From the President's Desk

The onerous responsibility of being the President of ISG has been assigned to me. I thank all the persons who encouraged me to accept this responsibility.

During the deliberations of ISG in the days to come, it shall be my endeavour to keep the interests of the users central. We will have to focus on the problems faced by the users and develop technology appropriate to solving their problems.

We need to take up research and developmental projects in order to popularise the use of geographic information systems.

We may start many chapters in different parts of our country and enrol more members.

We may induct geomatics into government ministries/departments and public institutions and encourage academic institutions to take interest in this multi-disciplinary enterprise.

As we enter the next millennium, let us hope that geomatics will find its rightful place in the field of technology in our country.

R. Ramabadran

Editorial

There have been highly encouraging and remarkable technological developments during the last couple of months. The launch of INSAT-2E, a highly multifunctional geostationary satellite, and IRS-P4 (Oceansat-1) by the Indian Space Research Organisation have opened up new vistas. For the first time in the world, 1-km resolution spatial data in three spectral bands (red, near-infrared and short-wave infrared) will be available around the clock. Availability of 3-band data, in principle, every half an hour, would enable monitoring of vegetation dynamics, which is of vital importance to a country like India, dependent on monsoon for its major crop production. Such data would provide a tremendous boost in crop production forecasts and lead to judicious management of our agricultural resources. The Ocean Colour Monitor and Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer on Oceansat-1 are expected to play a major role not only in scientific studies related to oceanography but also in fishery production etc. The present issue points out some of these applications.

The recent intrusion into Kargil-Drass sector of Jammu and Kashmir from across the line of control has been a disturbing development for India. The Press and TV media have occasionally mentioned that satellite imagery have clearly shown the bunkers and other fortifications etc., built by the intruders within the Indian boundaries. This is probably the first acknowledgement of the role satellite imagery has played in the defence of the country. India is still the world leader as far as spatial resolution (about 6 m) of civilian remote sensing satellites is concerned. In spite of the fact that Indian Space Programme is devoted to civilian use and satellite/sensors are not designed to meet defence needs, the exploitation of IRS-1C/1D imagery for defence should give a sense of pride and satisfaction to the people behind the programme.

Baldev Sahai

Articles

• Value Added Geomatics Products & Services
• INSAT-2E Data Products
• Applications Potential of INSAT-2E CCD Payload
• Forest Fire Monitoring in UP Fields using IRS-P3 WiFS Data
• IRS-P4 (Oceansat-1) Data Products
• IRS-P4 OCM Applications
• IRS-P4 MSMR Applications
• Kudos to Southern Railway!

Value Added Geomatics Products and Services

Introduction

Geomatics, which pertains to the technology dealing with the character and structure of spatial and non-spatial information, is a major user of the technologies of remote sensing, geographical information systems, cartography and position location. These technologies have spawned a global, ten billion-dollar industry in the area of services and products [1]. Geomatics applications requires that the end user organisation be a multidisciplinary entity with expertise in the main area of applications as well as in the related fields of physics, computer systems, geography, cartography, database management and image processing. Such entities are usually research laboratories that do not have the responsibility of resources management. On the other hand, those entities who do have such responsibilities lack in one or more areas of expertise. Some try to overcome the weakness by training their staff in the related areas but others may not have the necessary resources to establish a facility and support a large multidisciplinary staff. Hence, there is a need for organisations which have the necessary strength to launch services which can be availed by the end user organisations.

The Target Market

Geomatics applications encompass the fields of natural resources management, resources planning and decision making, facilities management, automated mapping, marketing and retailing etc. Hence, it has a very diverse community of users. They could be government departments, business, industry, consultants, media, non-governmental organisations and educational institutions. The levels of services would depend on the expertise already available in the organisations. Most of the large government departments have their own laboratories and facilities while smaller departments, business and industry rarely invest in such facilities as they are relatively expensive. Implementation of large scale engineering projects involving government and industry, extending over vast geographical areas can, and often, do make use of customised, ready–to-use Geomatics products. Though such projects can afford to invest in a dedicated facility to generate these products, they prefer to get such services and products from reliable third party to hasten the project schedule. Independent consultants may occasionally require such services in the course of their work and would prefer to get this from a reliable third party. The media is increasingly using geomatics products as a part of their visualisation to make their presentation more appealing and attractive. Finally, there is a need to generate educational material in subjects like geography, geology and environmental studies which could supplement the basic syllabi in schools and colleges.

The Services

Value addition can be at various levels and has to be tailored to the end user requirements. We can identify the following services:

• Data entry
• Data conversion
• Data enhancement
• Customisation
• Data Publishing
• Training

Data Entry Services

This is the most basic service and is required by nearly all users. Since a considerable portion of the data in use are legacy data, which are in the form of paper products. These have to be converted to digital form for use in computers. These include digitisation and tabular data entry.

Data Conversion

Where data already exists in digital form it may be necessary to convert them to another format necessitated by a change over from one system to another. Usually these services are required by foreign users who are changing over from legacy systems to a more recent version. However, we feel that this is an emerging market in India. This is because India did not have any standards for digital data, hence most of the work has been done using proprietary or ad hoc standards. There is an attempt ongoing to establish national standards by merging two efforts, one by Survey of India (Digital Vector Data Format) and the other by the Department of Space (Standards for the National Natural Resources Information System). Legacy data will require to be converted to these standards.

