Mukund Rao

Land use change analysis of Bharatpur district using GIS

Knowledge on area and distribution of land uses plays an important role in district planning. An attempt has been made here to study existing land use pattern and changes in the land use pattern of Bharatpur district. Multi-date remote sensing data (1986 and 1989) has been used for the purpose. Seventeen land use maps on 1∶50,000 scale were prepared. ARC/INFO GIS package has been employed for the land use analysis. GIS package has also been used to relate the land use information to the villages and arrive at tentative comparison of land use as is reported in Census and as obtained from the remote sensing. Major findings in land use pattern of Bharatpur district are a) that the land use pattern in Bharatpur district is not similar to that of general land use pattern prevalent in Rajasthan State as a whole, b) Agriculture is the predominant user of land occupying about 75 percent of the reporting area, c) Forest cover in the district is not very significant and it has been depleted from 5.6 percent to 3.1 percent, d) the area under pastures and tree crops is also negligible and e) Area under waste land (eroded land, undulating terrain with or without scrub and rock out crops has been increased from 6.34 percent to 7.89 percent. The area under salt affected land, sandy area and water logged area has been decreased from 6.83 percent to 2.09 percent.

Strategising for the future Indian EO programme

Abstract The Indian Earth Observations Program, over the past three decades, has been mainly driven by the national need of natural resources management, infrastructure development, environment monitoring and disaster management support. With an array of seven Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS), national development support has been supported, through a well-knit institutional framework of a National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS), a wide variety of applications developed as an inter-agency effort over the past 20 years. Now, the capacity of the programme has been extended into the global arena and IRS is providing operational data services to the global user community. The future Earth Observation Systems will have to take into consideration the aspects related to the commercialisation and standardisation of programmes world-over; transitioning into a business environment; data continuity and the need to monitor processes rather than events. Technological changes are also going to re-define many of the concepts of observation from space and issues like spatial resolution, spectral resolution and temporal resolution may no more be a concern for observation systems. ISRO is presently defining a strategy for the Indian EO Programme that will chart the progress with a vision for the next 25 years. Based on a thorough analysis, the observation needs of the future are planned and presently systems design and implementation are underway. The Need Analysis has been done keeping in mind the Global change applications; Mapping and Cartographic applications; Natural Resources and Environmental management applications etc. Issues related to defining the space and data acquisition as a national “public good”, costing of data products and services and evolving a commercial remote sensing policy have been addressed for providing the overall thrust of the Indian Earth Observations program. The paper discusses the strategy adopted for assessing the future user requirements and also for defining the future Indian missions - which are applications specific solutions. The paper discusses the evolution of the strategy, in the early stages now, and its transition to support a two-pronged strategy of supporting national development and, at the same time, developing a commercial business enterprise. The need to generate newer user segments and develop newer services and products has been recognised from the utilisation point of view. The impact on utilisation accruing from these proposed missions has also been assessed and is discussed in the paper.

National spatial data infrastructure - coming together of GIS and EO in India

Abstract A new wave of technological innovation is allowing us to capture, store, process and display an unprecedented amount of geographical and spatial information about Society and a wide variety of environmental and cultural phenomena. Much of this information is “spatial” - that is, it refers to a coordinate system and is representable in map form. Current and accurate spatial data must be readily available to contribute to local, state and national development and contribute to economic growth, environmental quality and stability, and social progress. India has, over the past years, produced a rich “base” of map information through systematic topographic surveys, geological surveys, soil surveys, cadastral surveys, various natural resources inventory programmes and the use of the remote sensing images. Further, with the availability of precision, high-resolution satellite images, data enabling the organisation of GIS, combined with the Global Positioning System (GPS), the accuracy and information content of these spatial datasets or maps is extremely high. Encapsulating these maps and images into a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is the need of the hour and the emphasis has to be on information transparency and sharing, with the recognition that spatial information is a national resource and citizens, society, private enterprise and government have a right to access it, appropriately. Only through common conventions and technical agreements, standards, metadata definitions, network and access protocols will it be easily possible for the NSDI to come into existence. India has now a NSDI strategy and the “NSDI Strategy and Action Plan” report has been prepared and is being opened up to a national debate. The first steps have been taken but the end-goal is farther away but in sight now. While Government must provide the lead, private enterprise, NGOs and academia have a major role to play in making the NSDI a reality. NSDI will require for coming together of various “groups” and harmonizing their efforts in making this national endeavor a success. The paper discusses how the convergence of technologies is being strategised in NSDI - specifically of EO images and GIS technologies and how the nation would benefit from access to these datasets. The paper also discusses and illustrates with specific examples the techniques being developed and how the NSDI would support development efforts on the country.

INDIAN REMOTE SENSING SATELLITES: PLANNED MISSIONS AND FUTURE APPLICATIONS

Abstract To cater the enhanced user demands, Indian Space Research Organisation is stepping a giant leap forward towards development of the state-of-the-art second generation Indian Remote Sensing Satellites, IRS-1C/1D following the successful design, launch and in-orbit performance of the first generation satellites, IRS-1A/1B. Characterised by improved spatial resolution, extended spectral bands, stereo-viewing and more frequent revisit capability, IRS-1C/1D are expected for launch during the timeframe of 1995-96/8. The IRS-1C and ID, which are identical, will have three major payloads. The Linear Imaging Spectral Scanner (LISS-III) in four spectral bands covering from 0.52 to 1.70 microns will have a spatial resolution of 23m along with a swath of 142 km in the visible and NIR spectral bands and a spatial resolution of 70m along with a swath of 148 km in the SWIR spectral band. The Panchromatic Camera (PAN) with a spectral band of 0.50 to 0.75 microns will have a spatial resolution of Having marked by the successful launch of IRS-P2 in 1994 through the indigenous development flight of PSLV, India is now poised to launch IRS-P3 satellite with unique payloads in the timeframe of 1995–1996 The IRS-P3 will carry three operational payloads viz., Wide Field Sensor (WiFS), Modular Opto-electronic Scanner (MOS) imaging spectrometer and an X-ray Astronomy payload. These payload mix of sensors will provide further capabilities for application studies related to vegetation dynamics, oceanography and X-ray astronomy. With the launch of these payloads, India will provide more effective and assured data services to the user community beyond the 90s.

