Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing are geospatial technologies that have been used for many years in environmental studies, including gathering and analysing of information on the physical parameters of wildlife habitats and modelling of habitat assessments. The home range estimation provided in a GIS environment offers a viable method of quantifying habitat use and facilitating a better understanding of species and habitat relationships. This study used remote sensing, GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) application tools as methods to assess the habitat parameters preference of Asian elephant. Satellite images and topographical maps were used for the environmental and topographical habitat parameter generation encompassing land use-land cover (LULC), Normalized Digital Vegetation Index (NDVI), water sources, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), slope and aspect. The kernel home range was determined using elephant distribution data from satellite tracking, which were then analysed using habitat parameters to investigate any possible relationship. Subsequently, the frequency of the utilization distribution of elephants was further analysed using spatial and geostatistical analyses. This was followed by the use of AHP for identifying habitat preference, selection of significant habitat parameters and classification of criterion. The habitats occupied by the elephants showed that the conservation of these animals would require good management practices within and outside of protected areas so as to ensure the level of suitability of the habitat, particularly in translocation areas.
This paper presents analyses of the land use and land cover change of the Langat-Dengkil sub-catchment and the deforestation of the Klang-Langat catchment in the context of water resource availability. The Langat-Dengkil sub-catchment lies within the upper catchment of Klang-Langat. For both catchments, the landsat TM and ETM satellite imageries, ERDAS Imagine 8.4 and ArcView/Arc GIS softwares were used to detect spatial and temporal changes in land use and deforestation between the year 1990 and 2001. For Klang-Langat deforestation, CLUE model was used to forecast change up to year 2020 using two set scenarios. Langat-Dengkil sub-catchments experienced multiple changes of land use and land cover at varying quantum for the years 1990 and 2001. It was found that forest land and agriculture were reduced by 9.5% (4,303 ha) and 17.3% (11,598 ha), respectively. During the same period (1990 to 2001), urbanised land has increased by nearly six folds (18,860 ha). Land use change matrix has indicated that the increase of urbanised area was at the expense of agriculture and forest land. For Klang-Langat catchment, the deforestation for 1989 – 1999 were also serious. About 36,351 ha were deforested including 12,244 ha of Permanent Forest Reserve. Deforestation prone areas are located within 1000 m from major access, 2000 m from town, confined to altitude less than 100 m and within slope of less than 5o. Projection for year 2020 has predicted that if the Permanent Forest Reserve is strictly protected, deforestation will be reduced to 22,340 ha or 22%. Otherwise, it will be heavily deforested at 50,851 ha or 50%. Both results showed that the accelerated land use change and deforestation can only be mitigated through stringent management of land conversion, and as for the forest, it has to be through the total protection by law. This can be achieved by strengthening the Permanent Forest Reserve law and the commitment in adopting sustainable resource policy.
In Malaysia, there is an abundance of tropical heritage trees throughout the country. Heritage trees are natural large trees with exceptional value due to association with age or special event or distinguished people. For sustainable heritage trees conservation, it is essential to set up a repository of such trees to prevent the trees from being destroyed unwittingly. In this regard, a general, yet localised framework for assessment and classification of the trees is essential. In this study, ten assessment and classification criteria with a total of forty-one sub-indicators were formulated. The framework supplements the general, easy-to-understand Tree Assessment for Heritage (TreeAH) model with localised Malaysian arborists’ expert opinions elicited via rigorous Delphi and focus group techniques. The framework facilitates tree care experts the election of nominated trees as heritage trees. Efforts are currently underway by the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) to refine and customise the framework with more specific assessment scales and questionnaire for the purpose of quantifying values of trees in the FRIM campus in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur for UNESCO world heritage site application. Preliminary result shows promising prospect of the framework being used not only for the FRIM’s use case but also at a larger scale nationwide for heritage tree assessment and classification.
The hydrological effects of climate variation and land use conversion can occur at various spatial scales, but the most important sources of these changes are at the regional or watershed scale. In addition, the managerial and technical measures are primarily implemented at local and watershed scales in order to mitigate adverse impacts of human activities on the renewable resources of the watershed. Therefore, quantitative estimation of the possible hydrological consequences of potential land use and climate changes on hydrological regime at watershed scale is of tremendous importance. This paper focuses on the impacts of climate change as well as land use change on the hydrological processes of river basin based on pertinent published literature which were precisely scrutinized. The various causes, forms, and consequences of such impacts were discussed to synthesize the key findings of literature in reputable sources and to identify gaps in the knowledge where further research is required. Results indicate that the watershed-scale studies were found as a gap in tropical regions. Also, these studies are important to facilitate the application of results to real environment. Watershed scale studies are essential to measure the extent of influences made to the hydrological conditions and understanding of causes and effects of climate variation and land use conversion on hydrological cycle and water resources.