Data Enhancement

Data from various sources can be enhanced individually or collectively to increase the information content of the data. Some of these, like contrast stretching, NDVI generation, geocoding and data merging are already a part of the products supplied by the data providers like NRSA. However there is scope for many other enhancements. Creation of image maps as a supplement or replacement of conventional maps is one such product, which can be envisaged using the technologies of remote sensing and differential GPS. Other products could be digital elevation models and updated maps. An area that is emerging is scene simulation using perspective views with texture mapping for applications such as flight simulation, weather prediction and landscape planning. Another enhancement is to create a spatially registered data set for specific end users such as oil exploration companies. Data fusion is another potential area. The PAN-Multi-spectral merged product is very popular but can be improved and fine-tuned to specific applications.

Another emerging area is data warehousing and data mining [2]. Remote sensing satellites acquire terabytes of data in each cycle. Ground surveys also result in vast quantities of data collection. Organising such data is a very big task and calls for advanced techniques in data warehousing. Data mining and Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) involves the use of such data to extract trends, sequences and correlation between different phenomena is a critical task. KDD application in science is easier than in business or finance, where it is more commonly used, because in science there is better knowledge of data and its possible transformations. The availability of scalable computing resources and the ability to convert intuitions to equations makes scientific applications of KDD feasible. Thus, in the scientific world, KDD techniques are being used for analysing tectonic movements associated with earthquakes.

Customisation

One of the key areas is the customised solution for specific end users. There are two possible opportunities. One is to provide ready-made solutions to end-users. For example, alignment of pipelines, optimisation of transport services, preparation of environmental impact assessment reports for projects could be customised into products which would use Geomatics technologies and products. These would be one-time efforts. The other could be customisation of tools such as the creation of databases and development of user- friendly information access and decision support systems. This would involve the customisation on a turnkey basis of a complete information system and would include hardware, software and a comprehensive understanding of the user needs. These would require long term involvement and support to the end user.

Data Publishing

High-speed computing resources and high-speed communications has created a new application in Geomatics called data publishing. The major problem of Geomatics practitioners is the lack of data at the right place and time. It is common experience that data acquisition and preparation take up a significant chunk of time thereby reducing the time available for data analysis. Data publishing provides a means for data to be made available on the Internet. The data organisation is transparent and the user can specify and obtain data as per the project requirements. This also allows ‘Just in Time’ data acquisition, saving cost and time in project schedules and also reduces data archiving costs. Such facilities are coming up elsewhere [4] and opportunity for similar facilities in India are limitless.

Training

The field of geomatics is new and fast evolving. There is a lot of scope for training operators and analysts in these techniques. While academia will provide the formal courses there will be a need to train persons in techniques such as GIS, Image Processing, etc. Training courses on the lines of the certification courses run by major software vendors as well as multimedia CBT will have a good market. There is also a good market for geomatics products like interactive maps and atlases and supplementary material for schools and college syllabi on geography and related subjects.

Conclusion

India has launched a major thrust in the area of IT. Geomatics has a major role to play in IT as a mission-critical decision support tool [3]. The market in value-added products and services, which will provide such tools and solutions, is evolving in India [5]. In some of the fields India has a clear lead in applications. Therefore, this is a good time for the industry to enter and carve out a niche for themselves in both India and abroad. Due to the rapid advances in technology it will be necessary to constantly update one's skills and develop new products and niches so as to remain competitive. This calls for a long-term commitment and investment.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks his colleagues, Dr. K.L. Majumder, Dr. R. Nandakumar, Dr. P.K. Srivastava, Shri R.K. Goel and Shri I.C. Matieda for their valuable suggestions and inputs.

References

1. P. Valenti, Situation and Growth Potential for the World Remote Sensing Market: A Ten-year Outlook, 2^nd International Symposium on the Expansion of the Remote Sensing Market, EOMARK ’97, March 24-26, 1997, Paris, pp.5.14 – 5.25.
2. Usama Fayyad, David Haussler and Paul Stolorz, Mining Scientific Data, Communications of the ACM, November 1996, Vol. 59, No. 11, pp51-57.
3. Industry Outlook ’99: GIS Melts into IT, GeoWorld, December 1998, Vol. 11, No. 12, 40-49.
4. Tom Barclay, et al, The Microsoft Terraserver, June 1998, http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com
5. R. Nandakumar, et al, Value Added Products and Services for IRS-P5, XVIII INCA Congress, Cartography in Action, December 15-18, 1998, Calcutta. (Proceedings Under publication).

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A.R. Dasgupta, Signal, Image and Information Processing Area, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad - 380 053

Presented at the Workshop on Commercial Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, February 19, 1999

INSAT-2E Data Products

The INSAT series of satellites have been launched for the last few years with a view to provide communications links and data for meteorological purposes. The main payloads of this series of satellites have been transponders for communication purposes and VHRR – Very High-Resolution Radiometer for giving a synoptic view of the earth’s atmosphere. The satellite, unlike the IRS series of satellites, which are sun-synchronous, is geo-stationary. In the former, the main purpose is to study the data of any area under the same sun-illumination conditions, and hence the orbit is chosen in such a way that the satellite crosses the equator at the same local time. Besides, the orbit is so chosen that the satellite covers the entire globe, but for a small portion near the poles, in a fixed amount of time. However, in the case of geo-stationary satellite, the purpose is communication and the weather at the same position at any time. Thus, this satellite is stationed in an orbit in such a way, that relative to the earth, the satellite remains at the same position. This is achieved by putting the satellite in an orbit in the equatorial plane, moving with the same angular velocity as that of the earth’s spin about its own axis. Thus, the period of this satellite is 24 hours.

