GIS in Environmental Studies

GIS in Environmental Studies - An overview

GIS applicable Areas :

Wild Land Analysis
Emergency Services like Fire Prevention
Hazard Mitigation and Future planning
Air pollution & control
Disaster Management
Forest Fires Management
Managing Natural Resources
Waste Water Management
Oil Spills and its remedial actions
Sea Water - Fresh water interface Studies
Coal Mine Fires

Figure 1: Diagram showing the application of GIS for various environmental solutions.
GIS in Field
Apart from data analysis in laboratories GIS can also help the environmental data analysts in the field, the GIS tool is flexible enough to work in the field to give the exact location of devastation and amount of devastation. Some of the examples in field where GIS is applicable are

Using GIS in the field, an environmental inspector can rapidly map waste storage sites; describe the volume, content, and state of waste containers.
Retrieve previous inspection records to compare with the existing environmental conditions.
View environmental data in relation to adjacent geographic features such as waterways, neighborhoods, or other sensitive areas such as high-risk zones for landslides, water pollution etc.
Integrated with a global positioning receiver, a field crew can use GIS to accurately ground truth satellite imagery in oil spill mapping and its affects on surrounding ecosystem.

Constraints using GIS
There are some intricate problems in implementation of GIS in Environmental studies in India. The problems posed with our Indian scenario are 1) Non availability of properly spatial data 2) Lack of proper infrastructure with the Government bodies 3) Meager skilled Manpower in the government planning and development departments 4) GIS softwares being more costly.

Some of the probable solutions are 1) Availability of map data in a centralised facility 2) Awareness and increasing the skills proficiency in GIS in government and private sector. 3) Increasing the infrastructure facilities to cope up with the latest technologies and 4) Supplementing the Environmental planning division with adequate funds

Conclusion
In summary, GIS technology will continue to play a vital role in environmental system management. GIS becomes the primary repository of information that can be quickly accessed and viewed when required. GIS is becoming more suitable for emergency operations and is integrating tools that allow real-time display of information. Rapid access to information, safety, efficiency, and better resource management decisions can be made with the use of GIS. GIS technology can provide critical information at the need of the hour to take the remedial measures in no time as effective as possible.

References
Wiegand, N. and T.M. Adams, Using Object-Oriented Database Management for Feature-Based Geographic Information Systems. Journal of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association 6, 1 (1994), pp. 21-36.

Worboys, M., H. Hearnshaw, and D. Maguire, Object-Oriented Data Modeling for Spatial Databases. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 4, 4 (1990), pp. 369-383.

England, E. and Sparks, A. : Geostatistical Environmental Assessment Software. Las Vegas, Neveda: Environmental Monitoring Systems Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1992.

Acknowledgements
We thank Mr. B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Chairman & Managing Director, InfoTech Enterprises Limited and Mr. Rajeev Lal, Chief Operating Officer who have been a constant source of inspiration and dynamism to all of us. We are also thankful to all our associates who are directly or indirectly involved.

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