Managing the Environment Using Gis for Decision-Makers

GIS applications are continuously developing in the field of environmental management and protection. GIS is a computer system that collects, analyzes, stores, and disseminates geographic information for use by various entities in order to facilitate smooth and smooth decision-making. GIS technology has provided the means to more effectively manage and analyze factors that affect the environment. Below are some of the importance of GIS in reducing the impact of the environmental problems.

Environmental impact analysis (EIA)

EIA is an important policy aimed at conserving natural resources and the environment from human development. Many human economic development activities create negative environmental impacts, including the construction and operation of highways, railways, airports, thermal power, hydroelectricity, and nuclear power, v.v.

An EIA is often required to contain specific information about the extent and characteristics of the environmental impact of construction and operations. These works often cause great environmental impacts on human health and biodiversity. Therefore, EIA can be done effectively with the help of GIS, by integrating different GIS layers, the assessment of natural features can be done more easily without dropping missing any factors. Thereby, the assessment is also more objective and makes the closest conclusion to reality.

Disaster management

Today, well-developed GIS systems are used for effective environmental protection and disaster management. GIS can help manage and analyze risks by displaying parameters of different areas on the screen to detect which areas are likely to have a natural or man-made disaster.

Once those disasters are identified, the disaster and environment managers can come up with strategies and preventive measures. GIS has become a good and successful development tool in disaster management and mitigation.

Disaster management using GIS

Zoning landslide risk

Zoning landslide risk also aims to limit disasters occurring to humans, especially landslides that frequently occur. The GIS ranks different areas of an area according to their actual or potential danger due to landslides to provide an early warning.

The assessment of the risk of the landslide is a complex undertaking that involves many factors. From collecting to effectively integrating a wide variety of spatial data such as geological characteristics, structure, surface cover and slope of an area affect the accuracy of hazardous zoning.

Determination of land cover and land use

Land cover is used for a specific use from agriculture, industry or protection forest. GIS technology displays land use and land cover to determine the change in different areas.

In addition, it can detect and estimate changes in land use over time. It represents sudden changes in land use and land cover caused by natural forces or other activities such as deforestation.

Estimate damage caused by flooding

Floods always leave heavy consequences when it passes. GIS helps to record the extent of damage by area and estimate the need for federal disaster relief funds. From there, the government can assess the monetary value of property losses and come up with the appropriate bailout package.

Local authorities also use GIS to map flood-prone areas to assess flood potential to come up with problem-solving plans. Damage can be well estimated and can be displayed using digital maps for the correct assessment decision-maker.

Natural resource management

With the help of GIS technology, agriculture, water, mineral and forest resources can be managed well. 

Foresters can easily monitor the status of the forest from the quality of the forest, the area of newly planted forest and forest fire.

Agriculture uses GIS to manage crop yields, track crop rotation or crop yields, and change over time.

Water is one of the most essential resources of the environment. GIS is used to analyze the geographic distribution of water resources for efficient management and use. If you overlap the forest management and water resources management layers, you can see they are related. Forest cover affects the distribution of water.

Land mapping

Soil mapping provides land use information about an area. GIS helps in understanding land suitability for different land uses. This helps regulators prevent environmental degradation associated with the misuse of land.

GIS Helps to identify soil types in an area for soil identification and classification. From there, use appropriate soil and seedling improvement measures to retain soil nutrients and maximize productivity.

Determination of volcanic hazards

GIS stores characteristic historical records of volcanic activities of potentially volcanic areas in order to forecast risks. Consequently, studies to assess the impact of volcanic hazards using GIS can address economic loss and human loss in densely populated areas.

Conlusion

The applications of GIS in management for decision-makers are extremely important. GEO University is the end place dedicated to create and deliver our knowledge and solutions to students, professionals, decision-makers and scientists who want to introduce or enhance their knowledge in these fields or even get a solution to their geospatial problem. You now not only get the best tutorial courses but also get the best GEO University discounts on the course at Couponxoo. We constantly add and update courses so you get the best of experience at GEO University.

About the writer

Laura Taylor, the Content Creator from ecopict.com, holds a distinction in the Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science, MSc student in design and application of a modeling system capable of rapidly supporting decision-makers regarding urban air quality strategies, in particular, providing emission and concentration maps, as well as external costs (mortality and morbidity) due to air pollution

Laura Taylor

Content Creator from ecopict.com