Application of Geogrphical Information System for Monitoring and Mapping of Forest Fire in Tiruchirappalli Division,Tamilnadu, India

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Volume-5, Issue-2, April-2015 International Journal of Engineering and Management Research Page Number: 762-767

Pavalan.S1, Rajamanikandan.K2, Leo Stephen Raj.A3, Karthik.C4, Rajamanickam.M5, Vijaya Sarathy.R6, Jose Ravindra Raj.B7 1,2,3,4Post Graduate Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, PRIST UNIVERSITY, Thanjavur, INDIA 5,6,7Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, PRIST UNIVERSITY, Trichy-Thanjavur Highway, Vallam, Thanjavur, INDIA

ABSTRACT threats affecting the loss of forests in several districts of Forest is not only ecological resources, but also it India. In this concern, the decreasing of forest resource has affects associated with natural economy of country and become a foremost ecological problem in Tiruchirapalli livelihood. This study examines the use of Geographical district. The challenging environment of forest fire in Information Systems (GIS) to assess forest fire proneness association with spatio-temporal changing of forest covers area. Forest Fire places were identified in the study area from change are necessities for forest historical hotspots data from year 2007 to 2011 using GPS survey. The study methodology are involved incorporation of resource management. The application Remote Sensing different hematic layers road, water bodies, slope, land use, and GIS for forest fire mapping discussed [1][2][3].In the climate, reserved forest area, GPS locations of forest fire. incident of a prolonged spell without rain, and a sinking of These data were constructed into a spatial database using the ground water table in the reserve forest area, the GIS. Forest Cover changes in Tiruchirapalli district between organic layers spread into completely unfertile regions are 2007 and 2011 so as to detect the changes that may have very susceptible to forest fire. Fires in these reserve forest taken place in this status between these periods. The result area produce much more smoke per hectare than other obtained show that some features will be lost to other features types of forest fires and are challenging to extinguish. and possible reasons for that were evaluated. These maps Hence, the understanding of the areas at risk to fire needs shows not only forest fire location but also land use classes with information on major forest species, areal extent risk to be closer concentration in forests beats. Forest fire area. It is essential for the policy makers, environmental occurs from time to time and this has given human analyst planners and conservator of forest to recognize accidental to discover and develop different models for where, what and how much remedial measure is required to forest fire behavior. Now a days, Geographic Information restore degraded forest and to manage forest resources in a System (GIS), Global positioning system (GPS) and sustainable manner. Remote Sensing (RS) are potential tool for management of spatial information about forest resource. It has also Keywords------GIS, GPS, Spatial, risk, forest fire, showed it’s prospective in forest fire management. in environmental additionally, GIS is a powerful spatial processing tool which is used to resolve numerous complex problems. In the context of forest fire some applications of GIS are as I. INTRODUCTION following: • GIS in fire burned area mapping and modeling In a world with an increasing population and also • GIS in disaster management increased pressure on our natural and man-made forest • GIS in fire hazard mapping resources, there is a greater demand for up-to-date and • GIS in recommendation for burn planning accurate spatial information plant blight, illegal cutting of • GIS in pre and post fire assessment and trees and illegal cultivation happen in the reserve forest monitoring area, forest fire has been eminent as one of the main

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GIS in preventing fire and its spread. There are soil constitutes foremost portion of the central regions, different web, mobile based server applications of GIS in which form the Cauvery delta in the district. In forest fire management out of which the most essential Manachanallur,Lalgudi, and Andanallur blocks, loamy soil ones are hazard mapping, forest fire simulation and is predominant.Red soil and black soil are major in the dry resource management[4][5][6]. In this paper emphasis on pathways of the district. The Tiruchirapalli range consists application of GIS for identifying,analyzing historical of 5 range namely Thuraiyur range, Thiruchirapalli forest fire information and recommendation is dicussed. range,Manapparai range, Thuvankurichi range and Manapparai TAB. The study area is showed in Fig.1.The “Dr.B.Vijaya Sarathi,Ass.Professor & reserve forest area is a high prospective area of danger of head,PREC,Prist University. fire in the dry season Most of fire incident are caused by Thanjavur,Vallam,Tamilnadu,India He has published human activities, either due to negligence or burning more than 20 articles in varios peer-reviewd journal activities in crop plantations. ([email protected]). Dr.M.Rajamanickam,Ass.Professor,Center for Disaster Management,PristUniversity,Thanjavur,Vallam,Tamil nadu,India.He is author of many research papers (e- mail: [email protected]). The next few paragraphs should contain the authors’ current affiliations, including current address and (e- mail: [email protected]).”

II. AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The primary aim and objectives identify forest fire prone locations for locating the groundwater recharge structures using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. They are as follows: • Forest fire locations–identification of canopy cover changes through a historical forest fire data • To determine the magnitude of fire incedents and percentage change change of the forest cover that occurred over the study • To generate forest fire maps for the period 2007,2008,2009 and 2011. Fig.1.Study Area and different forest range

A. STUDY AREA The Tiruchirapalli forest division is lies between B. Digital Database preparation, methodology, and 11” 00’ and 12” 00’ N latitude and 77” 28’ and 78” 50’ E delineation of forest fire area longitude. The district has an area of 4401.23 Sq. Kms. In the current paper an integrated use of survey of The study area is located northern portion Perambalur India topographical sheets, GPS field data for forest fire district, eastern portion is Thanjavur district. Pudukkottai locations were used for generation of database and taking on the south. Thiruchirappalli forest division located out of various drainage parameters. Particulars of data used centrally in the State, it has admirable transport network to are shown in Table.1.The following technique was applied all other cities The landuse at the study area is mainly for forest fire mapping fairly densed forest, inland forest, open scrub and a. The SOI toposheets were geometrically corrected grassland. The landform of the area ranges from very flat and georeferenced by placing ground control terrain. The hottest period is from April to June. points (GCPs)by using UTM projection and WGS Temperature of the district varies from 19.7oC to 39.4oC 84 datum. Additionally, all geocoded toposheets The River Cauvery deltaic region irrigates about 51,000 were mosaic using Envi 3.1 image processing Ha in Trichirapalli. The average annual rainfall is about software 842.60 mm.The different type of crops are grownup in this b. Surveyed GPS points from field survey and District and Agriculture is the main livelihood for converted into point database (x,y)which is stored maximum number of the people in the District. The latitude, longitude and forest fire area different types of soils are Alluvial sandy loam and loam information[7],[8] and [9]

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c. Reserve forest area delineated from Survey of India topographical sheets of the study area by using data preparation option of Envi 3.1 Software by creation of AOI (Area of Interest) of the forest area.

Table.1. Data source

d. All the extracted thematice parameters from SOI topo maps(1:25,000 scale) such as road, drainage, reserve forest, water bodies area computated and intergrated[10] using ARC GIS 10.1.The methodologies[11][12][13] adopted for the forest fire mapping parameters are given in Fig.2.

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III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The derived forest fire data collected using GPS points 2007, 2008,2009 and 2010 are shown in Table.2.These data were used to identify, classify, assess and interpret Thiruchirappalli Forest. The entire Tiruchirapalli region beat wise forest fire historical maps were prepared and analysed in GIS software the resulted output is shown in figures.3,4,5,6,7 and 8.During April 2007,Mavillipatti reserve forest 31.81 hectares of forest cover burn due anthropogenic activities, similarly Thatchamali reserve forest burned 2.22 hectares of thick tree cover occurred on March 2007. More over sequence of forest fire occurred in Perumal Malai karadu, these area illegally cutting of teak trees with aid of local power to misuse the reserve forest. The perumal malai Karadu has more human intervention are noticed. Fig.Showing historical fire locations of Perumal malai karadu, 2008 (1.17 ha),2009 (0.92 ha) and 2011 (0.102 ha) of forest burned. The Manmalai Extension R F village is located in Thuraiyur range during April 2007 totally 0.87 ha of forest destroyed due to forest fire. The exploiting of forest resource in this region land-use is expected to decrease of groundwater LEVEL observed during field investigation. The result shows tha ;in general the forest fire was noticed 765 Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.

