Conservation recommendations for Nee Soon 
195 
Table 1. Continuation. 
# Aims 
Achievements 
9 Publish work on swamp 
forest ecology and the 
development of eco- 
hydrological models 
in international, peer- 
reviewed scientific 
journals 
So far, one guide book (Ho et al., 2016), one book chapter (Cai et 
al., 2016), nine journal papers (Neo et al., 2016, 2017; Sun et al., 
2015, 2016; Chong et al., 2016; Li et al., 2016; Lim et al., 2016; 
Tan et al., 2016; Wendi et al., 2016) and 18 conference papers 
have been published. Another eight papers have been accepted for 
publication (Cat et al., 2018; Chong et al., 2018; Clews et al., 2018; 
Ho et al., 2018; Kutty et al., 2018; Lim et al., 2018; Nguyen et al., 
2018; Sun et al., 2018). 
and ortho-images to act either as direct input to a GIS system or as the basis for the 
production of hardcopy image maps or line maps. 
Ecohydraulic models require approximation of evapotranspiration (ET), which 
is difficult to measure in the field. For the purposes of the Nee Soon freshwater 
swamp forest study, ET data from MODIS satellite were used. These satellite data 
compared reasonably well with Leaf Area Index (LAI), which is the ratio of total 
upper leaf surface of vegetation divided by the surface area of the land on which the 
vegetation occurs. Beyond simple applications for theoretical purposes, hydrological 
and hydrodynamic models operate on spatial grids, requiring the different types of 
information to be spatially compatible. Under the broad theme of remote sensing and 
mapping, the Geospatial team managed and quality-assured the efforts of the direct 
topographic survey, conducted remote sensing for additional data acquisition, and 
converted all data into spatial formats suitable for utilisation by the hydrological 
modelling team. 
Surveyors were engaged to conduct direct topographic surveys in Nee Soon 
freshwater swamp forest. Following quality assurance checks, the field data were 
converted into shape files and compiled for upload to the geodatabase. The data were 
then processed to generate i) a 3D drainage network for Nee Soon freshwater swamp 
forest; and ii) 1,647 cross-sectional profiles at 5 m spacing along the network. These 
outputs were provided to the hydrological modelling team. 
A file geodatabase was established using ESREs ArcGIS Platform. The 
Geodatabase created forms the Nee Soon Freshwater Swamp - Geographical 
Information System (GIS) which helps to organise, manage and analyse data spatially 
(geo-referenced) and non-spatially pertaining to the study. 
In order to establish the geodatabase, the version of ArcGIS utilised was ArcGIS 
10.1 for desktops. ArcGIS is a proprietary GIS suite of systems developed by ESRI 
(Environmental Systems Research Institute). The ArcGIS suite’s components include 
ArcMap, ArcCatalog and ArcToolbox, which allow users to author, analyse, map, 
manage, share, and publish geographic information. ArcGIS works with geographic 
information managed in geodatabases as well as in numerous GIS file formats. The 
geodatabase is the native data structure for ArcGIS and is the primary data format 