Census of Natural Resources with Earth Observation and GIS: A Proto-type from India

Abstract Census is the count or inventory of specific phenomenon, such as population, wild life, industry, livestock etc. Another aspect is that census is carried out periodically to show the changing trends of the phenomenon and state. Space based imaging systems, from their vantage position, has unambiguously demonstrated their capability in providing vital information on natural resources. With the availability of high‐resolution multi‐spectral and panchromatic earth observation images and geographic information system, can we now consider a natural resources census? The census of natural resources ‐ land, water, soils, forests and other elements conducted in a systematic manner and with a repeat cycle to depict changes and modifications can provide a “snap‐shot” of a countrys status of natural resource at a particular moment of time and help in identifying areas of rapid and significant changes, which can be monitored in detail. Such inventory with periodic monitoring would help in managing the natural resources and will provide inputs to meet the demands of large population in terms of more food production, more energy generation, water management, better civic amenities, more infrastructure built‐up and increasing per‐capital expenditure for maintaining a quality of life. In India, Natural Resources Census (NRC) programme has been conceptualized and is being implemented. The NRC will use Indian Remote Sensing satellite images and prepares natural resources information layers of 7 key themes (land use/land cover, soil, geomorphology, vegetation, snow/glacier, land degradation, wetlands) at 1:50,000 scale with the periodicity of 5-20 years for different themes. The NRC maps and data support the repository of natural resources information and contribute to the operationalisation of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI). Recognising that standardization of methodology for mapping and spatial database generation to enable NRC for SDI is important, few proto‐type NRC studies has been conducted. This paper discusses the concept of a nation‐wide NRC programme and the results of one of the proto‐type studies (Bangalore urban district) that India has carried out. The concept, methodology and standards suggested for NRC will be certainly useful for any country.

The Indian EO Programme-national and global drivers

Abstract The Indian Earth Observations Program, over the past three decades, has been mainly driven by the national need for natural resources management, environment monitoring and disaster support. With an array of seven Indian Earth Observation Satellites, national development support has been provided through a well-knit institutional framework of a National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS). A wide variety of applications have been developed as an inter-agency effort over the past 15 years. Now, the capacity of the programme has extended into the global arena and is providing operational data services to the global user community. Positioning of relevant policy guidelines for the EO program to contribute to national endeavor and its transitioning for global outreaching and development of a commercial enterprise — both at national and global levels has been an area of constant attention within ISRO. Issues related to defining the space and data acquisition as a national “public ground”, costing of data products and services and evolving a commercial Earth Observation policy have been addressed for providing the overall thrust of the Indian Earth Observations program. The paper discusses the evolution of the policy in the early stages and its transition today to support a two-pronged strategy of supporting national development support and at the same time, developing a commercial program. The paper also illustrates the success of these policy endeavors through specific cases of applications and development of value added services. The paper also brings out the potential policy adjustments that will be called for in the coming years.

Future earth observation missions for oceanographic applications: Indian perspectives

Abstract Significant progress has been achieved in India in demonstrating the utility of remote sensing data for various oceanographic applications during the last one decade. Among these, techniques have been developed for retrieval of ocean surface waves, winds, wave forecast model, internal waves, sea surface temperature and chlorophyll pigments. Encouraged from these results as well as for meeting the specific and increasing data requirements on an assured basis by oceanographers, India is making concerted efforts for developing and launching state-of-the-art indigenous satellites for ocean applications in the coming years. The first in the series of ocean satellites planned for launch is Oceansat-1 (IRS-P4) by early 1999. Oceansat-1 carries on-board an Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) and a Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR). OCM will have 8 narrow spectral bands operating in visible and near- infrared bands (402–885 nm) with a spatial resolution of 360 m and swath of 1420 km. The MSMR with its all weather capability is configured to have measurements at 4 frequencies viz., 6.6, 10.65, 18 & 21 GHz in dual polarisation mode with a spatial resolution of 120, 80, 40 & 40 km, respectively with an overall swath of 1360 km. The Oceansat-1 with repetitivity of once in two days will provide global data for retrieval of various oceanographic and meteorological parameters such as chlorophyll (primary productivity), sea surface temperature and wind speed, besides a host of other parameters of relevance to meteorology. A full fledged satellite for ocean applications known as Oceansat-2 (IRS-P7) is also planned for launch during 2002. This satellite with payload mix of microwave (Scatterometer, Altimeter & Passive Microwave Radiometer), Thermal (TIR) and Optical (OCM) sensors, will provide greater in-sight into the global understanding of ocean dynamics/resources. This mission is expected to provide a complete set of oceanographic measurements, which are useful for providing operational oceanographic services. Efforts are also on towards development of missions having multi-frequency, multipolarisation and multi-look angle microwave payloads including Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and advanced millimeter wave sounders, besides development of imaging spectrometers by 2005. A well-knit plan has been initiated in India for utilisation of planned Oceansat data. Important efforts initiated in this direction include SATellite Coastal and Oceanographic Research and Ocean Information Services, which are being carried out on an integrated basis aiming at providing services to the down stream users. The paper highlights these efforts in India towards providing an operational ocean information services in the coming years.