Remote Sensing and GIS based ecotourism planning: A case study for western Midnapore, West Bengal, India

Soil Productivity Map: Soil map of the study area has been prepared on the basis of soil map of Midnapore prepared by National Bureau of Soil Survey (NBSS). According to NBSS & LUP nine types of soil found in this area, that has been sub grouped into three types of productivity level based on its texture, depth, moisture holdinbg capacity, erodivity level ete. (Fig 1.5). The area of highly productive soil within forest land have been considered for assessment and identification of potential ecotourism area by using the forest mask(Table1.3).


Generation of The Ecotourism Potential Map
These maps are taken as the parameters to evaluate the area of high ecological importance. For this purpose a weighted approach was adopted to identify the areas having Ecotourism potential. The input in the form of ARC /INFO coverages were assigned relative weightage in accordance to its influence/importance in decision making based on expert opinion, and each other class in the individual coverage was ranked according to its potential of being for being developed for Ecotourism. The higher the vegetation index and higher the soil productivity, higher will be the forest density, so such sites in the map (Fig 1.6) can be considered for conservation. The following formula is used to identify the Ecotourism potential sites.


Where i = 1,2,-------n
VD = Vegetation Density
LU/LC = Land use/Land Cover
SP = Soil Productivity

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