Sustainable Development and Environmental Issues

(Role of Geospatial Technology in Sustainable development)

Praveen, Naveen Kumar, Vikas
(Students of PG diploma in Geoinformatics, CBLU)

ABSTRACT
Rapidly increasing population and limited resources led to exploitation of resources, which

ultimately led to various environmental issues and a new concept came into existence-

Sustainable development. The paper shows that environment is one of the basic public assets

of a human system, and it must be therefore specially protected. This paper discusses the

origin of concept of sustainable development and changes occurred in it with time. In this

paper concept of sustainability, origin and need of sustainability, and the role of geospatial

technology in the field of sustainable development etc. topics are discussed.

Key words: Environmental issues, sustainable development, Geospatial technology,

environment policies etc.

INTRODUCTION
Man is considered to be the most intelligent creature on earth, because man has made the

gifts of nature useful for himself with his intelligence and discretion. As man developed, he

has exploited natural resources rapidly, the biggest reasons for which are his materialistic

approach and never-ending desires. This exploitation of resources has created many

environmental issues which are taking a formidable form over time. After the advent of the

Industrial revolution in 18th century the exploitation of resources was very rapid, due to which

environmental issues also increased rapidly.

Major environmental issues created because of overpopulation and exploitation of natural

resources are: Deforestation, Global warming, Desertification, Rise in sea level, Biodiversity

loss, Water scarcity, Ozone depletion etc. Yet human has faced environmental issues from
ancient times but after industrial revolution and urbanization situation is getting critical. We

can understand the situation from the data discussed below:

Deforestation: Deforestation refers to the decrease in forest area on world level. It may be

because of different reasons like human settlements, agriculture, mining and many others. But

in last few centuries rate of deforestation has increased dramatically. According to a research

10000 years ago 57% of the world’s habitable land was covered by forests, which is equal to

the 6 billion hectares. At present only 4 billion hectares are left. This means world has lost

one third of it’s forests in last 10000 years. But revoking fact is that only 10% area was lost in

first half of this period.

Global warming: Global warming means long-term increasement is world’s overall

temperature. Yet it has been increasing from long time but burning of fossils fuels in last few

hundred years has paced it highly. Earth’s temperature has increased by an average of 0.14

degree Fahrenheit per decade since 1880, or about 2 degree Fahrenheit in total. But alarming

fact is that the rate of global warming since 1981 is more than twice as fast, it is 0.32 degree

Fahrenheit per decade.

Desertification: Desertification refers the degradation process of a land mass. It may be

because of drought, deforestation, human activities and improper agriculture methods. It also

includes loss of vegetation in that specific area. According to the UN report on desertification

110 countries are at risk of land degradation and desertification. 12 million hectares of land is
lost every year due to the desertification. This area can produce around 20 million grain

annually.

Melting of Polar ice and Rise in sea level: Because of increase in world’s temperature polar

ice is melting and ultimately sea level is rising. Second reason of sea level rising is expansion

of sea water because of temperature increase. Rising of sea level has posed risk of being sink

to many coastal cities of the world including Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Manila, New York

and Phoenix. Long term measurement of tide gauge and recent satellite data shows rate of

rise is about 3.6 mm per year and this rate is increased since measurements were started in

1992. The overall observed rise in sea level since 1902 is about 16 cm.

Water scarcity: Approx 70% area of earth is covered by oceans but still we are discussing

water scarcity. This is because water scarcity stands as the lack of safe water. Water is an

important resource for human life, agriculture, energy production and many more. But

increasing temperature and population has diminished safe water availability per head.

Overpopulation has led to many other environment issues such as ozone depletion,

biodiversity loss, acid rain, wildfire, drought, different types of pollution and many more. To

resolve these issues well dedicated and well directional efforts were need at world level,

eventually all the countries had to unite to solve it and they choose concept of ‘sustainability’

in development.
‘Sustainability’ is the term to balance the terms ‘development’ and ‘environment.’ There are

various meanings and perceptions for the word ‘sustainability’ in different fields. In

geography sustainability means fulfilling our own needs without affecting the ability of future

generations to meet their own needs and not destroying natural environment.

