Through the use

of GIS
• Environment is the combination of external
physical conditions that affect and influence the
growth, development, and survival of organisms

• Management is the effective utilization and

coordination of resources to achieve defined
objectives with maximum efficiency.

• Environmental management is a systematic

approach to finding practical ways for saving
water, energy, and materials, and reducing
negative environmental impacts.
 Environment affects us
We have an impact on the environment
 Population growth
 Rapid pace of agricultural, urban and
industrial development
Collate, analyze, model and monitor
diverse data
Communicate readily
• Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.(ESRI)
says:
“ESRI believes that geography is the key
component for successful environmental
management. The idea of using geography as the
intellectual backbone to which all environmental
data can be attached by location was the
foundation that ultimately led to the development
of GIS.”
GIS comes into Play
• Integrates ever increasing volumes of data
• Common use of environmental data sets minimizes
duplication of effort
• What if type models for decision making
• Identify and delineate spatial changes in environmental
conditions over time.
• A measure of flexibility and timeliness
Areas of Environmental Management in
which GIS can be Applied
 Environmental resource inventories

Vector based map of fields

& Roads

Interviews from local

farmers

Land use survey results as

codes on excel sheet

Data is linked with map

 Environmental resource inventories

Purpose: determine accurate length of coastline

Shore line classification

Monitoring erosion

Mapping biological resources

Habitat assessment

Natural & manmade disasters

Environmental resource inventories
 Environmental resource inventories

Enables the study at a

variety of scales

Habitat corridors

Migration patterns

Influence of parks, reserves

& sanctuaries for wildlife
conservation
Environmental resource inventories
 ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

• Rasht-Anzali railway (Iran)

• Environmental Impacts and Maps
• River
• Road
• Cultural heritage
• Geology
• Soil
• Comparative weight of parameters
 ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

Location of the study area in Iran and its Landsat color composite
image 321(RGB)
Two Rasht-Anzali
alternative railway
routes (computed in
GIS) overlaid on the
Land cover map of
the study area
 ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

GIS helps in
• Data & information integration
• Combines disparate data
• Regional & local scale
• GIS spatial analysis:
 Multivariable map weighting
 spatial decision support system
ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
CO
predictions
• Analyzing satellite image, aerial photos and field survey
data results in finding seismic faults and flood prone
areas
• Representation stored in database
• Information on earthquake from GIS:
 Seismic faults
 Surface geology,
 Terrain slope
 Water table levels
 Inventories of epicentres and landslide occurrences
• Hazard layers:
 Elevation,
 Surface Geology
 Water Table Level
 Landslide Inventory Data,
 Liquefaction Hazard
• Overlaying geology with water table level data