Singh Vijay, Patel Krunal, Patel Ajay, Mehmood Khalid, Kathota, Jaydipsinh, and Kalubarme M.H
Bhaskarcharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG)
Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of Gujarat,
Gandhinagar
[email protected]
Summary
The coastal belt of Gujarat is a highly dynamic area and large number of developmental activity is currently taking place along this coastal belt. Marine fisheries activity is very well established and coastal aquaculture has shown immense potential for further development in the State. The project on development of Village-level Geo-spatial Information System for Shrimp Farms in Coastal Districts of Gujarat, was taken with major objective of development of Village-level Geo-spatial Information System for Shrimp/Scampi areas using Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS. This project was sponsored by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India for scientific management of Scampi farms in the coastal districts which can help fishermen to better their livelihood and increase the economic condition on sustainable basis. Indian Remote Sensing Satellite-P6 (IRS-P6) LISS-IV and CARTOSAT-II images covering the selected villages were geo-referenced and village cadastral maps were registered with these satellite images. The individual land parcels boundaries were then digitized from the cadastral maps and superimposed on the geo-referenced satellite imagery. The aqua-farms were identified on CARTOSAT & LISS-IV images and the individual farm boundaries were delineated. For these individual aqua-farms a unique ID-number along with ownership of an individual farmer was generated. The secondary data collected by the MPEDA were linked with these individual farms in the GIS environment.
This paper addresses the potential capabilities of satellite remote sensing technology and Geographical Information System (GIS) for the sustainable management of shrimp for improving the economic condition and livelihood of fishermen. The customized query shell was developed using the open source software for sharing the information amongst the officers from MPEDA and potential users. This has helped the farmers to plan their processing and marketing operations so as to achieve better remunerations. The query shell has also helped the farmers to identify potential areas for shrimp farms and getting required permission from the administration. The data-base of shrimp farms was very helpful in management of sea water, identification and control of disease spread of shrimps and scheduling of processing and marketing operations of shrimp products. It also describes the use of GIS to generate village-level Geo-spatial Information System with a query shell and GUI for Shrimp/Scampi farm analysis along the coastal areas of Gujarat State. This is very essential in the spirit of sustainable development and management of aquaculture, particularly in developing countries, which are often more vulnerable to environmental degradation. This study also demonstrates the capability of high resolution R S and GIS techniques to identify and delineate the potential areas for sustainable coastal shrimp farm development.
Introduction
India is endowed with a long coastline and hence offers scope for large exploitation of marine wealth. Till a few years back, fishermen in India were involving themselves in traditional marine fishing. In the seventies fishermen started concentrating on catching prawns more commonly known as `shrimps’ due to high profitable return on the same on account of their export value. Brackish water prawn farming started in a big way during 91-94 especially in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The shrimp farming has now been regulated with the establishment of Aquaculture Authority of India as per directions of Supreme Court for issuing licenses and overall supervision. Shrimps are called the “Pinkish Gold” of the sea because of its universal appeal, unique taste, high unit value and increasing demand in the world market. It is commonly said that after Green and White Revolution in India, it is time for Blue Revolution to exploit the huge potential in fisheries sector.
The coastal belt of Gujarat is a highly dynamic area. This dynamism is reflected in the extent of developmental activity which is currently taking place along this coastal belt like: Special Economic Zones, development of Ports, setting up of Salt and Cement industries, Oil and Natural gas exploration etc. Marine fisheries activity is very well established and coastal aquaculture has shown immense potential for further development in the State. These areas are the sites of complex natural system where intense interactions occur between land, sea and atmosphere. Creating basic information of Shrimp/Scampi areas using latest technologies like Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS is envisaged for better management and planning of coastal environment and their resources for safe, secure, prosperous and sustainable coastal zone areas. Shrimps are traditionally cultured along the coast for a long time and are of great importance in the economy of fishermen along coastal areas of Gujarat State. At present, shrimp farming areas are rapidly expanding horizontally due to the increasing demand of shrimps in the international market.
Shrimp/Scampi zone information system and its relevance
Geographical information systems (GIS) are becoming an increasingly integral component of natural resource management activities worldwide and playing an important role in management and use of natural resources. The status of shrimp culture development in India, and its ecological and socio-economic impacts have been described briefly by Mukherjee, and Chandran, 2007 and recommended measures to achieve long term sustainability using advanced tools like remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). The potential capabilities of evolving satellite remote sensing technology and GIS for the sustainable management of shrimp culture through the analysis of various dataset depicting the criteria of sustainability have been described in detail.
