Remote sensing has enabled mapping, monitoring and management of various resources like agriculture, forestry, water, and oceans over the last four decades. It has contributed significantly to development in India through applications like groundwater mapping, wasteland monitoring, flood mapping, agriculture monitoring, fisheries forecasting, snow and glacier studies, and forestry assessments. Current and future uses include urban planning through databases and indicators, and watershed development through projects like Sujala in Karnataka. Advances in remote sensing will continue to improve emergency response, mapping, and geospatial information.

1. APPLICATION OF REMOTE
SENSING.
ANURAG KUMAR
1RV13CV024
CIVIL ENGINEERING

2. OVERVIEW  Remote sensing has enabled mapping, studying, monitoring
and management of various resources like agriculture,
forestry, geology, water, ocean etc.
 Monitoring of environment and thereby helping in
conservation.
 In the last four decades it has grown as a major tool for
collecting information on almost every aspect on the earth.
 With the availability of very high spatial resolution satellites
in the recent years, the applications have multiplied.
 In India remote sensing has been used for various applications
during the last four decades and has contributed significantly
towards development.
 India has its own satellites like Indian Remote Sensing
Satellite (IRS) series - Resourcesat, Cartosat, Oceansat etc
which provide required data .

3.  GArouRndEwaAter SPro OspecFts aAnd PRePchLargIeC ZoAne TMaIpOpingN
 National Wastelands Monitoring
 National Wetlands Inventory and Assessment
 Snow and Glaciers Studies
 Coastal Zone Studies
 Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology and Land based
observations (FASAL)
 Assessment of Irrigation Potential under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP)
 National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System
 Biodiversity Characterisation
 National Urban Information System (NUIS)
 Indian Forest Fire Response and Assessment System (INFFRAS)
 Water Resources Information System (WRIS)
 Space Based Information System for Decentralized Planning (SIS-DP)
 Natural Resources Census (NRC)
 Flood Mapping and Monitoring
 Watershed Monitoring and Development
 Potential Fishery Zone (PFZ) Forecasting

6. Groundwater Prospects and Recharge Zone
Mapping

7. The occurrence and movement of groundwater is mainly controlled by many factors
such as rock types, landforms, geological structures, soil, land use, rainfall etc.
 RGNDW Mission, funded by the Department of Drinking Water Supply of the
Ministry of Rural Development, ground water prospects and recharge zone maps on
1:50,000 scale was taken up by ISRO in phases using IRS data.
 The feedback shows that about 275,800 wells have been drilled with more than
90% success rate and about 9000 recharge structures have been constructed.

8. National Wastelands
Monitoring

9. •Department of Land Resources (DoLR) of
Ministry of Rural Development (MRD)
identification and inventorying of
wastelands using satellite data on 1:50,000
scale was initiated in 1986 and completed
in 2000 and the National Wastelands Atlas
was brought out.
•National Wasteland Monitoring Project
was taken up using three seasons data
(Resourcesat-1 LISS-III) for the year 2005-
06.
• The study has been completed and it
reveals that the extent of wastelands in the
country is reduced to 46.43 M ha (14.81%
of the total geographical area).

10. FLOOD MARPPING AND MONITORING
SERVICES
--Near Real Time Flood Mapping and Monitoring
--Flood Damage Assessment
--Flood Hazard Zone Mapping
--River Bank Erosion Mapping
--Mapping changes in the river course
The main components of near real time flood mapping and monitoring involves
• Flood watch
• Satellite data planning and acquisition
• Satellite data analysis
• Product generation & Dissemination
Every year the project is functional during April-December (Floods & Cyclones)
 During 2009, floods were monitored in nine states and more than 270 maps were prepared.
During 2008, floods were monitored in nine states of the country and more than 400 flood
inundation maps were prepared.
 The Kosi breach was one of the major flood events during recent times. During August-
October 2008, more than 200 flood inundation maps in near real time mode were provided to
Govt. of Bihar for carrying out relief and rescue operations.

11. Through a combination of SAR observation and ground sensors, We can
monitor the water levels of rivers in real time.Through integration and
analysis of various observation data, accurate evaluation of flood risk
becomes possible.

12. Flood Inundation in Bihar (AUGUST 2014)

13. REMOTE SENSING APPLICATION IN
AGRICULTURE

15. •Satellite data is analyzed with ground based information on agro-meteorology, market
economics to estimate crop acreage and production for major crops in the country, much before
the harvest.
• The cropping patterns of kharif, Rabi and summer season are combined to generate crop
rotation
•The centre has been established to carry out the crop monitoring activities and Agricultural
Drought Assessment, which were hitherto done at SAC and NRSC under the Forecasting
Agricultural output using Space, Agro meteorology and Land based observations (FASAL) and
National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Management System (NADAMS) projects
respectively.