INSAT-2E, which was successfully launched in April 1999, has for the first time combined three different functions – viz., communication in different bands, imaging with VHRR and imaging with a CCD payload. The satellite is placed at about 83° E longitude above the equator. The VHRR payload consists of three channels, viz., visible, thermal infrared and water vapour. The CCD payload consists of three bands, viz., the red, near infrared and short wave infrared. In both the payloads, there is scanning mechanism, which scans the earth both in the north to south direction, and in the west to east/east to west directions. The former is called slow scan, while the latter is called fast scan. This combined scan enables the satellite to image the entire globe, or part thereof. The details of the payload are given in Table 1.

The main use of these payloads is to get the image of the earth in different spectral bands. Data from the VHRR payload can be utilised for studying the cloud movement, development of cyclones etc., while data from the CCD payload can be utilised for studying the crop features of the whole country. In fact, since in CCD the bands are the same as in the other remote sensing satellites launched by India, data from this payload can supplement the data from the IRS series of satellites. This can in fact give continuous data over the entire country. Using the data from the CCD payload, it should be possible to generate a full INDIA Vegetation Index Map at any given time. The CCD payload in the three spectral bands has given us the unique constellation of satellites, low earth and geo-stationary, which image the earth in the same spectral bands, though at different resolutions.

Imaging being done from such a height is bound to have some errors, which need to be corrected for. These corrections are incorporated in the Data Products to be generated. The main corrections to be done are radiometric correction – in this case the data is corrected only for the radiometric response from the different detectors, and geometric correction. In the latter, the data is corrected for radiometric non-linearity as also the geometric aspects of scanning and imaging and it will be aligned towards true North. The data is also put in a suitable map projection – Lambert Conformal Conic and Universal Transverse Mercator Projection. The input resolution will vary over the entire scene, because of panoramic distortion and the imaging geometry. However, the geometrically corrected product will have a constant resolution. The output specifications are given in Table 2. Since the sun elevation, azimuth as also the satellite elevation and azimuth play an important role in the interpretation of the data, this information will also be provided. Data will be in LGSOWG format. Work is in progress to make the geometrically corrected products available to the user at the earliest.

Table-1 Specifications of INSAT Payloads

Table 2. Specifications of Data Products

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N. Padmanabhan, Data Products System Division, Signal & Image Processing Group, SIIPA, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad - 380 053

Applications Potential of INSAT-2E CCD Payload

Synoptic, repetitive and multispectral data available from orbiting satellites has been used extensively for natural resource surveys since the launch of Landsatbeen used -1; and high repetivity, coarse resolution data from NOAA. AVHRR has also for regional monitoring applications requiring high repetivity in the fields of agricultureThe list of , forestry and environment. applications cover crop monitoringvegetation , crop-profile parameter estimation, large-scale deforestation, regional phenologyevents, which , snow cover, etc. The orbiting satellites do not provide a platform for constant monitoring of many are highly dynamic in naturevariable . In addition, due to wide swath and imaging geometry, each point is imaged with sun-target-sensor geometry, requiring additional corrections.

A sensor on geo-stationary platform enables "on demand" viewing with wider options to prepare a cloud- free data set, and to optimise data acquisition for a given application with respect to solar angle. In addition, round-the-clock sampling capability allows study of diurnal phenomena. The continuous monitoring ability is very crucial for disaster-related applications, e.g. forest fire. Some of the other applications are:-

a) Crop Condition Monitoring

Regular monitoring of crop through vegetation indices would provide assessment about growth and phenology. It would allow inter-regional and intra-seasonal comparisons to be made about crop growth. Equivalent data currently available from NOAA-AVHRR are having the following limitations: (i) Entire India is not covered, (ii) NOAA-imaging geometry and orbit leads to large variation in pixels size and viewing angle, (iii) the NOAA-AVHRR channels are very broad and not optimally tuned to vegetation, and (iv) the SWIR band, which is sensitive to canopy moisture status is not available.

b) Drought Assessment

Current procedures use NOAA-AVHRR NDVI data. Thus it would be straightforward to shift from NOAA-AVHRR to INSAT-2E CCD payload. Due to viewing conditions being constant, some of the problems due to NOAA viewing would be solved.

The other applications pertain to forest fire, snow cover mapping, flood mapping, etc.

The constant availability of data as well as presence of SWIR channel would allow first cut real-time assessment to be made which would be supplemented with information derived from other sensors on sun-synchronous orbits, thus making it useful in above applications.

Geo-stationary platform would allow observations of crops to be made with different sun angles. R&D studies of this data for crop biophysical parameter retrievals would be possible.

This data set could also be useful in estimating absorbed PAR (photosynthetically active radiation), which is an important parameter in crop growth models for computing photosynthesis or dry matter accumulation.

