A PROJECT ON DEVELOPMENT OF RUBBER INFORMATION

SYSTEM: CURRENT STATUS

ABSTRACT

With the availability of some information about remote sensing of rubber vegetation
and soils under rubber, a project on development of database on some aspects of rubber
cultivation has been started. This project envisaged use of combination of remote sensing
and GIS to develop themes based on spectral reflectance as well as survey-based data in GIS
environment as a decision support system. Remote sensing technology is used to map rubber
plantations that form another theme. LISS – III data of IRS-1D was processed using
Geomatica Version 9.0. This first approximation of rubber distribution map can be refined
with enhanced ground truth including GPS. Good classification accuracy and signature
separability were observed in this supervised classification. The experience indicated that
similar work could be extended to other districts also so that the entire traditional rubber
cultivated area in Kerala can be covered under this project. However, further work is needed
to generate the other reflectance based themes like possible clone differentiation, biotic and
abiotic stresses etc in larger areas using satellite based remote sensing which could be put in
GIS for further handling.
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INTRODUCTION

With the fast changing Information Technology, the imagination of holding a PDA
(personal digital assistant) in the palm for data entry, retrieval and analysis and taking a quick
decision can possibly be realized by an Indian planter. A number of such PDAs or other
palmtops can be integrated with a desktop computer to store and display reports and data
from databases, accounting information, digital maps, simulation models, expert systems,
schedules and other basic data relevant to the planter’s day-to-day operations. Crop based
soil survey and mapping started in India with the initiative taken by the Rubber Research
Institute of India, Rubber Board and got the soils under rubber in Kerala and Tamil Nadu
mapped in 1:50000 scale (NBSS & LUP, 1999), in this direction of developing theme wise
database.

Remote sensing has been directly responsible for major advances in our
understanding and ability to manage agriculture, forestry and water resources.
With the growing experience and available technology it is felt that a rubber
plantation distribution map of a given geographic area could be extracted that could be used
as a layer in the GIS, in addition to the other layers.

All this led to formulation and initiation of a project called “Development of Rubber
Information System using Remote sensing and GIS techniques” with the aims to
1. Rubber distribution map in 1:50000 scale that can be created by Remote Sensing
Technology.
2. Soils under rubber using the input given by NBSS & LUP
3. Other themes like disease map, socio-economic conditions in a given region etc. put
in GIS environment and to
4. To rearrange the topo maps in to the district or any other required administrative units

DATA USED AND METHODOLOGY

Satellite data used:

This project is initiated for Kottayam district of Kerala State of India where rubber is
more concentrated. The project is envisaged to use both remote sensing and GIS techniques
for the development of database for further activities.
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Data processing:

The raw satellite imagery was opened in Focus module of Geomatica, version 9.0
developed by PCI Geomatics, Canada. The satellite imagery was geocoded with reference to
latitude and longitude by using Ortho engine module by collecting ground control points
(GCPs) from the topo sheets of Survey of India in 1:50000 scale.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The false colour composite (FCC) image of Kottayam district is given in figure 1.
Several features seen in the FCC included different vegetation types as indicated by various
tones and textures, water bodies, inhabited areas, roads, canal network and power lines etc.
spread over the district. The classified image by supervision using maximum likelihood with
null class algorithm is given in figure 2. Nine classes of surface features and a null class that
grouped unclassified pixels and their distribution in the district are shown in the figure. The
supervised classification grouped the pixels into three classes of rubber vegetation; two
classes related to paddy cultivation, mixed forests, coconut vegetation, shallow and deep
water bodies.

In the present project a theme of rubber distribution in a given geographical area is to

using the auto vectorization capability of the software, R2V.

The map of soils under rubber in Kottayam district showed a variety of soils at soils
series association level. This layer can form one theme in this project on rubber information
system.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Presently two themes related to rubber cultivated in the district of Kottayam are
available. It was seen that mapping of rubber vegetation in a given geographical area is
possible using remote sensing technology. Progressively the classification accuracy of
supervised classification can be improved including GPS surveys. With the advent of
technology in sensor development and resolution etc. it is certain that higher level of
accuracy of mapping can be achieved. It is presumed that with the latest sensor LISS IV of
IRS-P6 it would be possible to map diseases, rubber clones etc. with higher precision because
of its finer spectral resolution of 5.8 m. Geographical information system can be put into
operation to manage these different layers to develop a database that can form the basis of
rubber information system with regard to cultivation aspects, which eventually helps the
decision making by providing support.

REFERENCES

Rao, D.V.K.N and Pothen. J. (1995). Application of remotely sensed data in rubber
cultivation. Rubber Board Bulletin, 27(2): 24-30.

Rao, D.V.K.N. (2000). Productivity classification of soils under rubber (Hevea

Kottayam

Kanjirappally

Figure 1. False colour composite image of Kottayam district area

Figure 2. Vector maps of rubber classes

Unsurveyed

Figure 4. Soils map of Kottayam district