16. OCEAN BIOLOGY

17. •Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ)
forecasts are operationally
disseminated to all the maritime
States including the two Union
Territories since 1993. An
integrated approach for Potential
Fishing Zone based on Chlorophyll
& Sea Surface Temperature have
been developed, validated and
transferred to Indian National
Centre for Coastal and Ocean
Information Services (INCOIS) for
operational use

18. Water Monitoring and Development

19. Snow and Glacier
Monitoring

20. •The Himalayas possess one of the largest resources of snow and ice, which act as a huge
freshwater reservoir.
•Monitoring of Himalayan glaciers is normally difficult using conventional methods due to
the rugged and inaccessible terrain.
•Significant information on glaciers (retreat/ advance) in the 13 sub-basins of Himalaya has
been generated using satellite images of 1989-1990 to 1997-2008 time frames under the
“Snow and Glacier Studies Phase-I”, at the behest of Ministry of Environment and Forest.
Out of 2190 glaciers, about 76% glaciers have shown loss in area of ice cover and about
24% glaciers either did not show any change or show gain in area.
• Snow cover areas are also monitored on every 10 day cycle using satellite imagery and
seasonal snow melt runoff forecast is generated for five major Himalayan river basins,
namely, Chenab, Beas, Yamuna, Ganga and Sutlej basin during the summer months.

21. Forestry,Ecosystem and Environment

22. •The natural (climatic, geological, topographical) and manmade factors have influenced the
country’s bio-resources. The satellite data has helped in deriving the spatial distribution of
different vegetation communities at landscape level especially at Eastern and Western
Himalayas, Shivaliks, Vindhyans, Eastern and Western Ghats and Coastal areas, and studying
the impact of human activities on these plants and vegetations.
•Remote Sensing data has been of significant help in understanding the loss of forest cover,
resource depletion, assessment of trees outside forest and planning for sustainable use of forest.
•Forest Survey of India assesses the forest cover of the country on a two-year cycle, at National
and State level, to plan for conservation measures and places the stage of forest report before
Parliament.
•As per ‘India State of Forest Report 2011’, the total forest and tree cover of the country is
78.29 million hectares, which is 23.81% of the geographical area.

23. Smart Governance

24.  Reliable information on land & water resources and their optimal management is vital for
developmental planning.
 State level data repository comprising of natural resource database at 1:10000 scale
coupled with field level information will help in strengthening decentralized planning and
decision making at grass root level.
 ‘Space based Information Support for Decentralized Planning’ would play an important
role in empowering the local bodies to prepare the action plans for development of their
locality.

26. The NUIS Scheme comprises two major components as given under:
• Urban Spatial Information System (USIS) – includes development of GIS based
multi-hierarchical database, with application tools, to support Master/Zonal plan
preparation; Urban Local Bodies (ULB) administration and utilities management.
• National Urban Databank and Indicators (NUDB&I) – includes designing and
establishing a comprehensive data bank and integration of these parameters to support
planning and derive indicators for National Urban Observatory (NUO) for monitoring the health
of urban settlements.
Targeted Achievements
• Planning and Management of urban settlements will be based on updated and
scientific database as a decision support system, employing modern planning
methods using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology.
•Data generation, storage and manipulation using spatial and attribute information base
supporting development of urban indices for NUO.
•Standardised GIS database, methodologies and procedures to enable easy
integration and sharing of information and replicability of procedures.
•Build capacity among town planning and allied departments and create a cadre of
professionals for the use of modern automated methods.

27. Watershed Dvelopment

28. Sujala Watershed Project  Sujala a community driven watershed development
project with a total budget of Rs.557 crores, is being
implemented in seven districts of Karnataka.
 The Government of Karnataka finances some portion of
the budget and the Watershed Communities contribute
some portion.
 The key development objective is to improve the
productive potential of selected watersheds and their
associated natural resource base, and strengthen
community and institutional arrangements for natural
resource management.
 It covers 4.29 lakhs hectare. of land spread over in 77
sub-watersheds and 1270 villages benefiting nearly 4.0
lakhs households including landless.

29. Conclusion
•The technologies discussed above are just a few of the many
promising areas of remote sensing research .
• Over the next two decades, we look forward for a
revolutionary change in private industry, academia, other
government organizations, and the general public to promote
and advance this exciting and rapidly changing field.
•Advances in remote sensing will enable quicker and more
focused emergency response, more accurate map products,
improved navigation, and better geospatial information and
derived products for the general public and professionals in a
wide variety of fields.