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GIS for planning environmentally sustainable activities in Kulathupuzha reserve forest, Kerala, India
Spatial Modelling
It has long been recognised that unless economic security and empowerment are assured for the community living around the forests, measures aimed at conservation or sustainable development is unlikely to take off in a meaningful way (Hobley, 1996). A number of institutions and projects are underway to address these aspects by involving them in the management of forests and to engage them in alternate economic activitives that reduce their dependency on forests. An innovative attempt in the study is the introduction of spatial modelling, which is widely applied to problems in economics, geography, engineering and the social sciences. The model, coupled with small area geodemographics, is used to predict the source and destination of people based on the assumption that movement of people between nearby places is more than that between far away places. Furthermore, flow to a particular destination can be increased, obviously, by increasing its attractiveness.
The model is applied in the study to locate an ideal center from a set of centers of economic activity and to identify the source of labour for a given vocational activity. For both applications small area geodemographics is utilised for supplying necessary data for the model parameters viz., attractiveness, distance decay and demand. For the distance decay exponent function with a value of 2 is used in the calculation.
Modelling is performed on settlement feature classes that exist in the geodatabase. GIS is utilised as it can provide an efficient and effective tool to implement this model. The database for each feature class consists of at least three items, one indicating the number of people and the other two the attractiveness and capacity, respectively, at each suggested location in the settlement. What it does is to address the issue by taking a relook at the existing centers of economic activity or plan for new ones where none exists. The advantage of this modelling is to spot an ideal site in a list that is likely to be popular (easily accessible to all) among all settlers. Such spots would of interest to authorities on the look out for siting markets, training centres, etc. A weightage is given to households that possess a particular property or quality deemed significant for the site in question. For instance, while siting a vocational training centre minimum educational qualification is a weightage that is assigned to the household so that the site would favour the target groups. Also, the model helps to identify sources or areas from where settlers are expected to attend a given activity. An example is the issue of locating an educational institution.
Presently, the models are not sufficient in number to warrant a comment on the success of this model. Gathering of geodemographic data for the whole settlement in the area is still on. At this stage, this phase of the study is not fully completed.
Conclusion
The Kerala Forest Department with the help of World Bank is putting in place a remote sensing and GIS system for monitoring and mangement of Kerala's forest resources in a phased manner. To set the stage Kulathupuzha reserve forest is selected for the study and implementation in its first phase.
IRS-1C satellite imageries, utilised to map the various forest types and their state, are integrated with a GIS, which is a repository holding additional data, to identify environmentally degraded areas based on a set of criteria within Kulathupuzha reserve.
To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of projects aimed at improving the economic security and / or sustainable development an innovative approach is attempted with spatial modelling integrated with small area geodemographics utilising GIS. Though the study is still on-going and, perhaps, it is too early to judge its performance the model is looked upon to provide a means for identifying locations that will carry forward and fulfill the desired objectives of such similar missions.
Acknowledgements
I sincerely acknowledge the World Bank and, other members of the project cell for their sincere and kind cooperation. The views expressed here need not necessary reflect the views of the Department.
References
- ESRI (1999) Building a Geodatabase
- Hobley, M (1996) 'Participatory Forestry: The process of Change in India and Nepal' (ODI: London).
- Mather, R. de Boer, M. Gurung, M. Roche, N. (1998) 'Aerial Photographs and 'Photo-Maps' for Community Forestry' in Rural Development Forestry Network Paper 23e Summer 1998 (ODI: London)
- Raghunathan, M. (1994) Conservation of biological diversity in India: an approach, World Resources Institute.
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