Dr. Sudip Kumar Bhattacharya : IAGR Conference 2024
Dr. Sudip Kumar Bhattacharya is a Former Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Applied Geography, North Bengal University, West Bengal, India. He started his academic carrier in the field of Geomorphology, Environment, Climatology, Biogeography, Pedology, RS and GIS. He has 60 research publications on the topics of Landslide disaster and management, Landslide vulnerability zonation, Impact of deforestation and management, Soil erosion and conservation, Water scarcity in the hill areas and management, Terrain evaluation and land use planning, Geomorphometry, Terrain Sensitivity Assessment and Management, Climate related issues, Population and Urbanization related issues etc in the various reputed International and National Journals like Transactions: Japanese Geomorphological Union; Environmental Earth Science: Springer, Environment, Development and Sustainability: Springer, Modeling Earth Systems and Environment: Springer, Spatial Information Research: Springer, SN Applied Sciences: Springer, International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences, Indian Journal of Soil Conservation; Geographical Review of India, MAUSAM, Indian Journal of Spatial Science and many other standard journals and edited books including Springer Nature Switzerland and monographs. He also edited one book which was published by Springer entitled ‘Monitoring and Managing Hazards under GIScience and Geo-environmental Modelling Series. Completed two Projects of UGC and North Bengal University as Principal Investigator. Dr. Bhattacharya did his Graduation in Geography Honours from Vidyasagar College, Kolkata under Calcutta University and completed his Master’s in Geography from Burdwan University, West Bengal. He was awarded Ph.D. degree by North Bengal University. His Ph.D. research work was on ‘River Basin Management’. .Six research scholars have been awarded Ph. D. degree under his supervision. One research scholar has submitted Ph. D. thesis under his supervision at present. Presently one chapter is under process for publication in the edited book of. Springer.
E-mail- skbhatt2002@yahoo.co.in, skbhatt_geog@nbu.ac.in
Title of Talk: Terrain Sensitivity, a rational way of classifying hill terrain for safe living: An integrated approach of GIS and Field Investigation
Abstract
Assessment of Terrain sensitivity is a process of determining the physical ability of a unit of terrain to withstand external pressure. All of us know that the hills all over the world are subjected to human pressure- related to living on the hills and human activities. Many reports come through media and news paper, even through academic papers that human over-burden on the hilly terrain create havocs and disasters. These are almost due to human’s ignorance or negligence to use hilly terrain without discrimination. A rational way can be achieved, if Digital Elevation data in GIS platform and thorough field investigation are integrated to classify hill terrain into different classes, so that, the degree of withstanding external pressure by the different unit of terrains can be ascertained for safe living in this congenitally weak portion of the earth’s surface. The hills of the Darjeeling district, as we know a region of morpho-techtonically complex and diversified landforms, has been chosen for this purpose where rapid agglomeration of population as well as hill tourism have resulted expansion of urban areas and business induced settlement growth in the picturesque landscape. The methodology adopted, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) & Proportional Value-added Rating (PVR) algorithm based natural Terrain Tolerance (TT) appraisal and Deduction method based human induced pressure determination, for classifying different Spatial Terrain Sensitivity zones. The entire work has been done giving equal emphasis on GIS based calculation and thorough field investigation. Four categories- High, Moderate, Marginal and Stable zones of Terrain Sensitivity have been found with their numerical values which call for different degrees of management planning for safe habitation.
Key Words: Terrain Sensitivity, havocs and disasters, Terrain Tolerance, MCDA, PVR, Deduction method
