wasteland assessment

1. WASTELAND ASSESMENT USING
REMOTE SENSING AND GIS

2. INTRODUCTION
•Management of natural resources, especially land resources, is the
key to attain food, water and environmental security.
•This has special relevance since per capita availability of
agricultural land in India is decreasing rapidly due to population
growth, industrialization and urbanization.

3. WASTE LAND
Wasteland is a degraded land which can be brought under
vegetative cover, with reasonable effort, and which is currently
underutilized and the land which is deteriorating for lack of
appropriate water and soil management or on account of natural
causes.

4. EXTENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF WASTE LAND IN INDIA

5. About 63.85 million hectares of land, which account for
20.17% of the total geographical area (328.72 million
hectares) exist as wastelands in India .
According to the NRSC report, there are 2.42 million
hectares (17%) of wasteland in Tamil Nadu.

6. REMOTE SENSING AND GIS IN WASTELAND MAPPING
 To study the spatial dynamics of wastelands, the IRS P6
satellite data(23.5x 23.5 m) and topographical maps are generally
used (Scale = 1:50000).
 The application of remotely sensed data in mapping degraded
lands space borne sensors started with the launch of the first Earth
Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1 / Landsat-1).
 Later on for better spatial and spectoral resolution -Landsat-
TM, SPOT and Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellites are used

7. WASTELAND ASSESMENT - METHODOLOGY

8. For detection of temporal changes in the wastelands, two
period data sets i.e., IRS, Linear Imaging Self-Scanning (LISS
III) are used.
The geodatabase generated using Arc GIS and on screen
digitization techniques, shows the type, extent and spatial
distribution of different wasteland categories present in the
area.

9. In 1991, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF)
embarked upon an ambitious project to apply GIS technology for
wasteland management.
This was based on prior work carried in 1986 when the Department
of Science (DoS) under the National Wasteland Identification Project
developed detailed wasteland maps of 147 districts in the country
with a 1:50,000 scale.
 In this project, a Task Force was identified to evolve a suitable
wasteland classification system.
PROJECT INVOLVED

10. WASTE LAND GENERATION PROCESS
Water erosion
Wind erosion
Water logging
Salinization / Alkalization
Glacial
Anthropogenic

11. LAND
DEGRADATION
TYPE
COLOUR/TONE
(ON FCC)
TEXTURE(ON
LISS-III DATA)
PATTERN
Sheet erosion Slightly brighter
than surrounding
land.
Smooth -Medium Contiguous
patches
Rills brighter than
surrounding land.
Medium Discrete to
contiguous patches
Gullies Gray in colour. Medium to slightly
course
Discrete to
contiguous patches
Ravines Medium to dark
gray
Shallow ravine-
slightly course
Deep ravine-
course.
Contiguous
patches
WATER EROSION

12. LAND
DEGRADATION
TYPE
COLOUR/TONE
(ON FCC)
TEXTURE(ON
LISS-III DATA)
PATTERN
Sheet erosion Shades of yellow
and light gray
Smooth -Medium Contiguous /
mottling
Partially stabilized
dunes
Light – medium
grey
Medium contiguous
/discrete patches
stabilized dunes • Dry season –
medium grey with
light yellow tone
• Rainy season-
pink mottles
Medium to course Discrete patches
Unstabilized dunes Shades of yellow
and light grey
Smooth to
medium
Discrete patches
WIND EROSION

13. LAND
DEGRADATION
TYPE
COLOUR/TONE
(ON FCC)
TEXTURE(ON
LISS-III DATA)
PATTERN
Surface ponding Light – dark blue Smooth Discrete patches
Sub surface water
logging
Normal FCC –
medium to dark
grey
FCC with SWIR
band(R:G:B =
SWIR:NIR:Red) –
Various shades of
blue
smooth contiguous
/discrete patches
WATER LOGGING

14. LAND
DEGRADATION
TYPE
COLOUR/TONE
(ON FCC)
TEXTURE(ON
LISS-III DATA)
PATTERN
Saline Light grey to white Smooth Discrete patches
Sodic Greyish white/
Dull white
Smooth discrete patches
Saline-sodic •Greyish white to
white
smooth Discrete patches
SALINISATION / ALKALIZATION

15. LAND
DEGRADATION
TYPE
COLOUR/TONE
(ON FCC)
TEXTURE(ON
LISS-III DATA)
PATTERN
Acidic Various shades of
green / Black
Smooth -Medium Contiguous /
discrete /mottled
ACIDIFICATION
GLACIAL
LAND
DEGRADATION
TYPE
COLOUR/TONE
(ON FCC)
TEXTURE(ON
LISS-III DATA)
PATTERN
Frost heaving Light pink to grey Smooth Contiguous /
discrete patches

16. LAND
DEGRADATION
TYPE
COLOUR/TONE
(ON FCC)
TEXTURE(ON
LISS-III DATA)
PATTERN
Industrial effluent
affected areas
With water- shades
of blue
Dries – light grey
to white
Smooth Discrete
/contiguous
patches
Mining and dump
areas
Shades of white ,
yellow , red, black
Smooth-medium discrete patches
Brick kilns Dull white to light
yellow
smooth Isolated
patchesgive rise to
mottles
ANTHROPOGENIC

17. WASTE LAND RECLAMMATION METHODS
Gullied and / or ravenous land - Leveling of gullies or ravines
construction of check dams
Upland with or without shrub – contour bunding, contour
trenching,contour terracing
Degraded/ underutilsed forest land - Regulate grazing activity,
Restrict illegal forest felling
Wet land - Passage to the logged water

18. CONCLUSION
The RS/GIS technology is the master tool in managing the
wastelands of the country, starting from mapping, characterization,
possible reasons, protection and reclamation of wastelands.
At each step of management, RS/ GIS are economically sound,
speedy and accurate method.
Generation of human resource and skilled personnel having
proper training on RS/GIS can contribute a lot in the entire process.

19. REFERENCE
•NRSA 1991. Guidelines to use wasteland maps. National Remote
Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, pp72.
•Jain, A.K., Hooda, R.S., Nath, J. and Manchanda, M.L. 1991.
Mapping and Monitoring of urban landuse of Hisar Town, Haryana
using remote sensing techniques , Journal of the Indian Society of
Remote Sensing 6: 133-134.