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Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering

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 Proceedings of National Conference on Environment Pollution and Management, 28-29 Jan 2011
Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad, ISBN: 978 81 90495 8 8

Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering

P. V. Khandve*, A. M. Mokadam**

ABSTRACT

Using information technology, computerized mapping and spatial analysis have been developed
simultaneously in several related fields. The present status would not have been achieved without close
interaction between various fields such as utility networks, cadastral mapping, topographic mapping,
thematic cartography, surveying and photogrametery remote-sensing, image processing, computer
science, rural and urban planning, earth science, and geography, The GIS technology correlates all this
disciplines to each other for rapid interaction and result creation.
The GIS technology is rapidly becoming a standard tool for management of natural resources.
The GIS technology is used to assist decision-makers by indicating various alternatives in development
and conservation planning to protect the environment and by modeling the potential outcomes of a series
of scenarios. As any task begins and ends with the real world environment. Data are collected about the
real world environment and its various parameters. After this, data are analyzed and information is
compiled for decision-makers. Based on this information, actions are taken and plans implemented in
view of environment protection and sustainable development.
The applications or uses for a GIS are endless, wherever spatial features need to be modeled and
analyzed. GIS are now used extensively in government, business, defense and research for a wide range
of applications including environmental systems. This paper gives particular emphasis to the applications
of GIS in environmental engineering such as - mapping and monitoring of water pollution, monitoring
environmental effects of man's effects, assessing the drought impact, determination of water boundaries
and surface water areas, mapping of floods and flood plains and many such environmental applications.

INTRODUCTION the attributes at a specific place?), condition

Geographic Information System (GIS) is
a computer based information system used to
digitally represent and analyze the geographic
features present on the Earth' surface and the
events that taking place on it. The meaning to
represent digitally is to convert analog smooth
line into a digital form.
"Every object present on the Earth can
be geo-referenced", is the fundamental key of
associating any database to GIS. Here, term
'database' is a collection of information about
things and their relationship to each other and
'geo-referencing' refers to the location of a layer
or coverage in space defined by the co-ordinate
referencing system.
GIS can be applied to a variety of
problems. For example, a GIS can be used to
investigate questions about location (what are
(where are the sites which possess certain
attributes?), trends (how do attributes change
spatially over time?), routing (what is the
shortest/least expensive/most cost-effective path
between places?), and patterns (what is the
distribution of attributes and the process/reason
accounting for their distribution?). A GIS can
also be used to simulate “what if” scenarios
(modeling).
GIS is a fairly new analytical and
planning tool for the visual impact of GIS-
produced maps in sectors concerned with
agriculture, natural resources, urban and regional
planning, and tourism in developing countries
have been using GIS for many years, This Paper
is to identify and explore various environmental
issues and opportunities to apply GIS in
Environmental Engineering.

* Student - M. Tech Environmental Engineering (P.T.) – III sem, G.C.O.E. Amravati