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VK Dadhwal and MR Pandya, Applications Methodology Division, Agricultural Resources Group, Remote Sensing Applications Area, Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad-380 053

Forest Fire Monitoring in UP Fields using IRS-P3 WiFS Data

Forest cover in recent times has been subjected to pressure not only from human kind but also from natural calamities such as floods, landslides, fires, etc. However, amongst these calamities, occurrence of fire is rather a regular phenomenon and, therefore, requires a comprehensive study to avoid its possible occurrence in future.

The present study is aimed at mapping the recent outbreak of forest fire in Garhwal and Kumaun districts in Himalayan region of Uttar Pradesh. The low altitude forest belt in the region consists of mixed composition dominated by mainly Sal and Teak, while the higher altitude region is covered with conifers viz. Chir, Deodar, Oak, Fir, Spruce, Khair, etc. The Himalayan belt is rich in good flora and fauna. The growth of tree-crop in the area is so good that it can, in general, be classified as very good having the density as ‘7 and above’. Of course, this is one of the factors having strong correlation with occurrences of the fires, as higher the density, more the chances of catching fire.

Having known the probable places of the outbreak of fire, the WiFS data of IRS P3 pertaining to January, February, March and April 1999 were procured in digital form and were analysed using the ERDAS Software. The four-date data was registered to one another presuming January 1999 as the base-image. The water bodies in the area were identified using the SOI maps at 1:50 & 1:250 thousand scales. This was done to avoid confusion between water and fire, which at times, have similar signatures.

There were no traces of fire seen in the January and February images. However, March and April images had clear smoky patches. The fire was spotted in Bageshwar, Almora, Nainital and Haldwani regions. Unfortunately the region pertaining to Garhwal is not covered in the path/row 99/53 and could not be covered in the present study. The ground verification of the fire-affected areas is being planned shortly by SAC & FSI. However, as per the newspaper reports, large-scale fires did occur at the places identified in the multi-temporal WiFS data. It confirms the fact that WiFS data can be effectively used for fire-mapping (monitoring).

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KLN Shastry and AK Kandya, Forest & Environment Division, Forestry, Landuse & Photogrammetry Group, RESA, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad - 380 053.

IRS-P4 (Oceansat-1) Data Products

Indian Remote Sensing Satellite - P4 (IRS-P4), known as Oceansat-1, was launched from Sriharikota using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (OCM) (PSLV) on May 26, 1999. IRS-P4 carries two payloads on board, viz., an Ocean Colour Monitor and a Multichannels -frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR). While the OCM is having eight narrow spectral in the visible and near infrared region 10.65 402 - 885 nm, MSMR will provide data in the microwave region in 6.6 GHz, GHz1999, , 18 GHz and 21 GHz, with both vertical and horizontal polarisation. MSMR sensor was switched on May 27, for acquiring data and OCM Payload was put on into operations from June collected 3, 1999. Since then, data is being continuously from the sensor and a number of data products have been generated.

Types Of Data Products

Data Products system for IRS-P4 is defined and developed to cater to the various needs in the areas of oceanographic applications, coastal processes, meteorological applications, atmospheric sciences, etc. The various types of defined products for both MSMR and OCM sensors are as follows:

MSMR Sensor Products: The basic types are Standard and Geophysical parameter products.

Standard Products:

Brightness Temperature Data (BTD) Products: Measured digital data after calibration is converted into Brightness Temperature, after correcting for antenna pattern and polarisation rotation. The outputs are resampled into uniform output grids.

Geophysical Parameter Data (GPD) Products: The Brightness Temperature Data for all the frequencies and polarisations of MSMR is used to generate the following Geophysical Parameter Products. Outputs are resampled into appropriate grids, as, in the case of standard products.

• SST - Sea Surface Temperature
• SSWS - Sea Surface Wind Speed
• LW - Liquid Water (in the vertical column)
• WV - Water Vapour (in the vertical column)

The above Geophysical Parameter Products will be made available to users after validation.

The output product grid sizes are given in the following table.

The data will be available in digital format on CD - ROM media or through Internet.

OCM Data Products

Standard Products

1. Full Scene Product: This is a full scene data product covering 1420 km x 1420 km, as defined by the Path-Row referencing scheme. The types of products cover: (a) geometrically and radiometrically raw data, (b) data corrected only radiometrically, and (c) data corrected for both. As the pixel resolution size is not square (across-track = 360 m.; along-track = 252 m), the pixel size is non-square for the first two types of products. In the case of (c), the output resolution is 360 m in both directions. A special type of this category is the shift-along-track product, wherein the user can define the standard product by shifting anywhere from 10% to 90% of a full scene to obtain the area of his interest.
2. Quadrant Product: This is a quadrant of a full scene covering 700 km x 700 km on the ground. There are two possible quadrants of a full scene, available to the user, to specify and obtain the data. This is corrected both geometrically and radiometrically with an output pixel resolution of 360 m.
3. Full-take Product: Here, the data product can cover data for the entire pass acquired from the sensors. This is an extended version of standard products, mentioned above, and hence all the three types of products defined are applicable to these, with similar pixel resolutions.

All the data products are available in standard formats + digital media on DAT or CD-ROM.

Special Digital Products

These products are basically mapping of bio-chemical substances, and hence are value-added products derived from standard digital products. The products will be made available to the user community after validation. All these products are masked for clouds and land portions. The data size and pixel resolution are the same as those of the standard digital products.

