In many countries like India, risk analysis is limited to hazard mapping, showing areas where different levels of hazard
can be expected. The available risk information is usually at too limited in spatial and temporal resolution to provide
useful information on increasingly complex and dynamic risk patterns. Risk maps, based on coarse resolution Earth
Observation (EO) data, give the impression of uniform hazard and vulnerability patterns over wide areas. As such risk
is quite complex and dynamic. Risk analysis strategies have normally been restricted to the physical aspects. In most
countries it is extremely rare to find risk analysis to take account of the social, economic, institutional and cultural
aspects of vulnerability. The absence of conceptual and spatial models capable of representing the social, economic
and cultural dimensions of vulnerability is another problem. Many aspects of vulnerability are difficult to quantify.
The development of advanced models is still at the frontier of geo-informatics research, with the result that there are
still no tried and tested procedures available for building social vulnerability aspects into risk information systems.
The present paper suggests couple of approaches wherein multi-date EO data have strategically been used for risk
assessment due to floods and drought.
Despite having half a dozen operational EO missions already in the orbit, the need to have dedicated constellation of EO
satellites emanates from India's perennial vulnerability to the natural disasters. Capturing an event in real time, along
with the appropriate spatial attributes--characterizing the impacts, precursors and other inter-relations, is critically a
missing link. Potentially, a dedicated constellation of EO satellite--with suitable mix of optical and SAR payloads
captures the events in its real time form. The right choice of sensors holds the key for low cost autonomous missions
characterizing the constellation. It is visualized to have AWiFS type of camera with visible, near infrared, short wave
infrared and thermal sensors onboard GEO mission. The optical LEO missions could include LISS 3&4 type of cameras
along with C band SAR. For 'formation flying', a set of visible/infrared imagers, infrared sounders, microwave imagers,
microwave sounders, scatterometers and radar altimeters with suitable bands, data rate and resolutions assumes
significance. It has been visualized to make strategic transition of India's planned and future EO missions to a system of
thematic constellations, wherein AWiFS could move to GEO; RESOURCESAT and RISAT could converge into a LEO
constellation; OCEANSAT would lead transition into 'formation flying'. The paper intends to describe such strategies.
Timely assessment of area under different standing crops and their spatial distribution is essential for irrigation planning
and management in command areas. The conventional methods of collecting information on crop acreage are time-consuming
and uneconomical, especially when large areas are involved. The modern Remote Sensing technology
provides real-time, accurate and cost-effective data on crop acreage due to its multi-spatial, multi-spectral and multi-temporal
nature. The attempt has been made in this study to use the multi-date data of RESOURCESAT sensors like
AWiFS, LISS-III and LISS-IV as well as multispectral data of IKONOS with suitable digital imaging processing
techniques to identify Sugarcane, which is a long duration crop and Onion, which is a short duration crop, in order to
plan need based irrigation facilities, to collect the revenue from the farmers in the form of water assessment, better crop
management and future crop planning.
India and the United States of America (U.S.A.) held a joint conference from June 21-25, 2004 in
Bangalore, India to strengthen and expand cooperation in the area of space science, applications, and
commerce. Following the recommendations in the joint vision statement released at the end of the
conference, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Indian Space and
Reconnaissance Organization (ISRO) initiated several joint science projects in the area of satellite product
development and applications. This is an extraordinary step since it concentrates on improvements in the
data and scientific exchange between India and the United States, consistent with a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) signed by the two nations in 1997. With the relationship between both countries
strengthening with President Bush's visit in early 2006 and new program announcements between the two
countries, there is a renewed commitment at ISRO and other Indian agencies and at NOAA in the U.S. to
fulfill the agreements reached on the joint science projects. The collaboration is underway with several
science projects that started in 2005 providing initial results.
NOAA and ISRO agreed that the projects must promote scientific understanding of the satellite
data and lead to a satellite-based decision support systems for disaster and public health warnings. The
projects target the following areas:
--supporting a drought monitoring system for India
--improving precipitation estimates over India from Kalpana-1
--increasing aerosol optical depth measurements and products over India
--developing early indicators of malaria and other vector borne diseases via satellite monitoring of
environmental conditions and linking them to predictive models
--monitoring sea surface temperature (SST) from INSAT-3D to support improved forecasting of
regional storms, monsoon onset and cyclones.
The research collaborations and results from these projects will be presented and discussed in the
context of India-US cooperation and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) concept.
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