** Assistant Professor, Civil Engg. Dept. Govt. Engineering College, Aurangabad

Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering 244

P. V. Khandve, A. M. Mokadam
 Proceedings of National Conference on Environment Pollution and Management, 28-29 Jan 2011
Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad, ISBN: 978 81 90495 8 8
GIS PROCESS –
GIS is fundamentally used to answer
questions and make decisions. To use GIS
properly, following disciplined process is used
for getting the answer.
Frame the question - Start your GIS analysis
by figuring out what information you need.
Select your data – Select the type of data and
features that require to be worked with to help
determine the method and information needed
Choose an analysis method - Decide which
analysis method to use based on your original
question and how the results of the analysis will
be used.
Process the data - Once we have selected the
analysis method, we will need to process your
data in a way that makes sense for our goal.
Look at the results - The final step is to look at
the results of your analysis and take action based
on those results. Our results can be displayed as
a digital map, printed as a paper map, combined
with spreadsheet-like tables or charts etc.
GIS Features For Environmental Engineer
Are:
Mapping where things are – lets you
find places that have the features you're looking
for, and to see where to take action. Find a
feature—we can use maps to see where or what
an individual feature is.
Finding patterns—Looking at the distribution
of features on the map instead of just an
individual feature, we can see patterns emerge.
We can map quantities, like where the most and
least are, to find places that meet their criteria
and take action, or to see the relationships
between places. A density map can lets us to
measure the number of features using a uniform
aerial unit, such as acres or square miles, so you
can clearly see the distribution. We can use GIS
to monitor what's happening and to take specific
action by mapping what's inside a specific area.
We can use GIS to find out what's occurring
within a set distance of a feature by mapping
what's nearby. By mapping where and how
things move over a period of time, we can gain
insight into how they behave.
There are five type of questions that a
sophisticated GIS can answer for environmental
engineering purpose: a) Location what is at? –
e.g. location of wells for study of ground water
Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering
P. V. Khandve, A. M. Mokadam
contamination study can be found out. b)
Condition where is it? – e.g., an unfrosted
section of at-least 2000 square meters in size,
within 100 meters of road, and with soils
suitable for supporting buildings can be located.
c) Trends what has changed since? - e.g.
change in vegetation on land within last 5 year
can be identified. d) Patterns what spatial
pattern exists? – pattern of identical landslide
sites mostly occurring near stream can be found
out. e) Modeling what if? - "What if…"
questions are posed to determine what happens,
for example, if a new road is added to a network
or if a toxic substance seeps into the local
ground water supply. f) Spatial Questions – e.g.
What is the shortest route passing through
various location of water bodies for animal in
forest These are spatial questions that can only
be answered using latitude and longitude data
and other information such as the radius of earth.
Geographic Information Systems can answer
such questions.
Advantages and constraints of using GIS
i. Effective tool for implementation and
monitoring of municipal infrastructure
ii. Formulating scenarios for an Environmental
Impact Assessment
iii. Improved management of organization and
resources.
iv. Visualization of 3D modeling of landscape
v. Replacing paper maps by digitized map
vi. Multiple map overlays for comparison and
relational database analysis
vii. Create new information from existing data,
through selection and combination of
analysis techniques
Costs are currently the main constraint to the use
of GIS. Software is relatively expensive in
relation to the other methodology. and there
exists at present a lack of trained personal.
Application Of GIS In Environmental
Engineering [8]
In the process of human evolution the
issues confronting today are safe guarding the
natural environment and maintaining good
quality of life. While taking up developmental
activities, the assimilative capacities of the
environmental components i.e., air; water and
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 Proceedings of National Conference on Environment Pollution and Management, 28-29 Jan 2011
Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad, ISBN: 978 81 90495 8 8

land to various pollution are rarely considered. can be implemented for effective planning and
The developmental activities being haphazard management.
and erratic are leading to over use, congestion,
incompatible land use and poor living Gis For Various Environmental Engineering
conditions. Hence the problems of Fields [1] [3] [8]
environmental pollution are becoming a heated GIS can be effectively applied for
topic of high-risk environment. following various environmental engineering
GIS can play a vital role for analysis and fields / terms -
in formulating the quick mitigation plans for 1. Natural Resources Management
high risk environments. GIS is one of the key 2. Agriculture Management
tools in the environmental data framework for 3. Air Quality Monitoring
data validation, digital data transfer standards, 4. Climate Change Study
data retrieval/dissemination and analysis. It can 5. Conservation of Woodlands and Wetlands
serve as the ultimate communication of 6. Forest Assessment
environmental information to the public and 7. Forest Carbon Management
policy makers since it is the technical basis for 8. Mining
the multimedia approach in environmental 9. Ocean Conservation
decision-making. 10. Polar Regions Studies
11. Sustainable Agriculture Development
12. Wildlife Conservation and Management
13. Early Detection and Response to Infectious
Disease
14. Earthquakes Studies
15. Fire Mapping GIS
16. Sustainable Development
17. Waste Water Management
18. Petroleum
Figure 1 – Application of GIS for various 19. Health and Human Services
environmental solutions 20. Global Green Initiatives

