The Role of GIS in Disaster Studies Such as Tectonic Activities in Chotatawa River Basin, Madhya Pradesh, India

Disasters can result from meteorological phenomena such as typhoons and hurricanes, sheet flooding and marine and river-based floods; geological processes such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes. Earthquake hazards assessment of a region is based on the past earthquakes, tectonic considerations. Tectonic landforms express a broad spectrum of topographic features that can be employed as indicators of the style, magnitude and rate of timing of tectonic movements. The tectonic activities may be episodic or may occur at very low rate for prolonged period. The thematic maps of geomorphology, slope, lineament, vegetation index and morphotectonic parameters of study area have been prepared using Landsat 7 ETM+ digital data. These theme are integrated in GIS environment to assess the active tectonic potential in the area. The observed five high potential zones in the area are located at the intersection of NE-SW and E-W lineaments. The study brings out methodology for assessing active tectonic potential of the area.