance. Here, efforts are being made to provide drinking water to all animals during summer and also measures are taken towards forest fire reduction, afforestation, and elimination of poaching and other matters of equal importance. The terrain evaluation is done in two phases viz., the initial analysis stage and the subsequent interpretation phase. The terrain analysis stage includes the preparation on various thematic maps, interpretation of the topographic sheets, remotely sensed data and aerial photographs. The second phase, interpretation, necessitates the superimposition and integration of the various derived base maps. The study uses GRAM and ARC/INFO software. As a result of the above conducted study, maps of the Neyyar reservoir catchment, featuring its land use pattern, erosion proneness and critical slope have been obtained. Also, some plans of temporal changes in the drainage network and catchment treatment plan have been laid. In this scenario, it is strongly felt that a genuine effort is being made, globally, for improving the environmental status of forest ecosystems.

Key words: geographic information systems, forest ecosystem