1. Chlorophyll Concentrations: This product gives directly the ‘Chlorophyll-a’ pigment concentrations in mg/m³. The algorithm to derive this product is expected to work well in open ocean chlorophyll retrieval due to its cubic polynomial nature covering small-to-large range of chlorophyll concentrations.
2. Suspended Matter Concentrations: This product is basically a map of the suspended sediment concentrations given in g/m³. This product is generated over scenes covering coastal areas, using water leaving radiance derived from the OCM bands of Band 3, Band 4 and Band 6.
3. Yellow Substance Concentrations: The yellow substance (gelbstoff) represents basically the degraded organic matter in a dissolved manner in the sea-water. The data product in the form of a map denotes the light absorption of the matter at 440 nm (having the unit of m^-1). The product employs the spectral data from Band 1, Band 2 and Band 3 of OCM for generating the yellow substance in a given scene.

More information on the above Data Products will be available from Head, NRSA Data Centre, National Remote Sensing Agency, Balanagar, Hyderabad - 500 037. Also visit the NRSA website at http://www.nrsa.gov.in

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KL Majumder, Signal and Image Processing Group, SIIPA, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad-380 053

IRS-P4 Ocean Colour Monitor Applications

Oceans occupy a vast part of the Earth's surface and economy of mankind is intimately associated with the oceans. Living resources like fisheries, non-living resources like petroleum, transport and even climate are dependent on ocean. The payloads for the IRS P4 consist of a Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) and a Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR). These sensors are expected to meet some of the critical data requirements of oceanography and will form forerunners for achieving fully operational ocean satellite programme and their applications.

IRS P4 is the first in a series of ocean satellites and hence named Oceansat-1. The availability of ocean colour data from IRS-P4 OCM will open new frontiers in applications of remote sensing data for coastal and ocean regions. It would be necessary to develop new algorithms/techniques to utilize these data for the protection of environment, sustainable utilization of marine living resources, impact of anthropogenic changes, and developing coastal zone management plans. The data from OCM is also expected to feed into some of the international programmes such as Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), International Geo-sphere Bio-sphere Project (IGBP), World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOC), Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), Indian Ocean Experiments (INDOEX), etc.

The IRS-P4 Utilization Plan addresses such applications, which can be operationalised through use of OCM data. The plan was specifically designed to meet the user needs of data and value-added products and services. Extensive validation of the output products will be an important component of this programme. This plan was discussed with various user agencies/institutions such as National Institute of Oceanography, Fishery Survey of India, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Geological Survey of India, Central Water and Power Research Station, Centre for Earth Science Studies and many other academic institutes and universities. The utilization projects are envisaged to be carried out in close collaboration with the potential users so as to ensure wider use of data in several operational applications. It is expected that this Utilization Plan will contribute significantly to the data needs and service requirements of the Department of Ocean Development, Govt. of India in particular as well as the ocean community in the country.

The primary objectives of this utilization plan is to utilize IRS-P4 OCM data for meaningful applications in oceanography involving user agencies. This will involve development of algorithms/techniques for retrieving various oceanographic parameters, validation of the retrieved parameters through a well-coordinated sea-truth campaigns, operationalisation of various applications and in the process development of human resources in the country for satellite oceanography.

The major utilization aspects of OCM data are given below.

1. Development of algorithms for retrieval of oceanic/atmospheric parameters
2. Ocean colour applications
   1. Identification of potential fishing zones in the coastal waters
   2. Exploration of deep sea fishery resources
   3. Primary production model and fish stock assessment
   4. Detection and monitoring of algal blooms
3. Coastal Processes
   1. Sediment dynamics
   2. Dynamics of estuarine/tidal inlets
   3. Prediction of shoreline changes
   4. Circulation and dispersal pattern in the Bay of Bengal
   5. Upwelling, coastal/oceanic fronts and surface currents
   6. Marine Pollution and oil slicks
   7. Coral reef studies
4. Validation of OCM data

Various algorithms/techniques to retrieve parameters as well as application methodologies will be developed and transferred to concerned agencies. The likely users' agencies include, State Departments of Fisheries, Public Works, Environment, Ports and Harbors, Maritime Boards, Pollution Control Boards, Coastal Erosion Control Directorates, Central Water Commission, Port Trusts, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, etc.

IRS P4 OCM Bands and their Application Potential

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Shailesh Nayak, Head, Marine & Water Resources Division, RESA, SAC, Ahmedabad-380 053.

IRS-P4 MSMR Applications

Launch of Oceansat-I has marked the beginning of Remote Sensing of oceans using Indian satellites. The Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR) onboard Oceansat-I is an eight-channel passive radiometer operating in microwave frequency bands, sensitive to oceanic and atmospheric physical parameters. The MSMR channels are 6.6 (H&V), 10.65 (H&V), 18 (H&V) and 21 (H&V) GHz. The MSMR sensor characteristics are shown in the Table below. The radiance measured at these channels can provide sea-surface temperature, sea-surface winds, atmospheric humidity and cloud water in day-night, all-weather conditions over the entire globe. The MSMR derived parameters can be resampled in spatial grids and assimilated in sea-state and atmospheric prediction models. As Oceansat-I has the capability of providing global data every twelve hours at Indian ground stations, there is a distinct possibility of using these data for meteorological predictions, shipping and offshore operations. MSMR data is also useful in mapping and monitoring Antarctic Sea ice.

