The Wetland Atlas of Orissa, which reveals information on the status and recharge areas of wetlands in the state, is expected to be useful for irrigation as well as academic and research purposes.
Besides, it can also identify the sites for aquaculture development useful for the fisheries department and development of ecosystem area for the tourism department. The atlas will also show state wise, district wise and toposheet wise wetlands of the state.
The State Wetland Atlas, jointly prepared by Orissa Space Applications Centre (ORSAC) and Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)-Ahmedabad was released on Monday by the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The atlas has estimated that the wetland areas in the state is spread across 690,904 hectares. While the inland wetlands constitute 66 per cent of the wetlands, coastal wetlands account for about 24 per cent.
Within the inland wetlands, natural and man made wetlands comprise 34 per cent and 32 per cent respectively of the area under wetlands.
The area estimates of various categories for the state have been carried out using the GIS (Geographic Information System) layers of wetland boundary, water spread, aquatic vegetation and turbidity.
The mapping programme of wetlands based on remote sensing technology is undertaken by ORSAC of the state Science and Technology department in collaboration with Space Applications Centre, ISRO-Ahmedabad under Natural Wetland Inventory and Assessment project of the Union ministry of environment and forests.