GIS@development Magazine: December 2000

The Annual Convention of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing held is every year at various places in India. This year the Annual Convention of the Society was organised by Dr. Ramesh P. Singh, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur on the IIT Kanpur campus during November 21-22, 2000. About 160 scientists, professionals and students from various institutions (ISRO Headquarter, SAC, Ahmedabad;ISRS Headquarter; NRSA, Hyderabad; IIRS Dehradun; Regional Remote Sensing Centers, Nagpur, Bangalore; IITs, Universities) participated in the two days Convention and Symposium. This year, seven foreign scientists from Germany, USA, and Japan also participated and presented papers. This year the theme of the Symposium was Spatial Technologies for Natural Hazards and Management. The symposium was sponsored by AICTE, CSIR, ISRO, NRSA,GIS@Development, DOD, GSI and co-sponsored by several industries and entrepreneurs. The special theme of the symposium was very important for the people of Uttar Pradesh who have witnessed every year various kinds of natural hazards like the one recently in Uttarkashi and Chamoli earthquakes, Malpa landslide, numerous forest fires, snow avalanches in the Himalayan region, droughts, and lightning. In two days Symposium, a total of 132 abstracts were received. In two days, 30 papers were presented orally, 50 papers were poster presentations and Five invited papers were presented.

Professor Aswini Kumar, Acting Director, IIT Kanpur welcomed the delegates on IIT Kanpur campus and stressed the need of remote sensing and GIS tools. The importance of spatial technologies for Natural Hazards and Management was identified as the need of the time.Professor S.K. Bhan, President, Indian Society of Remote Sensing gave an account of the society in last 27 years and gave an account of the role of the remote sensing and GIS tools in the Disaster management in the country in future.

The two days symposium was inaugurated by Dr. S.K. Acharyya, Director General, Geological Survey of India.In his inaugural address, Dr. Acharyya focussed the attention of the basics of earth system and called the attention to the earth scientists and remote sensing community to formulate strategies and plans to meet the challenges for sustainable development of the nation in the new millennium to meet challenges of natural hazards, meet increased needs of minerals, metals and energy for the industry to feed increasing population, take note of environmental impact of unplanned anthropomorphic exploitations and plan for remedial actions.He stressed the significant role of remote sensing and GIS as a modern role for the earth scientists.

The Special Theme Session on Natural Hazards was chaired by Dr. R. R. Navalgund, Deputy Director, Space Application Center, Ahmedabad who has been recently elected as President of one of the ISPRS Technical Commissions and co-chaired by Dr. Mukund Rao, Director, Earth Observation Systems, ISRO, Bangalore. Dr. R. S. Kachhwaha, Scientist, Remote Sensing Center, Uttar Pradesh Lucknow acted as Reporter of this special session.

In the special technical session on natural Hazards, three invited papers and five contributed papers were presented. The special session started rolling by the invited paper on the Use of Satellite data for Avalanche Prediction and Control by Major General S. S. Sharma Director Snow Avalanche Study Establishment, Chandigarh.The importance of multi date remotely sensed data to monitor snow cover by different snow cover simulation models was demonstrated with the help of multi media presentation. The importance of the efforts being made by scientists from SASE, Chandigarh in generation of Digital Terrain Model and studies of the slope aspect, change in the snow surface structures and properties were presented. The efforts made by the SASE scientists and collaborative agencies like IIT Kanpur using optical and microwave remote sensing data for the avalanche and snow cover forecasting were presented. Professor Manfred Buchroithner, University of Dresden, Germany presented an invited talk on the Use of Remote Sensing Data for Natural Disaster Preparedness. He presented zonation of landslide hazards using Landsat and SPOT data and also aerial photographs. For this purpose use of Landuse, Drainage, Geomorphology, Landslide distribution map were demonstrated. Role of radar interferometry for earthquake forecast was stressed by him. The use of remote sensing data in mud flooding forecast 1 to 12 days before it occurred was presented.

