Application of Remotely Sensed Data and Geographic Information System in Watershed Management Planning in Imha, Korea

The use of remotely sensed data and geographic information system (GIS) to develop conservation-oriented watershed management strategies on Imha Dam, Korea, is presented. The change of land use for study area was analyzed using multi-temporal Landsat imagery. A soil loss model was executed within a GIS environment to evaluate watershed management strategies in terms of soil loss. In general, remotely sensed data provide efficient means of generating the input data required for the soil loss model. Also, GIS allowed for easy assessment of the relative erosion hazard over the watershed under the different land use change options. The soil loss model predicted substantial declines in soil loss under conservation-oriented land management compared to current land management for Imha Dam. The results of this study indicate that soil loss potential (5,782,829 ton/yr) on Imha Dam in 2003 is approximately 1.27 times higher than that (4,557,151 ton/yr) in 1989. This study represents the first attempt in the application of GIS technology to watershed conservation planning for Imha Dam. The procedures developed will contribute to the evolution of a decision support system to guide the land planning and dam management in Imha Dam.