Aguilar-Manjarrez and Ross, 1995, described the use of a geographical information system (GIS) to construct environmental models for land-based aquaculture development in the State of Sinaloa, Mexico. Based on the source data, submodels were created focusing on three different themes: general environmental issues, water resources and water quality. Models enabled multicriteria and multiobjective decision making concerning site selection and location. In assessing site considerations these general models identified wider resource management options and solved conflicts of land allocation and land use between aquaculture and agriculture. Smaller-scale, more specific models enabled more detailed studies on environmental issues.
Hoque, and Shahid, 2006, integrated the shrimp culture suitability parameters using GIS technique to determine suitable as well as potential areas for shrimp farm development in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Thematic information on water and soil qualities, infrastructure facilities, river courses are integrated together using GIS to delineate potential areas for semi-intensive shrimp farming in Batiaghata thana (an administrative unit) of Khulna district. The results obtained from the study were verified in the field and were reasonably good. However, as the accuracy of the results of these kinds of studies is directly dependent on the quality of input data, updated and accurate thematic information are mostly desired. This study also demonstrated the capability of GIS technique to identify and delineate the potential areas for sustainable coastal shrimp farm development.
Nath et. al., 2000, analysed the constraints in deployment for spatial decision support. A user-driven framework, which involves seven phases, to support this process is presented together with details of the degree of involvement of each category of personnel, associated activities and analytical procedures. The case studies reviews in considerable detail four aquaculture applications which are demonstrative of the extent to which GIS can be deployed, indicate the range in complexity of analytical methods used, provide insight into issues associated with data procurement and handling, and demonstrate the diversity of GIS packages that are available. Issues related to emerging trends with regard to analytical methods, and challenges that need to be addressed if GIS is to realize its full potential as a spatial decision support tool for aquaculture, have been evaluated.
Objectives
The major objectives of the present study on development of village-level Geo-spatial Information System using Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS for coastal districts in Gujarat State are as follows:
- To carry out detailed mapping of shrimp/scampi farms on 1: 5,000 scale using high resolution satellite data
- To develop village-level GIS database of Shrimp / Scampi farms in coastal districts of Gujarat State
- To generate village-level Geo-spatial Information System with a query shell and GUI for Shrimp/Scampi farm analysis
- Preparation of village-level Atlas to assist in sustainable shrimp/scampi farms development and management
Study Area
Gujarat state has longest coastline (1,650 km i.e. 21 % of the total coastline of India) among all the maritime states of the country, which makes it strategically serving as natural gateway to India. The Gujarat coast extends from Western Ghats in Valsad to Kori creek on the coast of Kachchh in north. The area of continental shelf of the state is 1,65,000 sq. km. The Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat are the two Gulfs in Gujarat out of the three Gulfs in the country. Extent of the inter-tidal and high tidal mudflats in the Gulf of Kachchh, the Gulf of Khambhat, the Bhal region and the Rann of Kachchh is exceptionally large. Tidal amplitude is also very high which sometimes exceeds 10m in the Gulf of Khambhat and varies between 3m to 8m in the Gulf of Kachchh. The study area consisted of 12-districts along coast line of Gujarat State as shown in Figure-1.
Figure-1: Study area along the coastal districts of Gujarat State
Materials and Methods
1. Data Used
Satellite Data
For detailed mapping of shrimp/scampi farms on 1:8,000 scale, high resolution satellite data from IRS-P6 LISS-IV (5.8 m resolution) and CARTOSAT-I (2.5 m resolution) and stereo-pair digital data of CARTOSAT-I covering coastal districts of Gujarat state were acquired for this study. A total number of 46 IRS LISS-IV scene covering 147 villages from January-2008 to June-2009 period along with few CARTOSAT-I scene were acquired for generating village-level Geo-spatial Information System.
Collateral data
- Cadastral maps of coastal villages were collected from Revenue Department, Govt. of Gujarat and these maps were automated into vector GIS layers.
- Ground-Truth (GT) data in selected villages was collected in each survey number using the digitized village maps superposed on satellite digital data
- Data on farm census consisting of farm-id, ownership details, size and number of ponds, source of water, salinity-level, species and aqua-culture authority license number etc. were collected from the Revenue Department and MPEDA.