A review on Applications of SAR Interferometry: Limits Options and Perspectives was presented by Dr. Hiroshi Kimura, GIFU University, Japan. He gave a detailed account of multi data SAR interferometry for Earthquake and landslide studies. GPS measurement of the movement rate at different points to develop interferogram over 44 days and 88 days time gap was demonstrated. The interferometry study capability of ALOS satellite to be launched in 2003 by the Japanese Space Agency was presented by Dr. Kimura.

The Application of Airborne Altimetric LIDAR in Disaster Management was presented by Dr. Bharat Lohani (BHU) who presented the applications of LIDAR, Coastal Land problems, landslides, Hurricanes, Avalanches and Air Pollution studies. The advantage of canopy penetration by LIDAR was emphasised. Dr. S. Dutta, SAC Ahmedabad presented the application of IRS P4 and Radarsat data for assessment of damage due to super cyclone of Orissa in October 99. Okhimath landslides and its impact assessment on the Madhyamaheshwar and the Kaliganga watersheds using high resolution IRS 1C/1D data was presented by Dr. M. M. Kimothi, SAC Ahmedabad. He has used temporal IRS data to map changes in the general landuse of the area. Detailed studies slope, aspect geology, landslides were carried out to assess impact of landslide in Okhimath region of Uttar Pradesh.

Dr. Vimal Kumar (GSI, Shillong) using multi date satellite data identified hazard prone areas in Bhramputra valley Assam. Major hazards identified by him in the valley are floods, river bank erosion, water logging, seismic activities and river migration.

Modeling of erosion intensity in Himalayas was demonstrated by A. K. Joshi (RRSC, Nagpur) using GIS and remote sensing data for preparing erosion intensity map of Himalayan region. Multidate remote sensing data showed changes after treatment in some of the watershed and found that the erosion has reduced in some areas due to such treatment.

Technical session on Geomorphology, Hydrology and Snow. was chaired by Professor R. S. Chaturvedi (Ahmedabad) and Dr. K. S. Rao (CSRE, Mumbai). In this session Dr. B. J. Choudhury (NASA, USA) presented an invited talk on the application of satellite data to evaluate evaporation and vegetation productivity of selected river basins of different parts of the world. The application of remote sensing data in determining various surface and meteorological parameters in evaluating evaporation have been illustrated.Mr. S.K. Ambast (IIT Delhi) presented a contributory paper and illustrated the importance of hydrological modeling with remote sensing in irrigation system management.Dr. P.C. Joshi (SAC, Ahmedabad) presented the utility of IRS P4 MSMR data in retrieving surface specific humidity over the Arabian oceanic region.

The industrial presentation was chaired by Ravi Gupta, managing Director, GIS Development. Various industries ROLTA, OPTIMA, C-DAC, Pune, Sierra Optima, National Remote Sensing Data Center made their presentation and gave detailed information about the softwares and their products supports for various applications to users in India.

In the evening of the first day November 21, 2000, Dr. Govind B. Pant, Director, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune gave Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lecture on Weather Based Natural hazards and their Management. Dr. Pant gave an account of the role of Weather on natural Hazards like Drought, Floods, Tropical cyclones, Thunderstorms, Hail storm, Dust storms, Fog, haze and Mist. Looking at the huge less of life and properties from natural Hazards, Dr. Pant stressed the need of disaster management for advance warning, rescue and relief.

The second day of the symposium was started with the special session on Students Presentation which was well attended and unique session to give chance to the young students to make their presentations. This was the first time in the history of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing to see the overwhelming attendance by the Indian students. 48 Post graduate and Research students from research, academic, IITs and Universities have attended the Symposium and made oral and poster presentations. There were six presentations made by students working presently at SAC, Ahmedabad, BIT Pilani, IARA, New Delhi, IIT Kanpur and other Universities. These students also display their posters for two days. This special session was chaired by Professor Manfred Buchroithner (Germany) and Co-Chaiperson was Professor Sonyo Mukai (Kinki University, Japan). The Chairman and Co-Chaiperson appreciated the efforts made by Indian students in the field of remote sensing and GIS.

