The Western Ghats, which is among 36 global biodiversity hotspots, saw a loss of 5% evergreen forest cover with an increase of 4.5% built-up cover, and 9% agriculture area, according to the spatiotemporal analyses of land use, highlighting anthropogenic induced developmental thrust. Fragmentation analyses also highlight that interior forest constitutes only 25% of the forest landmass, depicting the fragmentation pressure, impacting local ecology.
These revelations come from the Indian Institute of Science’s Energy and Wetlands Research Group launched the Western Ghats Spatial Decision Support System (WGSDSS), which has been designed as part of the ongoing ecological research in the Western Ghats. This, researchers say, enhances governance transparency while meeting societal needs, which helps in the prudent management of ecologically and hydrologically vital Sahyadri hill ranges.
Web-based spatial decision support system (WSDSS) is designed by integrating free and open source software (GeoServer, PostgreSQL, GeoTools, OpenLayers, and integration of spatial information of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards to carry out a multiple criteria analysis. Features such as Web Map Service (WMS), and Web Feature Service (WFS) would help in accomplishing effective dissemination of the ecological, socio, economic, biodiversity, and environmental information, said the researchers.
