The application of Remote Sensing and GIS for Phu Rua National Park Zoning, Loei Province, Thiland
Yongyut Trisurat,Apisit Eiumnoh,
Douglas R. Webster,Howard E. Daugherty
INRDM Program, Asian Institute of Technology
P.O. Box 2754, Bangkok 10501,
Abstract
National park zoning is a park management device, applied on the basis of primary determined goals, objectives, resource analyses, and the use capabilities of the park landscape. Phu Rua national Park was selected as a case study to illustrate how this zoning works. The zoning model was determined using the Linear combination method of multiple criteria. Each factor was ranked and weighted based on its suitability for each zone, However due to the lack of certain biophysical data, remote sensing, including landsat TM and serial photographs, were employed to collect up-to-date data of land -use / land -cover, streams and accessibility. A geographic Information System technique (ARC / INFO) was applied to evaluate the location of the zones. Five zones, including an Intensive use Zone, an outdoor Recreation Zone, a Primitive Zone, a strict Nature Reserve Zone and a recovery Zone based on the Thai Royal Forest Department's requirements are presented in this article .
Introduction
National Park zoning is important for national park management. It is the most common tool of park managers for separating areas of conflicting uses, and in managing areas for, multiples uses (IUCN, 1986). However it is not widely used for Thailand's national parks because most parks lack baseline data (Faculty of Forestry, 1987) Moreover, there are no standard zoning models; although the National Parks Division (NPD) has a policy to create park zoning.
This study deals with the application of remote sensing and GIS to national park zoning. Remote sensing can be used to provide up-to-date information, which is otherwise lacking, in a cost-effective way (Kankhamson, 1989) while GIS has abilities to store and process these spatial data (Burrough, 1986) for zoning purposes.
The study area is the Phu Rua National Park located in Loei Province, northeast of Thailand (Fig.1) . The park covers approximately 120 sq km of mountainous area. The objective of this research is to collect and establish baseline bio-physical data in computerized format for the delineation of five zones: an Intensive Use Zone, an Outdoor recreation Zone, a Strict nature reserve Zone, and a recovery Zone based on NPD policy and park goals.
Materials and Methods
The Study Proceeds in four stages. The first stage deals with collection and mapping of input data, including slope, elevation surface water, accessibility, geology, soil, vegetation, Wildlife habitat, existing facilities and outdoors recreation sites. Slope and elevation were derived from a 1:50000 topographic map, by digitizing contour lines and using the DEM model of the IDRISI package. Water and accessibility were also obtained from the topographic map, but a small stream was interpreted from serial photographs acquired in 1982; roads were updated using satellite image (Landsat TM 1989). Interpretation of Land sat imagery and by checking ground truth during soil survey and wildlife habitat inventory in the field. Geology was derived from the Mineral Resource department map prepared by Chairanggsri (1989). The last two variables (existing facilities and recreation sites) were supplied by the park office and field observation. All data mentioned above were digitized for computer at the scale of 1:50,000.
Fig. 1 Location of the Phu Rua National Park
The second stage of the study was the creation of a zoning model based on the purpose of the zone of criteria shown in
Table 1.
The model used a linear combination method of ranking and. The ranking of each type (e.g. soil type) of each factor (e.g. soils) for each zone was considered in the basis of the characteristics of the types (e.g. for the soil type this might include permeability, texture, etc.) and all the costs and imapcts of the zone if located on this type. rating was assigned as suitable (3) moderate (2) and not suitable (1) However , some factors may have two levels i.e. suitable and not suitable
Table 2.
1% : Rock exposed sandstone
2% : Coarse and conglomeratic sandstone
3% : Slitoneoccupying steep cliff
4% : Soft Sandstone, mudstone