The technical session on Air Pollution was chaired by Dr. S. Mukai, Kinki University, Japan and co-chaired by Dr. S. K. Subramanian NRSA, Hyderabad. In this session, Dr. S. Mukai presented an invited paper giving detailed account of aerosol retrieval techniques using various remote sensing data over ocean and land. Important area of polarization and radiance in the visible and NIR Wavelength were stressed. A special algorithm was presented by Dr. Mukai in aerosol retrieval with lookup table method. The importance of ground based measurement in validity POLDER satellite data over southern Indian ocean, was also presented. Dr. K. V. Prasad (NRSA, Hyderabad) presented his work related to Trace Gas Emission from Biomass burning of secondary mixed deciduous forest estimates from satellite and ground based measurements in the area of Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh. Use of IRS-P4 OCM data and ground truth data to quantify a few trace gases during pre and post burning was presented. Different component of biomass combustion have been calculated and that has been correlated with the satellite data, which was found to give good results.

The technical session on Forest and Agriculture was chaired by Dr. S. D. Naik (SAC, Ahmedabad) and co-chaired by Dr. N. S. Mehta (SAC, Ahmedabad).In this session six contributed papers were presented. Ms. Indrani Chaudhary (SAC, Ahmedabad) demonstrated the use of Radarsat data acquired in 24 days repeat cycle in monitoring, different stages of rice crop growth. Dr. B. M. Singh (INRIMT, Dehradun) showed the utility and cost effectiveness of IRS III and PAN data in sodic land mapping of Uttar Pradesh. Mr. M. S. Yadav (RSAC, Lucknow) presented the application of Multi date multi stage monitoring of sodic lands in a part of Pratapgarh District of Uttar Pradesh using remote Sensing and GIS. Vegetation Detection through Remote Sensing in extreme Arid zone was presented by Mr. S. Kumar (CAZRI, Jodhpur). He brought out the limitations of remote sensing techniques for vegetation mapping in particular in the desert land of Western Rajasthan.

Mapping of Planform Cyclicity in an unstable reach of Sarda River using remote sensing and GIS was presented by K. Rajarajan, (RSAC, Lucknow) who described the use of multi date satellite data in conjunction with GIS and its use in identifying and delineating river channel changes in the middle reach of the Sarda river. It was indeed encouraging to note that use of multi date satellite data is being made in studying the dynamic aspects of river channels which is the basic requirement while planning for river training measures leading to combat floods and erosion on the water.

For the two days, about 50 poster presentations were made. Poster were displayed for two days. It was felt that more time should be kept in future for better interactions with the authors presenting posters.Seven booths were occupied by six exhibitors (NATMO< C-DAC, NDC Hyderabad, ROLTA, Sierra Optima Hyderabad, GIS, and GIS Development In two days delegates and IIT campus community took benefit to see the products and services provided by these agencies. The latest PAN image displayed by NDC Hyderabad was unique attractions by the people from Kanpur and campus community.

At the concluding session, following recommendations were made.

Recommendations:

Based on the presentation, discussions and deliberations in the two days Symposium, following recommendations were made

Extensive studies on various kinds of Natural Hazards using remote sensing technique should be encouraged for Natural Resources Management.

The landslides in Himalayas are continuous hazards. Proper data base and monitoring of the same through remote sensing is essential, which should be carried out.

Keeping the sensors and the platform available for forthcoming years model studies to be carried out on research mode especially through academic Institutions. This will be useful to the Disaster Management mission at center land.

The high resolution data available in near future should be used for hazard mitigation/monitoring studies. The micro level changes on quantitative aspect in this regard should be attempted.

Interferometry and modeling study on remote sensing and GIS should be undertaken in the hazards prone zones especially in Himalayan region and proper evaluation to be carried out in the field.

The need to create knowledge based networks encompassing all the relevant databases of significance for disaster management system was felt.It is imperative need of the disaster management system to have complete databases of different natural hazards and risk maps.