Human Elephant Conflict

I am currently working for the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society. The field site is based just outside the Wasgamuwa National Park in the centre of the country. I will be using GIS to help out on a number of projects. The main issue for the organisation is Human Elephant Conflict (HEC). An increasing human population and loss of natural habitat has increased the conflict between the two species. This sadly results in deaths on both sides each year. Farmers will shoot elephants that encroach on their land and sometimes the farmers themselves are killed. Elephants eat crops and can knock down buildings.

 We came across a dead elephant and her calf in the park. You can't see the calf in the above photo.We were advised to stay in our vehicle as there were signs that the herd was still in the area. It seems the mother was shot outisde the park and wandered in and subsequently died. Its most likely the elephant was killed for getting too close to a property or crops.

A solution to the problem is to build electric fences around villages and farmland (above). The concept of the fences has evolved from that of keeping the elephants in the protected parks to keeping them away from villages and farms. Keeping the elephants in the park was too restrictive for their movement and bars them unnecessarily from wild habitat outside the park. It is more sensible to place the fences at eco-economic boundaries around villages. Where the fences have been maintained there has been in some places a 100% reduction in human elephant conflict.

A new system is being proposed called ele-alert. This is an alarm system which alerts  local administrators when a fence is damaged. A  gyroscope device is installed on each fence post. When the fence is knocked down the gyroscope triggers a text message which is sent to the local fence monitoring staff.

Also the elephants do not like citrus fruits so its possible to grow these types of vegetation around areas as a natural barrier. These structures are called bio-fences. Chilli plants are used as bio fences in Africa but interestingly the Asian elephant is not sensitive to chilli. The citrus bio fences do not just act as a barrier to elephants but also the fruits can be sold at local markets.

The happier sight of a elephants in Wasgamuwa Park. The main way I will be helping out using GIS is with land change analysis of remote sensing images and also just general GPS mapping of incidents and fence damage within the area.

Forest Eater

My time at HVO is almost up. I have just three weeks left. Whilst here I have developed two GIS models using ArcGIS Model Builder. The first is a probability model to map the probability that an area will be impacted by lava flows, The second is a lava channel model which predicts where lava will flow if there is an eruption by analysing a digital elevation model (DEM). I will post more about these models once they are completed.

Last week we went out to the Kilauea East Rift Zone flow fields. In the days previous to the trip some incredible lava flows had been viewed in the vicinity. The volcano was however now in deflation phase which meant that lava viewing may not be as good. Kilauea undergoes deflation-inflation events or DI events. These events represent phases of inflation and deflation of the volcanic system as magma fills the system and then leaves the system via lava flows or dropping back down into the deep magma chamber. These DI events are captured by GPS units and tiltmeters dotted around the volcano. Despite being in a deflation phase there was luckily still amazing sights to be seen on the flow field. The photo above shows a pāhoehoe lava stream flowing down the pali (cliff) just below the Royal Gardens subdivision.

The lava stream was feeding the a'a flow seen above. This a'a flow was moving slowly down the pali consuming any trees that were its in path. Its easy to understand how the Hawaiian God, Ai-laau which means forest eater got his name.

At the base of the pali on the costal plain there were abundant surface pāhoehoe flows like the one shown above. On my previous trips these surface flows have been hard to find but on this occasion they seemed to be beyond count with new breakouts appearing all the time.

images courtesy of USGS

Kilauea eruption overflight

I went on the weekly Kilauea eruption overflight on 7th January. It was definitely up there with my best experience on Hawaii. The volcano is currently erupting in two locations; at the summit and on the East Rift Zone. We took off from the park visitor centre and headed for the Halema'u ma'u crater at the summit then onto the Pu'u O'o vent on the rift zone (above) and over to the flow fields down by the Ocean.

We landed on the flow fields to put a new memory card in a webcam and took a lava sample from an active lava breakout (above). There is a lava tube system running underground from the East Rift Zone down into the Ocean. Lava can breakout from these tubes when a magma pulse is sent through the rift system. We sampled the lava with a hammer then cooled it rapidly in a bucket of water. The hardened sample is then bagged and sent off to the lab for analysis.

Normally lava flows have been flowing directly into the ocean producing the plume mentioned in previous posts. The ocean entry has temporarily switched off due to a lack of supply to the rift zone (the above photo shows the absence of any plumes). This lack of supply be a blockage which has caused a backing up of magma to the summit area resulting in the increased activity as described below.

We also landed right by the Pu'u O'o crater where we cleaned a webcam screen as it gets very murky from the continuous gassing.

Approaching the Halema'u ma'u vent within the Kilauea caldera.

The above picture is looking down into the Halema'u ma'u vent. There has been a lava lake present in the vent for some months but recently activity has increased and the lake has risen to high levels. The picture above shows a rapid lava stream rushing from an upwelling to a draining point on the North side of the vent. A second lava stream is cascading down onto this flow.

images courtesy of USGS

HVO Fieldwork #2

We ventured down into the Kilauea caldera with gas masks at the ready to undertake a kinematic gps survey. Andy Pitty and I did the gps while Ingrid and Mike Poland went ahead to do a gravity survey. The halema'uma'u vent (above) has been active since March 2008 so the area we were working in is off limits to the public.

Unlike the static GPS units mentioned in my previous post, these units are designed for mobility. The survey involves taking readings at set benchmarks along a survey line in the caldera. Any small changes in the position of the benchmarks give indications of deformation which could preceed an eruptive phase.

A gravity survey was also conducted. These expensive and incredibly sensitive devices measure the torque on a metal spring attached to a weight to measure local gravity anomalies. These anomalies could indicate movement of magma beneath the surface.

images courtesy of USGS

HVO Fieldwork #1

I'll be starting some GIS work here on Hawaii soon but in the meantime I've been assisting the geologists in the field. This has been a great help is getting to know the lay of the land and the basics of Hawaiian geology.

I took my first ever chopper ride up to near the caldera of Mauna Loa. Here we sampled from several plots to weigh lithics and pyroclastic material ejected during previous eruptions. We were at approx 4000 meters and the work was tough going at such high altitudes.

A couple of days later we undertook a gruelling trek across old lava to reach the hot new stuff. It was well worth the toil as I saw lava for the first time. We witnessed a few breakouts from the lava tubes as the lava made its way to the Pacific Ocean from the East Rift Zone. A huge plume is formed where the hot lava meets the cool ocean.


After giving oursleves a day to recover we then trecked out to the Pali (Hawaiian for cliff) to retrieve GPS receivers. These receivers are far larger and more accurate than the average hand held devices that most people are used to. They are accurate to within 1 cm. The receivers are used to measure any movement of material. The old lava is slowly spreading from the Pali towards the ocean but 'rapid' movements can occur due to seismic and volcanic events.



images courtesy of USGS

The Big Island

Aloha! I still can't quite believe it, but I've landed a job at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. I will be modelling the topography of lava flow inundation paths and also looking at ashfall zones and volcanic plumes. The observatory is located on Hawai'i (The Big Island), right by the caldera of Kilauea, the most active volcano on the planet. I'm hoping to be out there for 3 - 6 months.

images courtesy of USGS

Finalmente!

At last my masters is over! I'm now going to be leaving my job at Foster + Partners to do some voluntary work abroad (more to follow). I've included the final habitat suitability map for the Magellanic woodpecker. Please see the separate website for more details.