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due to several human made activities[14][15] [16] of man i. Government of India by method of policy should such as illegal cutting of wood, tribal illegal activities.The be severe in conserving forest resource from degradation can be attributed to the poor management of illegal livelihood in protecred forest area. the forest ii. The forest management should reclaim and replant every cleared surface within the IV. CONCLUSION AND forest. RECOMMENDATION iii. Employment of more personnel and provision of attractive remunerations to staff. The most significant results obtained from this iv. Lastly, the need to train the policy makers and study can be framed as follows: Forest fire in the practise resource managers on land use and land cover of deforestation and forest fire is a foremost information through remote sensing and GIS. This environmental problem revealed at Tiruchirapalli district. will help in easily realizing where action should be In the district, largest forest area burned in Mavilipatty RF taken and what kinds of intervention are needed. accounts of 31.81 hectares, similarly, Kumulat Revenue Karadu 2.5 hectares, Thatchamalai RF-2.22 hectares, VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Sathampadi RF 1.67 hectares respectively. It is indicates. An increasing demand for agricultural land was the cause The authors gratefully acknowledge Chairman, for the change of forest resources in the district. From the PRIST University for providing infrastructure facilities examined results, the extent of land use and land cover in and constant encouragement on completing this general and forest cover change in particular was radically manuscript. This study would never be completed without changed in Perumal Malai Karadu. between 2007 and the contribution of many people to whom we would like to 2011. express our gratitude. To District Forest Officer, staffs, Particularly, expansion of agricultural land and Tiruchirapalli forest division contribute their knowledge decline of both forest cover as well as shrub land were and time in data collection and entry processes observed. From this research, historical forest fire data are proved to be effective in mapping and monitoring the REFERENCES dynamics of forest land use /land cover of the study area. Forest is a renewable resources. If appropriately managed, [1]S.Ketpraneet,”Forest fire and effects of forest fire on it continues to produce and delivers welfares to society and forest system in Thailand”,Kasetsart University, mankind forever. We believe that the foresters would Bangkok.1991. contribute significantly to the sustainable future of [2]S.Li,Z.Nadon,S.Cihlar,J."Satellite detection of Tiruchirapalli Hence, to preserve the forest resources from Canadian boreal forest fires: development and application further destruction and to use the forest resources in a of the algorithm",International Journal of Remote Sensing sustainable manner, farmers should be encouraged to plant 21(16): 3057-3069.2000 fast growing trees on their farm boundaries, homesteads or [3]T.Borlawsky,Forest Fire Simulation using Percolation on degraded lands instead of cutting trees from the existing Theory, forest, introduction of fuel saving stoves instead of using www.dbmi.columbia.edu/~tbb7001/projects.htmL.2000 fuel wood in traditional three stone stoves, creating [4] Sabins, F.F, Remote Sensing: principles and awareness among the society regarding to optimum interpretation - 3rd edition: W. H. Freeman and Company, utilization of the forest recourses and conservation systems New York, NY, 1997 by concerned bodies could play important role in [5] R.B.Footy,On the geology of Madura and Tinnevelly rehabilitation and reducing of environmental degradation. Districts. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, 20,pp.1–103,1883. V. CONCLUSION AND [6]USGS, U.S. Geological Survey, a bureau of the U.S. RECOMMENDATION Department of the Interior,http://speclab.cr.usgs.gov/spectral-lib.html,2007. Forest fire is not an persevering or permanent [7]J.R. Beveridge, J.Griffith, R.R. Kohler, A.R. Hanson process. Increased and intensive determinations in forest and E.M.Riseman,“Segmenting Images using localised plantation ‘rebirth’ and upgrading will bring to use the histograms and region merging”,International Journal of type of forest reserve we envisaged. In order to reduce the Computer Vision, vol. 2,pp.311-347,1989. effects of deforestation in Forest Reserve the study offer [8]R.N.Clark.,G.E Swayze.,A Gallagher ,N,Gorelick.,& the following recommendations: F.A Kruse,,"Mapping with imaging spectrometer data using the complete band shape least squares algorithm simultaneously fit to multiple spectral features from

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