2. Methodology adopted
The major task in creating village-level database of shrimp/scampi farms is to integrate available cadastral database with high resolution satellite data to create multi-purpose geo-spatial database for the coastal zone of Gujarat state. The methodology adopted in this project consists of following major steps:
- Geo-referencing of Satellite data and Rectification of Village Maps
- Overlaying individual land parcel on satellite data,
- Mapping of shrimps/scampi farms using high resolution satellite data,
- Ground data collection and positional data collection using GPS,
- Linking of unique id-numbers with farms identified on satellite data,
- Preparation of village-level Atlas of coastal districts, and
- Development of information system with query-shell facility.
The detailed mapping, of shrimp / Scampi farms was carried out on 1:5,000 scale using CARTOSAT-I & LISS-IV IRS-P6 data and other suitable high resolution stereo-paired imagery. The detailed methodology is illustrated in Figure-2.
Figure-2: Methodology flow for village-level geospatial information system
Geo-referencing of satellite data and cadastral maps
Image rectification and geo-referencing involves the removal of random and systematic errors of image and transforming image to UTM coordinate system in WGS84 datum. The image is rectified using GPS control points in 2nd order polynomial with RMS error less than one pixel. The second order polynomial model or affine transformation model was also applied for geo-referencing the cadastral maps. Then Cadastral map of villages are superimposed over geo-rectified LISS-IV & CARTOSAT-I satellite images on which each survey number perfectly matches the images.
A large numbers of Ground Control Points (GCP) were identified on the cadastral map and on the satellite images, for generating the transformation model. The GCP like corners of water tanks, intersection of parcel boundaries, river/stream with parcel boundary, roads with parcel boundaries and intersection of roads and rivers were identified. The GCPs were spread uniformly in the entire map to generate an accurate transformation model. Individual land parcels were then digitized from the satellite imagery.
Digitisation of land parcels on satellite imagery
CARTOSAT-I and IRS-LISS-IV images covering the selected villages were geo-referenced and village cadastral maps were registered with these satellite images. The individual land parcels boundaries were then digitized from the cadastral maps and superimposed on the geo-referenced satellite imagery. The registered satellite image of IRS-LISS-IV along with digitized individual land parcels are shown in Figure-3.
Figure-3 Geo-referenced LISS-IV images along with individual land parcels
Integration of MPEDA data and linking of farm data
The unique ID-number along with ownership of a individual farmer were generated for individual aqua-farms identified on CARTOSAT & LISS-IV merged images. The secondary data collected by the MPEDA were linked with these individual farms in the GIS environment. The physical features like settlements, rivers/channels, transportation network like roads, railway line etc. were also delineated from the merged data product.
Ground Truth (GT) data collection and verification
The GT data collection was carried out by two teams consisting officers from MPEDA and BISAG. The farm survey numbers were selected randomly and they were displayed on the satellite images having farm boundaries and farmer’s unique id-numbers. The selected farms were visited and detailed information was collected in the farm designed specifically for this purpose. The geographic coordinates of these sites were also recorded using differential GPS. One of the aqua farm and the Tiger prawns obtained from this farm is shown in Figure-4.
Figure-4 Shrimp/Scampi aqua farm for GT data collection along with Tiger Prawns
Development of Decision Support System (DSS)
Customised software was developed for sharing the information amongst the officers from MPEDA and potential users. This Customised software includes web service to cater to the larger community of coastal ecosystems. With the generated datasets, a window-based interface was developed as per the user’s requirements. This DSS assisted the users to perform query, analysis and easy retrieval of information on coastal zones through a simple click of the mouse and display it in the form of maps/graphs facilitating prompt decisions for the Planning, Monitoring, Governance and Service delivery in coastal zones. The database was listed as per the user’s requirements and accordingly it was organized and managed. The customized solution allows the integration of Geo-spatial databases with any ongoing MIS efforts in the area. The concept of the geo-spatial DSS system along with user interface is shown in Figure-5.
Figure-5 Geo-spatial decision support system along with user interface
Results and discussion
Village-level GIS database and information system with query shell
The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has estimated that there are over one and a half lakh aqua farmers in the country who are actively involved in the coastal aquaculture of shrimp and scampi. Gujarat has a total of 3,76,000 ha of potential brackish water area for shrimp farming and only around 2,280 ha has been developed and effectively utilized for shrimp farming. Currently there is no detail database available enumerating all the aqua farms and aqua farmers.
