Wasteland reclamation through bio-fuel crop cultivation - A GIS approach
Student name: Mr Jayanta Poddar
Guide: Mr V.S.P.Sinha
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre (MRSAC)
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr V.M. Bothale
Abstract: According to the “Wasteland Atlas of India, 2005-06â€, 14.91% of India and 12.44% of Maharashtra comes under
the category of wastelands. These wastelands affect the nation both economically as well as ecologically. The
present study is carried out to identify the suitable sites for bio-fuel crop cultivation as a measure to reclaim the
wastelands in the Akola district of Maharashtra. The Characterization of natural resources of Akola district is
undertaken using satellite imagery (IRS P6 LISS III), SRTM data (30m), Census of India data (2001) and Survey of
India toposheets to generate several layers of maps such as wastelands, geomorphology, soil, groundwater, slope
and aspect using Geographic Information System. The most influencing parameters of each layer are chosen based
on literature and operational methodologies and they have been extensively studied while taking into consideration
their role in determination of suitable sites. Accordingly, they are assigned definite weights in order to characterize
the sites on basis of their suitability. Individual resource information is integrated in the GIS environment with the
help of the weighted sum method to identify the suitable sites. Quantile classification is used to get more refined
result.
Keywords: Wasteland reclamation, site suitability, bio-fuel crop, land capability classification, weighted sum
overlay.