The term sustainable development was first used in World Strategy: Living Resources

Conservation (1980) by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. But it was

popularised in 1987 by report of the World Commission on Environment and Development

(WCED), Our Common Future. Since then sustainable development has been one of the most

important parameters for the economic and environmental development policies of different

nations, organisations and firms. The next milestone in the direction of sustainable

development occurred at the 1992 Earth Summit. It introduced Agenda 21, which sought to

provide a comprehensive blueprint of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by

the organisations of the UN, nations and the NGOs. It established 27 principles intended to

guide sustainable development all around the world.

Role of Geospatial Technology in Sustainable Development and Environmental issues:

To understand the geospatial technology and it’s role, first we have to understand the

meaning of the word ‘Geo- spatial’ – it means location specified. Geospatial data is location
specified data and geospatial technology means technology to gather location specified data.

We can understand geospatial technology as a technique to study earth’s geographic

information using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing and other

devices/instruments like satellites, drones, unmanned aerial vehicle and different software.

Geospatial has been a game change technique in the field of research. Since it’s invention it

has been continuously evolving. It has made reach of a researcher/surveyors much broader. It

is accurate and fast. This technology delivers valuable data to researchers, surveyors and

policy makers working in many fields of science.

This technology is playing vital role in the field of sustainable development and

environmental issues. This technology helps to visualize the change and show comparison,

data analysis and effective planning. By providing a brief view over a large area at regular

intervals, GIS and remote sensing using high resolution satellites images this technology has

been a non-replaceable tool to assist in sustainability and sustainable development. This

technology has enabled the use of satellites to monitor many environmental issues like urban

sprawl, deforestation, desertification, sea level rise, erosion, water scarcity etc.

We can better understand the role of geospatial technology in sustainable development

through following examples:

1. Deforestation: Geospatial technology helps to monitor the forests and also to study the

forest area change over the time, this helps us to understand the rate and pattern of
change in forest area and ultimately in making effective polices to protect the forests.

From the following satellites images we can compare the forest loss in different areas

because of different reasons:

In following images we can see the forest area change near Sao Felix de Xingu town

in different years (images taken by satellite landsat 8)

1.1 Forest cover in 2013 1.2 Forest cover change in 2015

1.3 Forest area in 2017

2. Global warming: Global warming has been the biggest environmental issues for the last

few decades. We can see the rise in global mean temperature in last few decades, it has

affected world’s glaciers at large scale. Glaciers all around the world have been started

shrinking and melting which has been the responsible for the rise in sea level.

In following satellites images we can see the glacier shrinking in Northwest Greenland:

2.1 Northwest Greenland (image taken by landsat 1 in 1973)

 2.2 Northwest Greenland (image taken by Landsat 9 in 2022)

Peripheral glaciers in Northwest Greenland haven been losing about 3.5 to 7 gigatons per

year

in recent decades amid accelerated warming.

Fig. 2.3 ( Tanggula mountain in 1987) Fig. 2.4 ( Tanggula mountains in 2021)

Fig.2.3 and Fig. 2.4 are the satellite images of Tanghula mountains, these images offers a

view of changes caused, in region, by retreating glaciers. In these pictures we can see that

two largest lakes- Chibzhang Co and Dorsoidong Co have grown larger ober the time but

mountain glaciers have shrunk dramatically.

Global warming has not only caused glaciers melting but it has also triggered sea level rise.

As we know mean global sea levels is rising by 3.3 millimeters per year, it has posed risk of

being drown to many cities. We can see the sea level rise in following satellites images:

Fig. 2.5 ( Great fox island in 1994) Fig. 2.6 ( Great Fox island in 2020)

A well known example of island disappering due to sea level rise is The Great Fox island, a

small sandy enclave near the Maryland-Virginia border. It was discovered in 1773, back then

it had spanned more than 400 acres, by 2019 just 34 acres remained. We can see the change in

Fig. 2.5 ( satellite image taken by landsat in 1994) and Fig. 2.6 ( satellite image taken by

landsat in 2020).

