FAO FISHERIES TECHNICAL PAPER 318 Geographical information systems and remote sensing in inland fisheries and aquaculture |
by
Dr Geoffery J. Meaden
33 St Stephen's Road
Canterbury, Kent CT2 7 JD
UK
and
Dr James M. Kapetsky
Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service
FAO Fisheries Department
Reprinted 1995
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M-40
ISBN 92-5-103052-9
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 1991
© FAO
The FAO Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service has been active for some years in promoting the use of remote sensing and geographical information systems in fisheries and aquaculture. Promotional activities have been carried out by holding training courses and workshops. However, of necessity, the attendance is limited. A larger audience can be reached only by the distribution of technical material. This document was prepared to meet the need for a reference to remote sensing and geographical information systems that maintains a balance between the technologies and their applications in fisheries and aquaculture. Comments are welcome. Information about related, on-going work can be obtained by writing to:
Chief, Inland Water Resources and
Aquaculture Service
FAO, Via delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome Italy.
Distribution:
FAO Fisheries Department
FAO Regional Fishery Offices
Directors of Fisheries
CIFA Mailing List
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Authors
Meaden, G.J.; Kapetsky, J.M. Geographical information systems and remote sensing in inland fisheries and aquaculture. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 318. Rome, FAO. 1991. 262p. |
ABSTRACT |
The rapidly rising world population is causing both a pressure on land and water space and the need to greatly increase food output. A realistic and practicable way of supplying more food protein is to increase fish production through the extension of aquaculture and inland fisheries. Since production sites for these activities need to satisfy fairly complex location criteria, it is important that suitable areas are identified and preferably designated in advance. The location criteria which control aquaculture and inland fisheries are identified and described. These mainly consist of physical and economic considerations though social factors may be important. It is necessary to obtain data to allow for its mapping. The various alternatives for assembling this data are described. |
Two fields of applied science and technology have recently emerged which, when used in combination, can greatly assist in the spatial decision-making process. The fundamentals of the first of these, remote sensing, are described giving particular emphasis to the commercial, high resolution environmental satellites and the sensing devices which they carry. The manner in which the aerial photographic and digital images which are produced can be processed and applied to the search for optimum fish production locations is described, and then indications are given as to where and how remotely sensed data can best be procured. Once the various types of locational data are assembled, the necessary maps on which location decisions are made can be drawn up. This task can be greatly expedited by using the second applied science and technology field, that of “geographical information systems”. This emerging methodology relies on the increasing power of the computer to process vast amounts of spatially referenced and encoded data in such a way as to produce any desired maps, tabular or textual output, using a large array of ways to manipulate the data. The required computer hardware and software are reviewed, including examples where appropriate, and we show the considerations which are necessary in setting up a geographical information system for the development and management of aquaculture and inland fisheries. We conclude by giving an divergent selection of relevant case studies. |
A number of recurrent and worrying themes increasingly intrude into the comparatively comfortable lives of so many of us - famine, environmental degradation, climatic change, desertification, poverty,inequality, population pressures - and so on. There is a sense in which this study is about all of these things. At the root of many of the problems lies the inability of people to provide for themselves at a most basic level - that is to provide a suitable means of producing sufficient food.
A proliferation in the production of fish may well be part of the solution to this problem. Most readers of this study will be aware that in a few areas of the world, notably in eastern and South-East Asia, intensive and extensive forms of fish rearing have been successful over a very long period of time. Attempts have been made to replicate this success elsewhere but these efforts have had surprisingly little impact, except where aquaculture has been initiated in a highly commercial, intensive form. So, throughout much of the developing world, even where fish production has a great potential to be enhanced, there remains a dominant reliance on imported fish products whose origins are mainly from the decreasing wild-catch fisheries.
One of the barriers both to increasing fisheries output and to enhancing the diffusion processes concerning aquacultural techniques, has been the lack of data on, and methods for, optimizing production locations. A reason for this is that we have generally failed to grasp the significant part which spatial variations, in either physical, economic or social factors, play in the success of a production enterprise. This study is an attempt to show how two rapidly emerging technologies can be utilized to greatly speed up, and make more efficient, location optimizing processes, and how the technologies can allow for a thorough examination of the many spatially variable factors which might affect or control fish production.
The study is written primarily for a variety of personnel in fisheries departments, both in the developing and developed countries. However, since it covers a lot of material relevant to remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS), then it could be of value to, amongst others, geographers, agriculturalists, location analysts and to any persons interested in promoting, learning or teaching about these two emerging technologies. We have aimed the study at about undergraduate level, though it could easily be followed by a wider audience since we very deliberately strived to avoid unnecessary jargon and those many acronyms which are so beloved in the worlds of remote sensing and computing! We have also provided further basic reading on particularly important areas covered by the script. Though we are aware that the study will, in some parts, quickly become dated, we are confident that many of the main ideas will enjoy a longer term of relevance, and that a small amount of judicious research could soon make up for the fact that scientific implementation has overtaken us.
After a brief introduction, which sets the scene on both the importance of increasing fisheries production and on securing and optimizing sites for this production, Chapter 2 explains, in varying degrees of detail, the factors which control fish production in both the aquaculture and inland fisheries environments. A large number of mostly physical and economic production functions are identified and discussed. Before any spatial optimization of production can occur, it is necessary to procure relevant data. In Chapter 3 we detail collection techniques for obtaining both primary and secondary data and we suggest that, where this data is lacking or unsuitable, then use might be made of “proxy” data. However, one of the major data sources, remote sensing, is given a complete chapter (No.4) since the data obtained is likely to prove of paramount importance when locations are being considered in much of the developing world, i.e. where traditional spatial data may be non-existent. Additionally, RS data can easily be secured in a favourable, digitized form. We give some background to thetheory and history of RS, we look at different satellites and sensing systems and we briefly cover some of the data processing procedures. We then examine some of the practical and potential uses of RS plus the methods of acquiring and using the necessary imagery. Chapter 5 takes an in-depth look at those traditional mapping sources which have been used in location analysis, looking first at both topographic and thematic maps generally, and then at how thematic maps can be specifically utilized to provide useful information for location optimizing in aquaculture or inland fisheries, or as a source of input data for GISs. In Chapter 6 we examine GISs in some detail, showing first their evolution and development and then going through a step-wise description of how the system's function and the necessary requisites for this functioning in terms of hardware and software. We also show benefits and problems of using GIS and the necessary considerations which must be given before adopting a GIS. We conclude with a variety of case studies which are aimed at showing applications of both RS and GIS to aquaculture and inland fisheries.
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