Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Rainforest Roads

Deforestation in the Amazon comes in many ways, including deforestation by building roads. Fragmentation is a type of road building in the rainforest it is mainly used by loggers who will clear roads to get to the sites, and is often times regular. The roads beyond the agricultural region can be different than normal and very irregular. The irregular roads end up hurting the lad however the business brings huge sums of money to the population and probably won't stop soon. Using GIS it can be possible to find ways to make the process of building roads more efficient and even preserve parts of the non timber regions.

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Making a raster surface of timber volume based on survey data it is possible to find the areas with very high density of timber. The next step is to find the raster set up with the least amount of timber making it the easiest way to reach it. The roads that were built in a simulation took into account elevation because of how expensive the height difference can become and the wet areas that would be difficult to build through. In conclusion the mapping of the Amazon roads can lead to more efficient and less wasteful deforestation

5 comments:

  1. If deforestation is the problem at hand, it seems counterproductive to find alternative ways of deforestation rather than attack the problem at its "roots." This can only be a temporary solution.

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  3. I think this is a great example of how GIS can be invaluable to the environment and even to us. I wonder if other countries and rainforests, besides the Amazon, could use this technology in order to preserve their own environment. Also, I wonder how much it would cost the governments or the companies responsible for making roads if they implemented this technology.

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  5. It seems unlikely that deforestation will stop anytime soon, finding ways to disturb as little land as possible seems to be the best option at hand. I'm wondering how, and if, this will help the tourist economy of wherever it is used.

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