Therefore, MPEDA in joint collaboration with BISAG envisaged carrying out detailed mapping, of shrimp / Scampi farms on 1:5,000 scale using high resolution satellite data. The detailed maps were used to generate database in GIS environment of shrimp / Scampi farms and also an information system with query shell facility and GUI for Shrimp / Scampi farm analysis. Village-level map prepared using IRS LISS-IV and Cartosat data is given in Figure-6.
Figure-6 Village-level map showing shrimp farms
The GUI based customised software was developed to assist the users to perform query, analysis and easy retrieval of information on coastal zones through a simple click of the mouse. The database was listed as per the user’s requirements and accordingly it was organised and managed. The customised solution allows the integration of Geo-spatial databases with any ongoing MIS efforts in the area. The DSS was developed using the open source software so that it was easily available to the users. This has helped the farmers to plan their processing and marketing operations so as to achieve better remunerations. The query shell has also helped the farmers to identify potential areas for shrimp farms and getting required permission from the administration. The data-base of shrimp farms was very helpful in management of sea water, identification and control of disease spread of shrimps and scheduling of processing and marketing operations of shrimp products.
The village-levels Atlas showing shrimp farms, farmer’s unique id-numbers and other details were compiled in the form of individual maps (Figure-7). Theses maps were finally compiled at district-level for all the coastal districts with the required statistics for all the coastal districts in Gujarat state. The atlas gives village maps as well as IRS LISS-IV image with farm boundaries demarcated on it.
Figure-7: Village-level atlas showing details of farms
The results of this study indicate the potential capabilities of satellite remote sensing technology and GIS for the sustainable management of shrimp for improving the economic condition and livelihood of fishermen. The customised query shell developed using the open source software for sharing the information amongst the officers from MPEDA and potential users, has helped the farmers to plan their processing and marketing operations so as to achieve better remunerations. The query shell has also helped the farmers to identify potential areas for shrimp farms and getting required permission from the administration. The data-base of shrimp farms was very helpful in management of sea water, identification and control of disease spread of shrimps and scheduling of processing and marketing operations of shrimp products.
It also describes the use of GIS to generate village-level Geo-spatial Information System with a query shell and GUI for Shrimp/Scampi farm analysis along the coastal areas of Gujarat State. This is very essential in the spirit of sustainable development and management of aquaculture, particularly in developing countries, which are often more vulnerable to environmental degradation. This study also demonstrates the capability of high resolution R S and GIS techniques to identify and delineate the potential areas for sustainable coastal shrimp farm development. The accuracy assessment of farm identification and its accurate demarcation was carried out by the independent teams from MPEDA and BISAG. The results indicated that the accuracy was very good and within acceptable limits for their use in the field.
Conclusions
In this study, high resolution Indian Remote Sensing Satellite-P6 (IRS-P6) LISS-IV and CARTOSAT-II images covering the selected villages along the coastal districts of Gujarat state, India were geo-referenced and village cadastral maps were registered with these satellite images. The individual shrimp land parcels boundaries were then digitized and superimposed on the geo-referenced satellite imagery.
The major conclusions of this study are as follows:
- The shrimp culture farm data have been integrated using GIS technique and geo-database have been generated to determine suitable as well as potential areas for shrimp farm development.
- The customised query shell was developed using the open source software for sharing the information amongst the officers from MPEDA and potential users. This has helped the farmers to plan their processing and marketing operations so as to achieve better remunerations.
- The query shell has also helped the farmers to identify potential areas for shrimp farms and getting required permission from the administration.
- The data-base of shrimp farms was very helpful in management of sea water, identification and control of disease spread of shrimps and scheduling of processing and marketing operations of shrimp products.
- The results obtained from the study were verified in the field along with the user organization and found reasonably good and within acceptable limits for their use in the field.
Acknowledgements
The authors like to express their sincere thanks to Shri T.P. Singh, Director, Bhaskarcharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG), Department of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar-382 007 for his constant encouragement, guidance and kind permission to carry out this project. The authors are deeply thankful to the Chairman, Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Kochi for initiating idea and intrusting BISAG to implement this project. We highly appreciate A I Muthuraman, Joint Director, (AQ), MPEDA, Kochi for his constant support. We are also thankful to Dr. Vijay kumar and Saifudin Anis Deputy Directors (Aqua), MPEDA, Valsad for their untiring support during execution of this project.
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