Environment can be defined as the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.
Components of Environment
Environment mainly consists of atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. But it can be roughly divided into two types such as (a) Micro environment and (b) Macro environment. It can also be divided into two other types such as (c) Physical and (d) Biotic environment.
(a) Micro environment means the immediate local surrounding of the organism.
(b) Macro environment means all the physical and biotic conditions that surround the organism externally.
(c) Physical environment refers to all abiotic factors or conditions like temperature, light, rainfall, soil, minerals etc. It comprises of atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere.
(d) Biotic environment includes all biotic factors or living forms like plants, animals, Micro-organisms.
Canopy
The cover of branches and foliage formed by the crown of trees.
Canopy Density
Percent area of land covered by the canopy of trees, It is expressed as a decimal coefficient, taking closed canopy as unity.
Forest Cover
All lands, one hectare and more in area, with a tree canopy density of 10 percent or more irrespective of ownership and legal status. Such lands may not necessarily be a recorded forest area. It also includes orchards, bamboo and palm.
Forest Inventory
The measurement of certain parameters of forests to assess the growing stock and other characteristics of forests.
Geographic Information System (GIS)
A computer based system for capturing, storing, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data, which are spatially referenced to the earth.
Growing Stock
The sum (by number or volume) of all the trees growing/living in the forest or a specified part of it.
Hill District
A district with more than 50 percent of its geographic area under "hill talukas" based on criteria adopted by the Planning Commission for Hill Area and Western Ghats Development Programmes.
Land Cover
Broad land use classes interpreted from satellite data. It includes very dense forest, moderately dense forest, open forest, scrub and non-forest for the purpose of this report.
Mangroves
Salt tolerant evergreen forest ecosystem found mainly in tropical and sub-tropical coastal and/or inter-tidal regions.
Mangrove Cover
Area covered under mangrove vegetation as interpreted from remote sensing data. It is included in the forest cover. Water bodies and creeks are not included in the mangrove cover.
Reserved Forests (RF)
An area so constituted under the provisions of the Indian Forest Act or other State Forest Acts, having full degree of protection. In Reserved forests all activities are prohibited unless permitted.
Scrub
Degraded forest lands having canopy density less than 10 percent.
Spatial Resolution
The minimum area on earth's surface that can be captured by a satellite sensor as being separate from its surroundings and is represented by a "pixel".
Spectral Resolution
The range of wave lengths that a satellite imaging system can detect. It refers to the width and number of spectral bands. The narrower the bands, the greater the spectral resolution.
Very Dense Forest
Lands with forest cover having a canopy density of 70 percent and above.
