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The application of Remote Sensing and GIS for Phu Rua National Park Zoning, Loei Province, Thiland

Yongyut Trisurat,Apisit Eiumnoh,
Douglas R. Webster,Howard E. Daugherty
INRDM Program, Asian Institute of Technology
P.O. Box 2754, Bangkok 10501,


Abstract
National park zoning is a park management device, applied on the basis of primary determined goals, objectives, resource analyses, and the use capabilities of the park landscape. Phu Rua national Park was selected as a case study to illustrate how this zoning works. The zoning model was determined using the Linear combination method of multiple criteria. Each factor was ranked and weighted based on its suitability for each zone, However due to the lack of certain biophysical data, remote sensing, including landsat TM and serial photographs, were employed to collect up-to-date data of land -use / land -cover, streams and accessibility. A geographic Information System technique (ARC / INFO) was applied to evaluate the location of the zones. Five zones, including an Intensive use Zone, an outdoor Recreation Zone, a Primitive Zone, a strict Nature Reserve Zone and a recovery Zone based on the Thai Royal Forest Department's requirements are presented in this article .

Introduction
National Park zoning is important for national park management. It is the most common tool of park managers for separating areas of conflicting uses, and in managing areas for, multiples uses (IUCN, 1986). However it is not widely used for Thailand's national parks because most parks lack baseline data (Faculty of Forestry, 1987) Moreover, there are no standard zoning models; although the National Parks Division (NPD) has a policy to create park zoning.

This study deals with the application of remote sensing and GIS to national park zoning. Remote sensing can be used to provide up-to-date information, which is otherwise lacking, in a cost-effective way (Kankhamson, 1989) while GIS has abilities to store and process these spatial data (Burrough, 1986) for zoning purposes.

The study area is the Phu Rua National Park located in Loei Province, northeast of Thailand (Fig.1) . The park covers approximately 120 sq km of mountainous area. The objective of this research is to collect and establish baseline bio-physical data in computerized format for the delineation of five zones: an Intensive Use Zone, an Outdoor recreation Zone, a Strict nature reserve Zone, and a recovery Zone based on NPD policy and park goals.

Materials and Methods
The Study Proceeds in four stages. The first stage deals with collection and mapping of input data, including slope, elevation surface water, accessibility, geology, soil, vegetation, Wildlife habitat, existing facilities and outdoors recreation sites. Slope and elevation were derived from a 1:50000 topographic map, by digitizing contour lines and using the DEM model of the IDRISI package. Water and accessibility were also obtained from the topographic map, but a small stream was interpreted from serial photographs acquired in 1982; roads were updated using satellite image (Landsat TM 1989). Interpretation of Land sat imagery and by checking ground truth during soil survey and wildlife habitat inventory in the field. Geology was derived from the Mineral Resource department map prepared by Chairanggsri (1989). The last two variables (existing facilities and recreation sites) were supplied by the park office and field observation. All data mentioned above were digitized for computer at the scale of 1:50,000.


Fig. 1 Location of the Phu Rua National Park

The second stage of the study was the creation of a zoning model based on the purpose of the zone of criteria shown in Table 1.

The model used a linear combination method of ranking and. The ranking of each type (e.g. soil type) of each factor (e.g. soils) for each zone was considered in the basis of the characteristics of the types (e.g. for the soil type this might include permeability, texture, etc.) and all the costs and imapcts of the zone if located on this type. rating was assigned as suitable (3) moderate (2) and not suitable (1) However , some factors may have two levels i.e. suitable and not suitable Table 2.

1% : Rock exposed sandstone
2% : Coarse and conglomeratic sandstone
3% : Slitoneoccupying steep cliff
4% : Soft Sandstone, mudstone

Initially weighing was design o be obtained from questions districted t exerts and people concerned such as foresters envirnmentsits soil scientists and people concerned such as foresters, environmentalists, soil scientists and tourists. But the weighting score of the ordinal significant scale varied too much, because of the different knowledge a background of the respondents. This study used scores received only from forests. The scores are shown in Table 3. from this table it was found that slope, water, and accessibility are significant factors of an Intensive Use Zone. Slope, accessibility, and wildlife habitat are important for an outdoor recreation zone. Vegetation type and wildlife habitat are significant factors of a primitive zone, a strict nature Reserve Zone and a recovery zone. Soil is important for a Recovery zone for considering erosive and suitability.

According to ranks and weights the formula of the zoning model can be express follows:

IUZ : 6.2rl+6.1r2+6,7r4+7.5r6+9.7r7+5r8
ORZ : 7.7 r1 +7r2+6r3+3+8.2r4+6,9r5+7,5r6+8,2r7+8r8
PZ : 8.7r1+4.2r2+4r3+5,2r4+4.2r5+4,1r6+2.6r7+8.1r8
SNRZ : 8.2r1+4.542+3.7r3+4.7r4+4.2r5+3r6+2.1r7+9.6r8
RZ : 8.5r1+5.5r2+7r3+4.5r4+4r5+5.7r6+4.6r7+8.1r8

where r1, r2, r3, r4, r5, r6, r7, and r8 are the ranking score of the value of each charcteristics as presented in Table 2. respectively.

The third stage of the process was identification of suitability mapping for each zone. The ranks, weights and zoning models were written to perform the calculation of 8 variables by the defining look up table. The result of this stage was a suitability map for each of the zones, showing areas varying from suitable, moderate to not suitable. In the end these images were superimposed in order to get the final suggestion for management zoning . The criteria to revise the five preliminary zone boundaries consist of zone suitability class, and zone priority. If zones have the same suitable class, the priority is ranked from SNRZ, ORZ, PZ, IUZ, and RZ according to park goals and objectives that want to protect rare species, to provide outdoor recreation opportunities as well as to preserve water recharge area.

The existing facilities and outdoor recreation sites added directly to determine the suitability class of the Intensive Use Zone and suitability class of an Recreation zone respectively.

Results
  1. Obtaining the five management Zones

    The results of the four stages mentioned above are 5 management zone maps. All maps have three suitability classes of suitable, moderate and not suitable. The suitability scores were grouped into 3 classes: low , medium and high suitability. These data are used as guild lines and suggestions about where and activity will be located For example when the park officers want to enlarge the recreation area, they would consider the area of high suitability for this class as the first priority.

  2. Final management Mapping

    The final management zone map is made by considering suitability class, and zone The results of the face management zones and final map will be discussed during presentation.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the Japanese Government for funding support, and the National Research Council, the Mineral resource Department as well as the Royal Forest department for providing data. We are also grateful for the co-operation of all respondents and the park superintendents for providing accommodation and transformation during field work. Our thanks are expressed to Mr. FGeir-Harald Strand for teaching ARC/ INFO

References
  1. Burrough, P.A. 1986 Principles of Geographic Information systems for Land resources Assessment . Oxfords U.S.A

  2. Chairangsri, c. 1989 geology of the Phu Rua National Park; Report Thailand

  3. Faculty of forestry 1987 Assessment of National Parks, Wildlife sanctuaries and other Preserves development in Thailand Bangkok Thailand

  4. Hopkins, L.D. 1979 method for generating Land suitability maps: A Comparative Evaluation : AIP Journal U.S.A

  5. Mackinnon J.K Child , G. Thorsell J 1986 Managing Protected Areas in the Tropics IUCN Switzerland.

  6. Kankhamson, B. 1989 The use of Remote sensing in Assessing Deforestation and Its Effective on Environment in Thailand. Manuscript, AIT, Bangkok, Thailand .