Another good exmple of coasted area drowing is Indonasia’s largest city and former capital

Jakarta. We can see the change in following satellites images:

 Fig. 2.7 ( Jakarta in 1990) Fig. 2.8 ( Jakarta in 2019)

Jakarta with the population around 32 million is Indonasia’s largest city is now at great risk of

being drown in sea. By some estimates around 40 percent of the city is now below sea level,

as we can see the difference in images taken by landsat satellites in 1990 and 2019 ( see

figure 2.7 and Fig.2.8).

3. Desertification : The degradation process of changing a fertile land to barren land or

loss of vegetation is called desertification. In last few decades because of climate

change desertification rate is getting accelerated all around the world. All the maojor

deserts of the world have expand their areas in last few decades. Expension of Sahara

desert can be seen in the following satellites pictures:

 Figure 3.1 Sahara desert’s southern boundary in 1978 ( image by landsat)

Figure 3.2 Sahara desert’s southern boundary in 2000 (image by landsat)

Figure 3.3 Sahara desert’s southern boundary in 2020 (image by landsat)

These satellites images are showing expansion of sahara desert in south direction. We can see

the dimishing vegetation in different coutries. According to UN research between 1990 and

2000, Nigeria lost an average of 409,700 hactares of forests each year. With an average of

2.38% per year, Nigeria lost 35.7% of it’s forest cover between 1990 and 2005. All neighbour

countries of Nigeria are also losing their forsest cover with almost same rate. We can clearly

see the loss of greenish area ( indicating vegetation) in the figures 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3.

4. Water scarcity : Almost 70% of earth’s area is covered by water still we are facing

problem of water scarcity, this is because water scarcity means non-availability or

insufficient availability of safe water. We are insufficient availability of safe water this

is because of increasing population of world and shrinking of water resources because

of global warming and desertification.

In following satellites images we can see shrinking of water resources :

Figure 4.1 Sawa lake in 1985 ( by landsat) Figure 4.2 Sawa lake in 2019 ( by

landsat)

Figure 4.3 Comaprasion of Sawa lake area in 1985 and 2019 (image by landsat)

Sawa lake is an important lake of Iraq. This lake has no inlet or outlet, but it draws water

from the Euphrates through a system of joint cracks. In 1985 lake had a perimeter of 12.4

kilometer having area equal to 4.99 square kilometers but it kept shrinking because of climate

change and global warming. In 2019 it’s perimeter was measured 10.8 kilometers and area

was only 3.22 square kilometers.

Another example of shrinking of water resources is Harmin lake of Iraq. It is one of the

biggest lake of Iraq, in 1985 it had perimeter of 132 kilometers and 265 square kilometrs

area. But it got shrinked and in 2008 it’s perimeter was measured only 47.8 kilometers and

area was about 38 square kilometers. After it got shrinked government of Iraq took some
serious and well directional steps to restore, thus in 2020 it got restored. In 2020 it’s

perimeter was measured was 147 kilometers and area was 263 square kilometers. We can

understand it’s phases by following satellites images:

Figure 4.4 Harmin lake in 1985 Figure 4.5 Harmin lake in 2008

Figure 4.6 Harmin lake in 2020 Figure 4.7 Comparasion of lake (in 1985, 2008 and

2020)

Thus Geospatial technology is playing an important role in monitoring different

environmental issues and making better policies for future.

