Application of GPS and GIS in satellite Remote Sensing assessment of land use and land resource pattern in the limestone mining area and environs at Wadi, Gulbarga district, Karnataka Background Concern about safeguarding the environment and monitoring the land use / land cover pattern change are gaining attention. In accordance into the MOEF, Govt. of India EIA guidelines to carry current land use / land cover assessment for an industry, going to be established, or prepared for an expansion. Wadi Cement Works (ACC) has approached National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad to carry out the study using remote sensing data. Satellite remote sensing technique is useful to map and monitor the natural resources in real time and in a cost effective and unbiased manner (Lillisand, Sabins, 1999). Further, remote sensing technology in association with Geographical Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) is able to address many such issues pertaining to the management of natural resources and environment (Burrough 2000). The study is successfully completed and the results have been submitted to M/s ACC, Wadi (NRSA 2001). Objective The objective of the present paper is to evaluate the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) in land resource mapping in conjunction with satellite remote sensing and GIS technology in the limestone mining area. Study Area and its Natural Resource Setting The study area is part of Wadi Taluk, in the Gulbarga district of Karnataka State. It covers the toposheet number of 56 C/16, 56 D/13, 56 G/4 and 56 H/1 on 1:50,000 scale, and extends between Longitude 76 o 57’ N to 77° 0’ N and Latitude from 17° 02’ E to 17° 05’ E covering a geographical area of about 52 sq. km. The area forms the part of deccan plateau with semi arid climate. The area receives very less rainfall and the soil is predominantly black cotton soil (Regur) comprising of clayey loam and clay. The temperature varies between 16° C to 46° C. The major crop grown in the area is millets and oilseeds Gram etc. GPS Used in the Field Global Positioning System (GPS) is operated by 24 (21 active; 3 as spares) small satellites each transmitting radio signals at the same two frequencies (L1 = 1575.4 Mhz; L2 = 1227.6 MHz). Each satellite follows a circular orbit inclined 55° to the equator at an altitude of 20,200 km. The well known GPS satellite system are GLOSSNOS, NAVSTAR etc. The present study assesses land resources, analyses the land use/land cover pattern using Global Positioning System (GPS). Satellite remote sensing and GIS techniques in the mining area at Wadi, Gulbarga District, Karnataka state. In the study for ground data collection simple handheld GPS receiver (HOLUX – GM 100) was used. The accuracy of GPS receiver used is ± 5 – 25 meters when it is moved within speed of 0.1m per second. Materials and Methods The basic satellite data selected is IRS 1D (LISS-III) multispectral data and panchromatic data of December 2000 (Fig.1). The base details were taken from the SOI mapsheets on 1:50,000 scale. The level-III land use land cover details and the Ground Control Points (GCP’s) for geo referencing of satellite data was collected by GPS. The LISS – III and PAN data were merged using Brovey technique and resample is attended by bilinear interpolation option. The FCC was prepared by using Bands 4, 3 and 2 in ERDAS Imagine (ver. 8.3.1).  Fig. 1 The satellite data is visually interpreted and input into the silicon graphic (Octane) workstation for analysis using ARC-INFO GIS (ver. 7.2.1) software. The land use/land cover classification system developed by NRSA (1991) is modified to accommodate the level III details collected from the GPS survey. |