APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS 
FOR RENEWABLE RESOURCES 
DAMAGED BY TYPHOON ?*GAY? =: CHUMPHON PROVINCE 
Manu Omakupt 
Director of land Use Planning Division, 
Land Development Department, 
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Thailand. 
ISPRS Commission VII. 
Abstract 
On the 4th of November in 1989, Thailand encountered the natural disaster caused 
by typhoon ’Gay’ with it’s velocity near the storm's center of about 120 kilometer/hour. 
It extremely damaged the people of Chumphon Province in the southern part of Thailand. 
Remotely sensed data was only one source of information used to assess the degree of 
damage and to identify the areas. It was estimated that about 250,675 hectare of 
damaged were agricultural land with 446 deaths and 154 people injury. A number of 
38,002 houses were destroyed causing 153,472 people being homeless. 
Due to this natural disaster, the Thai government had to set the urgent policy, 
both short and long term development plans, in order to regain the normal life of the 
people who are living in this area. Land Use Planning Division, Land Development 
Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives was assigned to make proper land 
use plans to renew the damaged resources particularly agricultural areas. Recent 
advances in remote sensing technology and GIS has provided new and powerful tools for 
assisting resource planners and managers to use information effectively in making 
decisions on resource allocation and development. 
This paper will discuss how remote sensing and GIS can be applied to solve these 
problems rapidly and economically. 
Key Words : Remote Sensing, GIS, Renewable Resources. 
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