GIS display and analyze aerial photos.
Digital information can be overlaid on
photographs to provide environmental data
analysts with more familiar views of landscapes
and associated data. GIS can provide a quick,
comparative view of hazards (highly prone
areas) and risks (areas of high risk which may
occur) and areas to be safeguarded. On
completion of Data analysis GIS helps in
Planning and Managing the environmental
hazards and risks. In order to plan and monitor
the environmental problems, the assessment of
hazards and risks becomes the foundation for
planning decisions and for mitigation activities.
GIS supports activities in environmental
assessment, monitoring, and mitigation and can
also be used for generating Environmental
models. Fig 5.1 shows some of the applicable
areas in Environmental Engineering where GIS
GIS for Natural Resources Management [3]
One of the first major areas of
application was in natural resources
management, including management of
1. wildlife habitat,
2. wild and scenic rivers,
3. recreation resources,
4. floodplains,
5. Assessment of grass and forest fire damages.
6. Measure timber acreage.
7. Determination of vegetation stress.
8. Cartographic mapping and map updating.
9. Categorizing of land capability.
10. wetlands,
11. agricultural lands,
12. aquifers,
13. Forests.
And many applications on Environment:

1. Mapping and monitoring of water pollution.

Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering 246
P. V. Khandve, A. M. Mokadam
 Proceedings of National Conference on Environment Pollution and Management, 28-29 Jan 2011
Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad, ISBN: 978 81 90495 8 8
2. Monitoring environmental effects of man's
effects.
3. Assessing the drought impact.
4. Siting for power plants and other industrial
and their impacts on surrounding environs.
5. Determination of water boundaries and
surface water areas.
6. Mapping of floods and flood plains.
7. Determination of real extent of snow and
ice.
8. Delineated of irrigated fields.
GIS in Agriculture [4]
GIS is used in a variety of agricultural
applications such as managing crop yields,
monitoring crop rotation techniques, and
projecting soil loss for individual farms or entire
agricultural regions. Balancing the inputs and
outputs on a farm is fundamental to its success
and profitability. The ability of GIS to analyze
and visualize agricultural environments and
workflows has proved to be very beneficial to
those involved in the farming industry. From
mobile GIS in the field to the scientific analysis
of production data at the farm manager's office,
GIS for the Conservation of Air Quality [3]
Air quality is important to our health
and environment, but sources of contamination
are often difficult to monitor. GIS technology
manages statistical and spatial data to provide a
tool that shows the relationship between poor air
quality and occurrences of deficient human and
environmental health. In this way, a GIS aids in
monitoring pollutant emissions. GIS technology
allows us to locate where pollutants are coming
from and monitor those areas for change to
conserve the quality of our air.
GIS for Climate Change [9]
The key to understanding our dynamic
climate is creating a framework to take many
different pieces of past and future data from a
variety of sources and merge them together in a
single system. A geographic information system
(GIS) is a sophisticated technology tool used by
planners, engineers, and scientists to display and
analyze all forms of location-referenced data
including meteorological information. we can
analyze the potential interplay between various
factors, getting us closer to a true understanding
Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering
P. V. Khandve, A. M. Mokadam
of how our dynamic climate may change in the
coming decades and centuries. Is the Earth
getting hotter or colder? Is the stress human
populations are putting on the planet
contributing to climate change? What potential
factors may significantly impact our ability to
thrive and survive as a species? What additional
sorts of environmental monitoring can we be
doing today to improve climate change
tomorrow? By using GIS we truly understanding
the stressors and impacts on the incredibly
complex system of Earth’s climate.
GIS for Conservation of Woodlands and
Wetlands [3]
GIS is an indispensable tool that can be
used to prevent damage to the valuable resources
and habitats of our woodlands and wetlands.
Deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and resource
depletion due to global climate change, CO2
emissions, logging, forest fires, and other human
disruptions are threats to the earth's forested and
marshy areas. GIS allows the user to manage
geospatial information for monitoring change in
woodland and wetland areas. Modeling change
with GIS permits conservationists to make well-
informed decisions about protection, policies
and future land-use practices that will most
benefit the conservation of forests, biodiversity,
wildlife, and resources.
GIS for Forest Assessment [3] [10]
Effective forest managers monitor
changing conditions and make intelligent
decisions for sustainable care. GIS can be used
to assess conditions through historical analysis,
stand inventory, soil types, changing weather
patterns, and land-use practices. Modeling
enables users to test and consider options in both
temporal and spatial contexts. Geospatial
records provide forest managers with a baseline
for evaluating plans.
GIS for Forest Carbon Management [10]
Allowing earth's forests to thrive and do