As the state-of-the-art ocean and atmosphere numerical models make use of parameters in three dimensional grids, Oceansat-I data have to be synergised with other collateral and satellite data for maximising its use.

But before Oceansat-I data is fed into operational stream, they have to be validated against conventional data in different oceanic regions and seasons. The scientists of SAC along with a large number of national organisations have made an ambitious plan for acquiring collateral data during the first six months.

Applications such as cyclone genesis and model diagnostics with flux assignments make use of multi-parameter information (SST, winds, humidity etc.) at different locations and times. Such applications can be addressed using global MSMR data (with 2-day repetivity) in a GIS framework.

MSMR Payload Characteristics

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Abhijit Sarkar, Meterology & Oceanography Group, RESA, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad-380 053.

Kudos to Southern Railway!

The Timetable no. 83 dated December 1, 1998 by Southern Railway has many things to be praised about.

First, it has four types of access provisions to the detailed train schedules, organised in three sections, viz. i) Express Train Tables; ii) Passenger Train Tables; and iii) Abstract Train Timings of important All India Trains. The novel access provision using maps with table numbers is the easiest to use, if one has a picture of the map of the region already in mind. Even otherwise, it is easy to locate the important source and destination stations and the express and passenger train table numbers annotated on each link of the path to be traversed. The links are coloured differently to indicate the respective Division of the Southern Railway under whose jurisdiction, they belong.

Second, the overall get-up of the Timetable, designed and produced by M/S Adwit (India) Private Ltd., Marketing & Advertising Consultants, for Southern Railway, using a Desk-Top-Publishing system, (i) with sans-serif helvetica fonts, (ii) with alternating bright and dark shades used for successive columns of each time-table, and (iii) using bold characters to highlight the schedules applicable at important stations in each time-table; is very good and easy to use by the prospective passengers.

Third, indication of the preceding and succeeding table numbers prominently at the start and end of each column in each table, makes it easier to switch to the connected tables for each train.

Fourth, placement of many relevant cartoons, useful tips and snippets of interesting and not normally known facts about Indian Railways, interleaving the train schedules, greatly reduces the monotony of using a conventional, bland timetables of the past, giving only the timings, that too with many difficult to read and comprehend foot-notes in fine-print.

Fifth, the inclusion of colourful maps depicting the major train routes of India, and the Southern Railway map with shaded relief background depicting the topography of the region, in two-page folds, is seen to be a welcome change from the tradition.

Any one may communicate suggestions for improving the Timetable to the Chief Public Relations Officer, Southern Railway, Park Town, Chennai – 600 003

(Webmaster recommends http://www.indianrailways.com as a great place to visit. Also, the All-India Trains at a Glance has also been produced in the same format by Southern Railways. Cost Rs 25/-)

Data Sources

• Maps & other Related Services from SOI
• NRSA Data Centre announces the Availability of IRS 1C/1D PAN Stereo Data
• Directory of Service Providers

Maps & Other Related Services from Survey of India

Survey of India (SOI) is the national survey and mapping organization of our country, under the Ministry of Science and Technology, and is the oldest scientific department of the Government of India. It was set up in 1767.

The main functions of SOI are as under:

• Provision of geodetic frame work of planimetric and height control
• Production of standard topographical map series on scales 1:250,000, 1:50,000 and 1:25,000
• To meet the mapping requirements of the defence forces, para-military forces, administrators, tourists, scientists and planners
• Demarcation of the external boundaries of the Country and inter-state boundaries
• Survey for national developmental projects
• Forest Surveys
• Special surveys for soil conservation, irrigation, hydel projects and mineral exploration
• Generation & publication of tidal, trigonometrical & levelling data etc.
• Controlling & co-ordinating aerial photography for the whole country
• Standardisation of geographical names
• Digital Mapping

Organizational Set-up: SOI is headed by the Surveyor General of India with headquarters at Dehradun. SOI has been divided into 4 zones each headed by an Additional Surveyor General with 11 Regional Circles each headed generally by a Director, as under:

Each topographical Circle consists of three major functional groups consisting of Photogrammetric Units, Field Units and Drawing Offices.

Map printing is carried out at the Map Publication Office, Dehra Dun supported by the three Printing Offices attached to the regional Circles at Calcutta, and Hyderabad and the Directorate of Survey (Air) at New Delhi.

Like the Map Publication Office at Dehra Dun, there are six other specialised offices to

1. meet the training needs,
2. to carry out geodetic activities, and
3. digital mapping.

These are:

1. Survey Training Institute, Hyderabad;
2. Geodetic and Research Branch, Dehra Dun;
3. R&D Directorate, Hyderabad;
4. Modern Cartographic Cell, Dehra Dun; and
5. Digital Mapping Centres at Dehra Dun and Hyderabad.

SOI has a resource of about 7000 technical personnel (including about 1000 Gazetted Officers) for the survey and mapping of an area of 3.29 million sq. km consisting of various terrain types such as mountains, jungles, deserts, large water bodies, coast-line, etc.

Maps for Sale: The following table shows the types of maps, made in English, and in some cases, in other regional languages, at nominal cost, are available for sale from SOI.

Other Services: SOI offers the following types of services in addition to the generation and sale of maps, discussed above. These include

1. Aerial photography in India
2. Providing select extract of geodetic & research data acquired from various surveys;
3. Organising a variety of training courses;
4. Providing Digital Map Products from the National Digital Cartographic Data Base on 1: 250,000 scale; v) Conduct of topographical surveys; and
5. Map printing.

