Identification of potential wetlands in Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu, India

Wetland maps are prerequisites for wetland inventory, development, planning, management, protection, and restoration, for conservation of wetland-dependent flora, fauna and humans. It is estimated that 15.26 million hectares exists as wetlands in India according to Space Application Centre (SAC), pertaining to wetlands having more than 56 hectares area. Past research on wetland conservation in the country has shown that micro-wetlands (satellite wetlands) around a bigger wetland act as constellation of habitat mosaic for resident and migratory waterfowls. Often, the size of these micro-wetlands is much smaller than 50 hectares. Therefore, there is a great need to map such wetlands (smaller than 50 hectares). The Tiruchirappalli district, situated in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, is selected for the present investigation to identify the potential wetlands through geo-spatial technology (GIS & RS). All the wetlands within the Tiruchirappalli district have been demarcated from 1973 applying temporal remote sensing data. A total of 2399 wetlands of various size categories have been identified in the Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu, India.