182
Space and Earth Remote Sensing: GIS Application to Environmental Impact Studies
A data base was created to collect all information concerning each lake (cartographic sketch, watershed, geographical framing, geological setting, chemical and
hydrobiological characteristics) and presented it in the form of tables.
The use of the in-progress G.I.S. is necessary to handle a great amount of multisource data and to allow the updating of information with field data that will be
collected in future sampling periods.
5
DISCUSSION
The realization of a G.I.S. in the study area could lead to the evaluation of G.I.S.
possibilities in environmental phenomena representation and could be helpful for
interdisciplinary integrated modeling of information collected by different
research groups. Moreover sampled lacustrine environments could be a reference
for future studies concerning environmental modifications due to atmospheric
long-range diffusion of polluting species. Pre-existing limnological information
collected in 1964 (Loffler, 1969) concerning 18 lakes, 9 of them sampled during
this project, could be a useful reference to evaluate anthropogenic alterations, by
means of lacustrine biocoenosis analysis (Manca et aI., 1994) and biomarker
analysis in lacustrine sediments (Guilizzoni and Lami, in press).
Data collection carried out from 1990 to 1993 is still inadequate in relation to
project aims because the sampled lakes are representative only of a partial area of
our lake cadastre, although the G.I.S. software realization is partly complete.
Consequently in 1994 further analyses are planned on unsampled lakes,
associated with geological surveying in unsurveyed areas, to define all factors
governing the basic hydrochemical composition of lacustrine waters. These
analyses, integrated with remote sensing data - i.e. on vegetation cover- will enable
development of mathematic modeling, which is the last step of the project.
6 CONCLUSION
The final form of the G.I.S. created in this Himalayan zone could also be applied,
with a few modifications, to Italian Alpine environments. This application could
redefine diffusion factors of acidifying elements, whose present definition is
inconsistent with pollution consequences in high altitude environments.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research activity was carried out within the framework of the Ev-K2-CNR
Project, promoted and sponsored by the Italian National Research Council (CNR),
and partially supported by the EEC Project CI*-CT 90-0855 (DTEE).
The authors express their grateful thanks to Dr Simona Ramponi for support in
planning the lake cadastre, and to Mr Luciano Previtali for kind attention to
graphic production.
Space and Earth Remote Sensing: GIS Application to Environmental Impact Studies
A data base was created to collect all information concerning each lake (cartographic sketch, watershed, geographical framing, geological setting, chemical and
hydrobiological characteristics) and presented it in the form of tables.
The use of the in-progress G.I.S. is necessary to handle a great amount of multisource data and to allow the updating of information with field data that will be
collected in future sampling periods.
5
DISCUSSION
The realization of a G.I.S. in the study area could lead to the evaluation of G.I.S.
possibilities in environmental phenomena representation and could be helpful for
interdisciplinary integrated modeling of information collected by different
research groups. Moreover sampled lacustrine environments could be a reference
for future studies concerning environmental modifications due to atmospheric
long-range diffusion of polluting species. Pre-existing limnological information
collected in 1964 (Loffler, 1969) concerning 18 lakes, 9 of them sampled during
this project, could be a useful reference to evaluate anthropogenic alterations, by
means of lacustrine biocoenosis analysis (Manca et aI., 1994) and biomarker
analysis in lacustrine sediments (Guilizzoni and Lami, in press).
Data collection carried out from 1990 to 1993 is still inadequate in relation to
project aims because the sampled lakes are representative only of a partial area of
our lake cadastre, although the G.I.S. software realization is partly complete.
Consequently in 1994 further analyses are planned on unsampled lakes,
associated with geological surveying in unsurveyed areas, to define all factors
governing the basic hydrochemical composition of lacustrine waters. These
analyses, integrated with remote sensing data - i.e. on vegetation cover- will enable
development of mathematic modeling, which is the last step of the project.
6 CONCLUSION
The final form of the G.I.S. created in this Himalayan zone could also be applied,
with a few modifications, to Italian Alpine environments. This application could
redefine diffusion factors of acidifying elements, whose present definition is
inconsistent with pollution consequences in high altitude environments.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research activity was carried out within the framework of the Ev-K2-CNR
Project, promoted and sponsored by the Italian National Research Council (CNR),
and partially supported by the EEC Project CI*-CT 90-0855 (DTEE).
The authors express their grateful thanks to Dr Simona Ramponi for support in
planning the lake cadastre, and to Mr Luciano Previtali for kind attention to
graphic production.