How to Obtain Maps: Maps are available for sale from authorised map sales agents in major cities & towns and can also be obtained from the following office or 14 other SOI offices in different select cities. For supply of maps, actual cost with details of maps is to be sent in advance by Money Order/ Bank Draft to "Officer-in-Charge, Map Record & Issue Office (MPD), Survey of India, Dehra Dun – 248 001.".

Maps, which are classified as restricted, and data requests for geodetic, geophysical, trigonometrical and height data of certain accuracy could be obtained only after getting clearance from the Ministry of Defence.

References:

1. MAPS published by Survey of India, Information Brochure, dated January 1998
2. Jeyavelu, R.K., Director, South South Eastern Circle, SOI, Survey of India and Map Making, from Lecture Notes of Survey Appreciation Seminar, held at Survey Training Institute, SOI, Hyderabad, June 22-26, 1998.

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Reporter: R. Nandakumar, SPDD, SIPG, SIIPA, Space Applications Centre(ISRO), Ahmedabad-380 053

NRSA Data Centre announces the Availability of IRS 1C/1D PAN Stereo Data

NRSA Data Centre (NDC) provides stereo data from Panchromatic (PAN) camera (6 m spatial resolution) on-board IRS-1C and IRS-1D satellites. This data can be used for creating Digital Elevation Models and orthoimages, which will be useful for all applications requiring topographic information. Test studies have revealed that the height accuracy that can be achieved is 10 - 20 m. Stereo data are collected based on user-specific needs, as the PAN camera has to be tilted by programming to view the user’s area of interest. Hence user should contact 2 weeks before the period of acquisition with the following information:

• Area of Interest (longitude and latitude)
• Period of Interest
• B/H ratio (normally a B/H ratio of > 0.5 ensured)

Stereo data products are supplied as 23 km x 23 km subscenes, on digital media ( 8 mm Exabyte tapes or CD-ROMs). Using the DEM extracted from IRS PAN stereo pairs it is now possible to supply geocoded orthophotos to users, corresponding to 7 ½’ x 7 ½’ SOI mapsheets (1 : 25, 000 scale). For details please contact : The Head, NDC, National Remote Sensing Agency, Balanagar, Hyderabad-500 037.

Name and Addresses of Some Remote Sensing and GIS Software Suppliers

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Source: Dubey, R.P., et al., Souvenir, CARG-99

Announcements

• ISG Logo Competition
• Geo-Map-Quiz for School Children
• ISRS National Symposium at Bhubaneshwar
• Map India '99
• INCA XIX International Congress
• ISG Annual Conference at Pune

Design a Logo for the Society and Win a Reward!

Members are invited to design and submit a Logo for the Society. If selected, they will be rewarded with book(s) on a Geomatics related topic worth Rs. 500/-. Last date extended! Rush your entries to The Secretary, Indian Society of Geomatics, c/o Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad 380053.

Geo-Map-Quiz for School Children

Gujarat branch of INCA is organising a Geo-map Quiz for school children to create awareness about the maps among the students.

Eligibility: This quiz is open to students of 8th, 9th and 10th classes.

Type of questions: The questions will be related to the maps and, in addition, there will be some objective type questions in geography. In addition, questions related to charts, satellite imagery and mapping organisations will be asked.

Composition of teams: Each team comprises of 3 students from the same or different classes but from the same school. Team remains same for Preliminary and National rounds. There is no restriction on number of teams from a school.

Entry Fee: Entry free per team will be Rs. 45/-.

Venue & Date: Gujarat Chapter round, 29th August, 1999

National round: 19th Sept, 1999

Medium of Examination: English

Prizes: Three winning teams at the national level will get a trip to GOA as guests of INCA. Attractive gifts for all the participants and prizes for winning teams at Gujarat level will be given.

Last date for entry: 9th August, 1999

Contact persons: For any clarifications please contact either of the persons mentioned below:

(Report on the event and winning teams in the next issue)

ISRS National Symposium at Bhubaneshwar

A National Symposium on Remote Sensing Applications for Natural Resources with Special Emphasis on Watershed Management and Annual Convention of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing is going to be held at Bhubaneshwar during December 15-17, 1999. The symposium is hosted by Orissa Remote Sensing Applications Centre (ORSAC), Bhubaneshwar.

The topics of various technical sessions are :

S01: Remote Sensing & GIS for Natural Resources Management
S02: Platforms and Sensors
S03: Advanced Techniques in Digital Image Processing and Photogrammetry
S04: Global changes
S05: Modelling in Remote Sensing
S06: Education & Training
S07: Special Sessions
S07.1: Watershed Management
S07.2: Coastal/Ocean Applications

The various deadlines are as follows:-

i) Response to the first circular July 31, 1999
ii) Last date of Abstract submission August 31, 1999
iii) Intimation regarding acceptance of paper October 15, 1999
iv) Submission of Full paper November 30, 1999

Address for correspondence:

P Kumar
Organising Secretary, ISRS Symposium 1999
Orissa Remote Sensing Applications Centre
2nd floor, Suryakiran Building
Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneshwar 751 007

Phone : +91 674 506274
Fax : +91 674 501854
Tlx : 0675-6399 OCAC IN
Gram : ANTARIKSHA
Email : orsac@dte.vsnl.net.in

Map India 99

The 2nd Annual Conference and Exhibition on GIS/GPS and Remote Sensing is going to be held during August 24-26, 1999 at Hotel Intercontinental, New Delhi, India. The conference is jointly organised by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS).

