Inaugural Address by Dr. K. Kasturirangan during ISPRS Symposium

"The resources and environment of our planet were never before under as much stress as they are today"

K. Kasturirangan, Chairman, ISRO

Inaugural Address by Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Chairman, ISRO/Secretary, DOS
during
ISPRS Symposium on Resource and Environment December 3 - 6, 2002, Hyderabad, India

It is a great pleasure for me today to be with you all and to inaugurate this International Symposium on Resource and Environmental Monitoring, organized by the Commission VII of ISPRS and the ISRS Annual Convention. The meeting of these two professional Societies on a common platform and the congregation of a large number of national and foreign delegates in this hall, signifies the international goodwill in the peaceful use of outer space and strengthens our trust in the common objectives of the worldwide remote sensing community. I am also very happy to note that ISRO, NRSA and several other co-sponsoring organizations have made this event possible. I take this opportunity to welcome you all once again to India; Hyderabad; and to this symposium itself.

Looking at the many familiar faces in this august gathering brings me back the memories of Amsterdam ISPRS conference held two years ago. There were more than 2000 people in the hall that day, and all the technical sessions done in parallel and the immaculate coordination were amazing. The Amsterdam conference brought to the centre stage the importance of Geomatics in the overall scheme of development. Remote Sensing and Geomatics are the technological fields call for synergistic functioning and bringing together technology experts, administrators and the stakeholders together on a common platform. Obviously, that can only progress through teamwork and co-operation. Through the advances in technology, science and applications, and above all international co-operation to share the experience and expertise that one can ultimately benefit the society, which is really the yardstick for measuring the success of any scientific venture.

At the outset, I would like to spend a few moments analysing the theme of the conference, which is “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”. It is one of those topics that appear very mundane, evoking a general sense of instant understanding in people. We have all consciously attempted to link technological methods, scientific explorations, economic vagaries and states of life like poverty or affluence to ‘Resource and Environmental Monitoring’. In the 70s, we initiated a modern approach to understanding these matters with the launching of first generation remote sensing satellites, integrated space technology applications with national development in the 80s, implemented many national and international programmes of sustainable development in the 90s through many forums, but still stand today at the cross-roads of rethinking on natural resources and environment. Challenges facing the world are many and there are many concerted attempts to address larger questions of environment and the global change issues, while focussing still on the basic societal issue of bridging the digital divide, in the light of increasing gaps between the ‘Haves’ and ‘Have-nots’. The resources and environment management is a continuing mission, even as the world faces the burden of the ever increasing population and the depleting natural resources. If the last thirty years of efforts in enhancing our resource security and protecting ourselves from various hazards had been absolutely successful, we would not perhaps be deliberating once again on ‘resource and environmental monitoring’ today.

The resources and environment of our planet were never before under as much stress as they are today. Habitat fragmentation, globalisation, industrialization, urban sprawl, air pollution, multiplying resource demand, need for stocking resources towards market sustenance, waste generation and global conflicts have generated new demands for re-discovering our resources and environment. Regardless of our best human efforts in environmental understanding and policy making, the challenges before us seem to have grown bigger. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in its recent assessment and environmental outlook makes some disturbing observations, that come as surprise at the end of a millennium that saw an astounding revolution in methods of environmental understanding. 60% of tropical mangroves have been destroyed and turned into aquaculture farms. Protected areas form only 5 percent against the IUCN benchmark of 10%. About half the world’s population is facing severe water stress and poverty. The Arctic ice cap has already thinned by 42 percent, and 27 percent of the world's coral reefs have been lost. Thus, some of the planet's key ecological systems are in decline. In recognition of such serious threats to human and environmental security, the UN Secretary General, in his call for Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, has rightly stated that it is impossible to devise effective environmental policy unless it is based on sound scientific information. Once again, the agenda of environment and resources have occupied the centre stage of global discussions and regional action.

The potential applications of space technology for improving the conditions in developing countries are practically unlimited. For example, majority of the countries in the Asia Pacific region are burdened with large population density, low yield in agriculture, unchecked deforestation, increasing wasteland and desertification, over dependence on unpredictable rainfall combined with recurrent natural disasters such as drought and floods, poor communications and transportation facilities, etc., More than 70% of the population in the region relies on agriculture, primarily depending on traditional farming practices. The agricultural production scenario is not encouraging, and is further aggravated by shrinking per capita arable land; non-optimal management of land and water resources; degradation of physical environment, deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, soil salinity and alkalinity; and inadequate technological and financial inputs. Increasing urban migration is an unwanted phenomenon with more than 40% of the population living in urban areas, exacerbating problems such as shortage of fresh water, inadequate public transport, poor waste management, and increasing pollution and related heath problems. The rural and urban poverty scenario is daunting in the region. The problem is likely to get further accentuated even as the population growth goes unchecked, resulting in wide ranging problems in food security, education, healthcare, housing, uneven economic growth, inadequate social development, unemployment and poverty. Particularly, the food security and poverty pose larger challenges wherein space remote sensing and the geographical Information System (GIS) provide viable options for the decision makers to take well-informed decisions.

