Monitoring of Vegetation and Soil Erosion Prediction along Pipelines

The construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Oil and South Caucasus Gas (SCP) pipelines was completed in 2005. The Azerbaijan section of BTC Oil and SCP Gas pipelines is 442 km long and 44 m wide corridor named as the Right-of-Way. BTC and SCP pipelines are aligned parallel to each other within the same 44m corridor. The construction process of the pipelines significantly disturbed vegetation and soil cover along Right-of-Way of pipelines. The revegetation and erosion control measures were conducted after the completion of construction to restore the disturbed footprints of construction activities. The general goals, dedicated to GIS- & Remote Sensing- based environmental monitoring of revegetation and planning of erosion control measures were: to evaluate the status of the revegetation in 2007 since the completion of the construction activities in 2005, to determine the climate and ground factors controlling the vegetation regrowth and to predict erosion-prone areas along Right-of-Way of pipelines. GIS and Remote Sensing were used to quantify vegetation percentage and to predict erosion-prone areas using USLE & MMF erosion prediction models along petroleum/gas pipelines.