GIS BASED FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR AIRSHIP TRAVEL IN A PART OF UTTARANCHAL STATE

Abstract

In this modern age, transportation is very much required to connect places to each other. Transportation serves as a useful means to carry the ideas and inventions to the people of different countries, and thereby contributing considerably to the development of civilization. Transportation is the need for advancement of community, economic prosperity, general development, strategic movement in emergency for defence of the country and to maintain better law and order. Surface transport, like road and rail can provide better means of transport for passengers and freight movement, but areas where terrain is highly undulated laying of surface transport- infrastructure is a very difficult task. In such situations, aviation sector is the only alternative mode of transport to connect the remote areas in speedy and efficient manner. It can reach the inaccessible areas where other modes of transport may not be possible and such areas can be economically developed. Air transport can be used for rescue operations, medical help, sending perishable items (like, fruits and flowers) and to boost the tourism industry, telecommunication platforms, law enforcement, and for military uses " like, patrol and survillence, airborne early warning, landmine countermeasures, peace keeping roles etc. However, traditional air transport may require large infrastructure, and moreover passengers or goods transported by conventional aircraft are almost always transferred by another mode of transportation before they arrive at their destination. Hence, airship travel may be an alternate mode of transportation for Uttaranchal State. GIS based studies are very useful in planning purpose. By developing virtual model of terrain, planners can view the actual terrain conditions while sitting on the computer itself. It allows to navigate actual geographies. It is not only used to visulaise terrain from different angles but also useful to view the buildings and roads on high-resolution images. Training of pilot to special airplanes and dangerous situations can be managed with much cheaper and more harmless manner using virtual terrain. The use of virtual becomes essential, if work has to be done in hazardous and difficult areas. iii In this study, an attempt has been made to identify the best possible routes for airship travel. For this study, the data about tourist statistics, medical facilities and fruits production in different districts have been collected. Depending on this data, districts of Uttaranchal State are categorized into high, medium, low potential districts for airship travel. Haridwar, Dehradun, Nainital, Almora and Uttarkashi have been identified as high potential districts for airship travel. Bagheswar, Champawat, Chamoli, Pithoragarh, Pauri and Udham Singh Nagar have been identified as medium potential districts for airship travel. Tehri and Rudraprayag have been identified as low potential districts for airship travel. Two possible routes have been identified for airship travel in High and Medium potential areas. For these routes i.e. (i) Nainital-Uttarkashi-Nainital (via Lansdowne, Dehradun) and (ii) Nainital-Uttarkashi-Nainital (via Pauri, Tehri) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) has been created and best possible flight path has been identified and marked on DEM. Virtual GIS has also been developed for these two routes to visualise the actual terrain conditions in 3-D.