Thus, the opportunity of facing the challenge of reassessment of environment and resources is more in the hands of scientific community that practices remote sensing and all its allied technologies. The remote sensing satellites provide the vantage point to study our planet as an integrated, interactive physical and biological system. Advanced developments in imaging sensors technology and associated developments in image processing, GIS, GPS and Photogrammetry, all in the digital domain have made it possible to have an integrated view of resources and environment. With the technology convergence, with space technology acting as a facilitator and the other enabling technologies providing vital linkages to resources and environment management, there appears to be a clear need now for devising new ‘measures’ of resources and environment. On the side of resources, fundamental matters like ‘water’ and ‘food’ still garner high priority. Today, it has been demonstrated that groundwater prospecting can be attempted using the remote sensing and mapping technologies. Prospecting, conservation and assessment of opportunities of ground water recharging assume very high priority. Subjects like water budgeting and savings require to be addressed as part of future spatial research missions. Water as a resource and as a dynamic determinant of most environmental processes like agriculture should be an important target in studies of rainfall measurement, snow-melt runoff, soil moisture and the like. On the land management side, there have been significant contributions to the identification of degraded lands and their reclamation, land use/ land cover information to name only a few. To put it in a nutshell, space technology has enhanced the human ability to understand and manage the natural ecosystems by appreciating the mutual interdependence of the natural resources and environment.

While land and water are justifiably the most important resource targets for Earth Observation applications even in the coming days, we need pathfinder efforts in the way we assess and address natural and man made hazards and disasters. I would like to see ‘disaster mitigation’ as one important focus emerging through the data processing and application efforts. The newly emerging digital data classifiers, data compression & transfer protocols, interpretation strategies, algorithms for delineation of geo and biophysical parameters, fusion methodologies, multi-sensor techniques and modern cartographic methods must all converge into the objective of disaster reduction and containment of human misery. There is a broad scope for improvement of accuracies in data generation, representation and interpretation amongst the ISPRS and ISRS communities through scientific cooperation. I must mention here that the International Charter on Space and Disaster Management has already seen overwhelming support from several space-faring nations and the benefits of scientific exchange amongst the scientists through conferences like this must also get across to the needy through these international framework conventions.

Another area of scientific co-operation that must strengthen by the interaction between photogrammetric and remote sensing communities that have assembled here, is that of establishing Spatial Data Infrastructure. From local and national aspirations on this matter, discussions have been turning to the needs and details of Global Spatial Data Infrastructure. Since data quality, standards, formats and inter-operability of such data infrastructures have to evolve and maintain co-operation, I urge that we find relevance of the next few days of deliberations to this theme. Spatial Data Infrastructure is a candidate of multi-dimensional co-operation. On the one hand, international initiatives like CEOS, COSPAR, IGOS and IGBP have to collate common programmes and interests across the globe, satellite missions of different space agencies can provide a diverse variety of data on universally accepted formats. The mapping and application communities, will have to devise newer methods of generation of results, conforming to mutual acceptance and adaptation. All these, through the Spatial Data Infrastructure must address resources and environmental monitoring.

I am also anxious to bring to your notice that the final success of environmental monitoring and resource generation comes from the combination of scientific excellence and developmental decision-making. The very fact that we have not been able to check the erosion of environmental wealth is an indication that we have not been able to appropriately integrate our scientific endeavour into the planning framework. In this background, I am happy to see that the symposium is beginning with deliberations on the theme of Sustainable Development – which should bridge the scientific enthusiasm with the need for informed policy focus. India conducted one such experiment integrating land and water resources management, particularly for the rain-fed agricultural areas in the country. I released just a while ago brings about the details of this experiment. I look forward to the discussions by experts in the opening session on sustainable development and hope to return to the topic during the panel discussions at the end of the symposium.

On the Indian plans for future from the resource and environmental applications, I should say that we are well poised to meet the emerging challenges with the planned availability of more advance satellite systems such as RESOURCESAT, and CARTOSAT series of satellites. We are also planning to have a microwave SAR payload on a Radar Imaging Satellite with all weather imaging capability. As a part of international cooperation, ISRO and CNES, the French space agency are planning to launch a satellite called MEGHATROPIQUES, specifically meant to study the tropical weather systems. India, as you are aware, has also made condiderable progress in other enabling fields such as biotechnology and information technology. What needs to be accomplished in the coming years is to have a coordinated effort involving all the stakeholders including the scientists, policy framers as well as the end-beneficiaries such as farmers and make concerted efforts in the optimisation of resources through planning, prioritisation and coordination. We are also in the formative stages of launching a precision farming programme with space inputs and I am sure, the experience and expertise of the science community and the professional assembled here will provide further impetus to such pathfinders in the coming years.

Finally, I must mention that holding this symposium in India signifies our continued endeavour of international cooperation in devising pathways towards understanding the environment and resources in a more accurate and wholesome manner. The end goals of this endeavour are clear and concise. We need to assist in the process of restoring fundamental life support security to the people by way of protecting nature from human abuses and people from vagaries of nature. This aspiration should work across the frameworks of our individual, national, regional and international co-operation. We see ourselves amidst a wealth of environmental information like never before. But, we also see ourselves on a mountain of concerns on environment like never before. Sustainable development of our resources and environment through the interface of our collective wisdom in data generation and data application is a challenging priority.

I would like to see that this symposium would become a forum for re-inventing scientific methods of exploration and re-investing our faith in technology as a harbinger of bringing solutions to human problems. I am deeply encouraged by the overwhelming response to the call for papers and see that over 400 contributions have been made. Participants from different countries, different fields and different programmes are here and it should be possible to initiate renewed co-operation between scientific interests.

I must once again express my pleasure in inaugurating this symposium and participate in its deliberations. I congratulate my colleagues in succeeding in making this event possible. I am sure that the deliberation will be very fruitful and purposeful for all of you.

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