Geospatial technology played an important role in some famous enviornment policies:

Right from starting geospatial technology has been playing an important role in making

environment policies. Here we are discussing some of the famous environment policies:

Singapore’s environment policy: Singapore is one of the most environment consious country

in the world. It has clear policy and vision about environment conservation. Some important

points of Singapore’s environment polices are:

a. Singapore is one of the most expensive country to own a car, because Singapore

government want it’s citizens to use public transport. Thus by making strict laws

government is protecting environment. They believe less cars on road, better

environment to live.

b. In singapore government restricted settlement area by providing government

apartments to it’s citizen. Singapore is the country with best public housing policy.

c. Singapore is world famous for it’s indoor gardens. This country has modernized indoor

gardens which act as air purifiers.

Denmark is one of the nations making maximum use of the geospatial technolgy for the

environment conservation. This country’s EPI score in 2022 was best in the world, it was

77.9. Denamark is one of of the handful countries on track to reach “net zero” carbon dioxide

emissions by 2050. Denmark has long focused upon sustainability, championing clean

products such as eco-friendly hotels, solar powered boats, organic farming any many more
but use of geospatial technology in these fields has given a new direction and speed to it’s

efforts.

Many other countries are also making use of geospatial technology to protect the

environment. America, Russia, Germany, India any many more are effectively using

technology and covers all the aspects necessary for conserving environment. For example

China has developed a global spaceborne-airborne ground earth observational system with a

view to solve natural resources and environmental issues.

Japan is establashing monitoring system for ecological hotspots of the worlds.

Africa is making use of GIS and sensing technology at large scale for urban land

management and preserve it’s natural resources.

CONCLUSION: Increasing population and it’s needs have intensified many environmental

issues which includes global warming, deforestation, desertification, sea level rise, ozone

depletion, water scarcity, biodiversity loss and many more, these environmental issues were

to be addressed at global level, eventually all nations came together and start working in this

direction. Concept of ‘sustainable development’ was considered the key solution to these

environmental issues. Development of geospatial technology made monitoring and tracking

of environment issues much easier. Concept of sustainability orginated in 1980s but only a

few countries are seriously working in this direction. Geospatial technology has made it much
faster and efficient to monitor environmental issues and making better policies for

environment conservation, but present competition of economical growth among the nations

is not letting them to compromise with their current working style and industrial growth. It

will not help in sustainability. Geospatial technology has been a good decision support system

in environment issue and sustainability. It enhance the meaning and quality of data collection

for the policy making. Use of AI, integrated databases is making this technology more useful

for future. But having only tools will not help, all the nations will have to work together for

the sustainability which includes sharing of technology and data.

References & Sources:

 Brundtland, G.H. (1987). Report of the world commission on environment and

development- Our common future.

 Campagna, M. (2005) GIS for sustainable development: CRC press.

 Adams, W.M. 2009, Green development: Environment and sustainability in a

developing world.

 United Nations (2002) Report of world summit on Sustainable development.

 United Nations (2012) The future we want.

 United Nations 1992- United nations conference on Environment & Development.

 Candice Gaukel Andrews, (2020) Forest conservation policies around the world.
 Sock Yong Phang, Singapore’s Environment policy.

 Hakim, W. et. Al. (2020) Land subsidence measurement of Jakarta Coastal Area using

times series interferometry with sentinel-1 SAR data, Journal of Coastal reasearch.

 Lu, D., Mausel, P. Brondizio, E. and Moran, E. (2004) Change detection techniques,

International journal of Remote sensing.

 NASA earth observatory (2019) World of change- Amazon deforestation.

 Chesapeake Bay Foundation (2019) Fox island Farewell.

 NASA earth observatory (2020) Rising water: How NASA is measuring Sea level

Rise.

 NASA earth observatory Uptick in Amazon fire acitivity (2020)

 NASA (2022) Landsat Legacy: NASA – USGS programe observing earth from space

turns 50.

 Pelto, M. (2018) Mount Tanggula glaciers.

 Song, C. & Sheng Y. (2016) Contrasting evolution pattern between glacier-fed and

non-glacier fed lake in the Tanggula Mountains.

 Khan, S.A. et. al. (2022) Accelerating ice loss from peripheral glaciers in North

Greenland- Geographical Research letters.