their job of carbon sequestration is essential to
reducing the threat of climate change. GIS
Technology offers hope to the greenhouse
phenomenon caused by industrial society. GIS
allows temporal climate data to be visualized,
contrasted, and forecasted.
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 Proceedings of National Conference on Environment Pollution and Management, 28-29 Jan 2011
Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad, ISBN: 978 81 90495 8 8
Mining and Earth Sciences [11]
GIS creates efficiency and productivity
opportunities in all aspects of mineral
exploration and mining. GIS enables mineral
geologists and mine operators to mine
intelligently, efficiently, competitively, safely,
and environmentally. Pipelines, electric lines,
roads, ramps, and other mining facilities change
frequently. Engineers and operations staff can
use GIS for facility planning applications.
Keeping track of existing infrastructure and
integrating it with the mine plan and block
models can be achieved with GIS. Various types
of geologic datasets, such as geophysical
images, geochemistry, geologic maps,
radiometric measurements, boreholes, and
mineral deposits, can be displayed, interrogated,
and analyzed simultaneously using GIS.
GIS for Ocean Conservation [11]
Marine habitats and the life they contain
are threatened by global warming, extreme
weather, natural and man-made pollution, over-
harvesting, and additional human disturbances.
GIS technology is a tool that helps
conservationists acquire, manage, analyze, and
visualize spatial and thematic oceanic data
through map generation. It is used around the
world to map marine habitats; water quality;
species distribution, population, and behavior;
pollution; fishing grounds; and other factors that
impact marine life. By this data we can show at-
risk areas in danger of biodiversity loss, habitat
degradation, and resource depletion. GIs also
acts as an aid in monitoring and examining the
effectiveness of conservation practices and
protected areas to ensure the preservation of the
earth’s oceans.
GIS for Wildlife Conservation [11]
Habitat loss, global climate change, and
human disruptions, such as pollution and
deforestation, are threats to wildlife biodiversity
and can cause fragmentation and extinction. GIS
technology is an effective tool for managing,
analyzing, and visualizing wildlife data in order
to target areas where conservation practices are
needed.
GIS helps to monitor and visualize
1. Population and distribution
2. Habitat use and preferences
Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering
P. V. Khandve, A. M. Mokadam
3. Progress of conservation activities
4. Historical and present regional biodiversity
GIS for Early Detection and Response to
Infectious Disease [7] [11]
Successful understanding and response
to infectious disease outbreaks depend greatly
on the ability to consider the surrounding
context. Disease spreads geographically, and
interventions occur in relation to human,
institutional, climatic, and other kinds of
landscapes. Because GIS technology relates
many kinds of data to geographic location, it
excels in tracking not only disease spread but
also laboratory specimen and medical supply
whereabouts, hospital bed availability, testing
facility proximity, vulnerable population
locations, and medical personnel distribution.
During an outbreak, GIS provides tools that
speed the collection of accurate field data.
Complex statistical and other analyses applied
with GIS technology provide relevant
information to support sound decisions. GIS
analysis can, for example, locate a potential
disease hot spot and calculate a nearby hospital's
ability to handle the expected increase in service
demand if an outbreak should occur.
GIS for Earthquakes [11]
Emergency management professionals
are responsible for assessing risks and hazards
and identifying potential emergencies and
disasters. Emergency operations personnel
recommend appropriate prevention or mitigation
strategies that can reduce the impact of potential
emergencies. large, complex emergencies such
as earthquakes often affect multiple departments
or multiple agencies and require data to be
collected and assembled from a variety of
locations quickly under adverse conditions.
Emergency personnel use GIS to help manage
the impact of earthquakes and other disasters by
Assessing risk and hazard locations in relation to
populations, property, and natural Resources
Integrating data and enabling understanding of
the scope of an emergency to manage an
incident Recommending preventive and
mitigating solutions Determining how and where
scarce resources should be assigned Prioritizing
search and rescue tasks Identifying staging area
locations, operational branches and divisions,
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 Proceedings of National Conference on Environment Pollution and Management, 28-29 Jan 2011
Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad, ISBN: 978 81 90495 8 8
and other important incident management needs
Assessing short- and long-term recovery
operations
Fire/EMS/Disaster/ Homeland Security [11]
GIS is used as an interface for
integrating and accessing massive amounts of
location based information in the public safety
market. GIS allows public safety personnel to
effectively plan for emergency response,
determine mitigation priorities, analyze
historical events, and predict future events. GIS
can also be used to get critical information to
emergency responders upon dispatch or while en
route to an incident to assist in tactical planning.
