Forest policies and programs affecting vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Due to large scale afforestation programs and forest conservation legislations, India's total forest area seems to have stabilized or even increased. In spite of such efforts, forest fragmentation and degradation continues, with forests being subject to increased pressure due to anthropogenic factors. Such fragmentation and degradation is leading to the forest cover to change from very dense to moderately dense and open forest and 253 km(2) of very dense forest has been converted to moderately dense forest, open forest, scrub and non-forest (during 2005-2007). Similarly, there has been a degradation of 4,120 km(2) of moderately dense forest to open forest, scrub and non-forest resulting in a net loss of 936 km(2) of moderately dense forest. Additionally, 4,335 km(2) of open forest have degraded to scrub and non-forest. Coupled with pressure due to anthropogenic factors, climate change is likely to be an added stress on forests. Forest sector programs and policies are major factors that determine the status of forests and potentially resilience to projected impacts of climate change. An attempt is made to review the forest policies and programs and their implications for the status of forests and for vulnerability of forests to projected climate change. The study concludes that forest conservation and development policies and programs need to be oriented to incorporate climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation.

Urban Sprawl Pattern Analysis Using GIS

Urbanisation has evinced interest from a wide section of the society including experts, amateurs, and novices. The multidisciplinary scope of the subject invokes the interest from ecologists, to urban planners and civil engineers, to sociologists, to administrators and policy makers, students and finally the common man. With the development and infrastructure initiatives mostly around the urban centres, the impacts of urbanisation and sprawl would be on the environment and the natural resources. The wisdom lies in how effectively we plan the urban growth without - hampering the environment, excessively harnessing the natural resources and eventually disturbing the natural set-up. The research on these help urban residents and policymakers make informed decisions and take action to restore these resources before they are lost. Ultimately the power to balance the urban ecosystems rests with regional awareness, policies, administration practices, management issues and operational problems. This publication on urban systems is aimed at helping scientists, policy makers, engineers, urban planners and ultimately the common man to visualise how towns and cities grow over a period of time based on investigations in the regions around the highway and cities. Two important highways in Karnataka, South India, viz., Bangalore - Mysore highway and the Mangalore - Udupi highway, in Karnataka and the Tiruchirapalli - Tanjavore - Kumbakonam triangular road network in Tamil Nadu, South India, were considered in this investigation. Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing data were used to analyse the pattern of urbanisation. This was coupled with the spatial and temporal data from the Survey of India toposheets (for 1972), satellite imageries procured from National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) (LANDSAT TM for 1987 and IRS LISS III for 1999), demographic details from the Census of India (1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001) and the village maps from the Directorate of Survey Settlements and Land Records, Government of Karnataka. All this enabled in quantifying the increase in the built-up area for nearly three decades. With intent of identifying the potential sprawl zones, this could be modelled and projected for the future decades. Apart from these the study could quantify some of the metrics that could be used in the study of urban sprawl.