Sustainable Development in Mountain Ecosystem at Watershed Level - A Geospatial Approach Preparation of base maps Base maps including road, settlement, village, drainage, contour, and watershed boundary were prepared with the help of Survey of India toposheets 53J/7 and 53J/8.Data inputting was done through head-on digitizing in ArcView 3.2a with UTM projection. With the help of digitized contours, DEM was generated. Geology maps were delineated using the reference map compiled by J. Rupke and R.P. Sharma based on photo geological & field studies. Geomorphology and Landslide maps were generated from LANDSAT image.  Figure 2 -Approach for Land Use/ Land Cover map  Figure 3 - Approach for Vulnerability Assessment Questionnaires and field Performa Field data being an important part of this study was collected by filling up the Performa specially designed for the required purpose. This Performa was carried to the field and was filled in every village visited. Before leaving for the fieldwork, detailed questionnaire was prepared considering the information related to resource utilization pattern, critical facilities, socio-economic status of the local villagers, total population, cattle population, quality and quantity of resources available, the distance to collect fuel-wood and fodder, etc. Field Performa was also prepared for making record of ground truth collection, which helps in post-field visual interpretation. The image elements were correlated with the ground truth realities and the interpretation key was developed. The tonal variation representing the different classes was marked on the hard copy image. The entries were made in the field Performa at each of the village visited. Visual interpretation In hilly areas, especially in Garhwal Himalaya, due to the terrain complexity, the spectral signature is influenced by the slope, aspect and altitude. The same objects might show different reflectance or the different objects might have same reflectance. In such a situation, intensive ground truthing is very important and based on that, on-screen visual interpretation was done. Results & Discussion Geo-Spatial Analysis Land Use/Land Cover Mapping: Landsat data of April 2001 was used as the source for the land use/land cover mapping. The interpretation key formulated during fieldwork has been used. The shadowed areas were put to corresponding classes on the basis of ground knowledge. Resource Mapping: After the land use/ land cover is finalized, the classes were regrouped into various resources available. Following five classes are identified viz. agriculture, Plantation, forest, scrub/grassland and riverbed. Forest contains oak (dense and looped/open), deodar, pine (dense and open) and open mixed forest. Scrub and grassland include scrub/lowland grassland/pasture and highland grassland. Resource map is prepared as an input for resource distribution and resource utilization pattern. Resource Utilization pattern: The present shows that resource utilization pattern in most of the villages is almost same. Most of the villages are highly dependent on forests for their daily requirements of fodder and fuel, including other secondary forest products like resins etc. The overall socio-economic condition of the villagers is heavily dependent on the nearby forest. Infrastructure availability: Most of the villages have a poor accessibility and as a result they lack basic infrastructure like roads, schools, especially drinking water. The area is devoid of basic medical facilities almost of the villages lack a proper Dispensary. Pressure on Forests: The high dependency of local villagers on the nearby forests for their daily requirements of fuel and fodder had left these villages prone to high anthropogenic pressure. Among the interviewed villagers, more than 80% of them agreed to have direct dependency on forest. All these practices emphasize the high risk of natural resource degradation, especially the key species of oak. These areas need special attention because activities like JFM is non-existent and people need motivation and public awareness is highly recommended in these areas to conserve the available resources in the whole watershed area. Landslide hazard mapping: Landslide identification, which is a crucial parameter for any regional landslide hazard assessment, can be very well done particularly by visual interpretation. Coupled with satellite images, GIS is an excellent tool to display the spatial distribution of landslides along with their attributes. However, the landslide map so prepared should be validated with ground checks. |