Many city and county governments are using
GIS to make the world a safer place.
GIS and Sustainable Development [11]
Sustainable development is the balance
of meeting humankind's present needs while
protecting the environment to ensure the
fulfillment of future generations' needs. The
growing human population and its demands on
the earth's resources generate a need for
sustainable practices. Geography as a science
and GIS as a technology can be seen as a
framework for what many people are calling
"sustainable development." GIS allows us to
measure our assets, understand our patterns of
change, better understand the resources we are
using, and identify the impact of human-induced
geographic change. GIS is also helping us better
utilize the resources we have by leveraging
geographic information with analysis tools that
support planning as well as operational
activities.
Sustainable development agencies can use
GIS to –
1. Predict drought conditions.
2. Monitor water resources.
3. Visualize remote-sensing data.
4. Model data from many sources.
5. Evaluate economic and environmental
impact.
6. Share data and maps between agencies.
7. Comply with planning and reporting
regulations.
8. Educate and advise communities via online
services.
Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering
P. V. Khandve, A. M. Mokadam
Water and Wastewater Management [13]
The majority of water/wastewater
utilities use GIS technology to integrate a variety
of information and applications with a
geographic component into one manageable
system.
GIS software has fully developed
automated mapping/facilities management/GIS
technology for water utilities to automate and
integrate their organization's information
processing.
Health and Human Services [7]
GIS software is used extensively
throughout the medical community to study
epidemiology, look at health care facilities, and
map any system that is visual or spatial
including inside a patient's body. Health
professionals use geospatial technology to -
1. Discover geographic origins of symptomatic
populations.
2. Identify specific locations of vulnerable at-
risk populations.
3. Identify congregate groups targeted for
preventive measures.
4. Create maps to help organizations establish
field clinics and locate medical supplies.
5. Provide information relevant for community
leadership planning and response.
Conclusions
Geographical Information Systems
(GIS) are becoming useful tools in collection,
storage, manipulation and representation of
spatial data. GIS are able to present a large
amount of data in a short period of time on a
map, using a geographical coordinate system. It
also becomes very easy to grasp spatial data as
compared to data stored in relational database.
In summary, GIS technology will
continue to play a vital role in environmental
system management. GIS becomes the primary
repository of information that can be quickly
accessed and viewed when required. GIS is
becoming more suitable for emergency
operations and is integrating tools that allow
real-time display of information. Rapid access to
information, safety, efficiency, and better
resource management decisions can be made
with the use of GIS. GIS technology can provide
critical information at the need of the hour to
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Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad, ISBN: 978 81 90495 8 8
take the remedial measures in no time as
effective as possible.
Increasingly more people believe that
enormous progress in Environment Engineering
can be made by better understanding the links
between Environment, human and health. GIS
are certainly among the most useful tools that
make possible the analysis and representation of
these complex relations. Users of GIS in the
Engineering community still appear as pioneers;
their experience shows that the use of GIS is not
without difficulties and that the tool could
probably be better adapted to their situation.
It should be noted that, if the tool is to
be used for various application in
Environmental Engineering, to its full
potential, efforts should focus on several
issues -
a) Developing a software system that
offers a range of GIS functions in a more user-
friendly way to people who are not “hard GIS
specialists.” The ideal GIS program should let
the user concentrate on the substance of the
problem rather than on the tool.
b) Finding a solution to the scarcity of
skilled personnel. Development of a system as
described in the earlier paragraph should help
alleviate this problem. The preparation of
‘Environmental issues- tutorial package’ to
accompany such a system, presenting examples
of environment data integration, analysis, and
presentation could also help solve this problem.
c) Increasing accessibility of the spatial
data. There is a wealth of remotely sensed
environmental data (climate, relief, vegetation,
land use, transport networks, human habitat, to
name a few), but where is that material? How is
it obtained? How much does it cost? This seems
to be far from clear for Environment specialists.
Some kind of information centre could be
imagined to facilitate the access of Environment
specialists to this data.
A strong need was expected by each
respondent for reducing isolation and fostering a
constant exchange of information about various
applications of GIS in environmental
engineering, problems, experiences,
methodology, tools, software, and so on.
Application of GIS in Environmental Engineering
P. V. Khandve, A. M. Mokadam
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