The conference will provide a forum for interaction among professionals, government organisations, user departments, NGOs and private agencies, researchers, hardware and software tool developers/vendors etc. on GIS database, the necessary infrastructure for optimal use of information and decision support systems for planning and management.

The various themes of the conference are:

i) Visions and concepts of National Spatial Information Policy
ii) Theories and Technologies
iii) Applications & Potentials
iv) Special Workshops

The conference also includes a three-day pre-conference awareness-cum-training programme on GIS/GPS and RS technologies and a panel discussion on ‘Evolving a National GIS Policy for India’

The abstracts (300 words) of contributed papers should reach conference secretariat by July 10, 1999. Complete manuscript of approved papers along with a floppy to be received by July 30, 1999.

Address for correspondence:

CSDMS
P-1, Sector XI
Noida 201301, India
Tel. +91 118-539573
Telfax : +91 118 5399673
Email : mapindia99@csdms.org
Website : http://www.mapindia99.com

XIX INCA International Congress on

Modern Cartography for Ocean and Land Management

October 26-28, 1999, Vasco-da-Gama (Goa)

National Hydrographic Office (NHO), Dehra Dun is organising this year’s Congress on behalf of the Indian National Cartographic Association (INCA) at Vasco-da-Gama (Goa). Abstracts/ full text of technical papers are invited for oral/ poster presentation during the Congress, before July 31, 1999. All correspondence may please be addressed to: Dr. J.M. Agrawal, FIPS, Organising Secretary, XIX INCA International Congress, National Hydrographic Office, Post Box No. 75, 107-A, Rajpur Road, Dehra Dun – 248 001. Phone: (Office) 0135 – 747360-62, 65 (Resi.) 0135 – 742541, Fax: 0135 – 748373 , E-mail: nho@nde.vsnl.net.in

News

• ISG Ahmedabad Chapter Opened
• INCA Gujarat Branch Opened
• Landsat-7 Launched
• IKONOS-1 Anomaly
• National Wetland Maps Prepared
• NASA names Observatory Chandra

ISG Ahmedabad Chapter

The Executive Council of the Indian Society of Geomatics, on April 27, 1999, formally granted recognition to the ISG Ahmedabad Chapter against the request put up by members from Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar on 22.4.1999. The chapter will operate from its headquarters in the premises of Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad with the following office bearers:

Chairman: Dr. KL Majumder, SAC
Secretary: Shri I C Matieda, SAC
Treasurer: Shri S M Moorthy, SAC
Members:
Dr. SVC Sastry, Geotech Digital Bharat Pvt Ltd, Gandhinagar
Shri Bhavin Shah, PAM Consultants, Ahmedabad
Dr. Shivanand Swamy, CEPT, Ahmedabad
Dr. SS Pokharna, SAC, Ahmedabad
Shri Sharad D Raval, Gujarat Govt, Gandhinagar

The formal inauguration of the chapter is planned on July 18, 1999 with half a day function. A suitable program is being planned. Also, activities are being considered to take Geomatics to students and public at large.

(Report on the Inaugural function in the next issue)

INCA Gujarat Branch Opened

Indian National Cartographic Association, one of the bright scientific associations, devoted to the cause of cartography and having more than 1400 professionals and 56 institutions on its membership roll has opened its Gujarat Branch in Ahmedabad. The Gujarat Branch of INCA has its official address at Space Applications Centre. All INCA members residing in Gujarat automatically become members of Gujarat Branch. Opening of this branch is seen as recognition of contribution of individuals as well as institutional members of INCA from Gujarat. INCA Gujarat Branch will draw its strength from institutional members like Space Applications Centre, Survey of India, Settlement Commissioner, Govt. of Gujarat and Geo industry related to Geo information situated in Gujarat.

During the inaugural year the INCA Gujarat Branch proposes to conduct the following programs.

1. Geo-map-quiz for school children in August-September 1999. This is a part of the map awareness programme of INCA and is very popular in other states where INCA branches are already functioning.
2. A GIS Workshop for University teachers and researchers in Earth Sciences. This is a national programme and will be held in November-December, 1999.

In addition it has planned to organise popular lectures on topics related to mapping and map making.

INCA Gujarat Branch also proposes to organise more programs together with other associations with similar mandate like ISG, ISRS, CSI, etc.

The following office bearers of INCA Gujarat Branch may be contacted for membership and details of activities.

Shri AR Dasgupta Chairman, Gujarat Branch
Dr. P K Srivastava Secretary, Gujarat Branch

Landsat-7 Launched

The Landsat-7 was successfully launched on April 15, 1999 into 705-km, 98.2 degree sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite carries Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) which not only replicates the proven capabilities of Thematic Mapper flown on Landsat 4 and 5, but has the following new features:

1. A panchromatic band with 15-m spatial resolution.
2. The spatial resolution of thermal channel has been enhanced to 60 m.
3. 5.0% absolute radiometric calibration has been ensured by full aperture on-board radiometric calibration.

The satellite follows Landsat 5 launched on March 5, 1984. Landsat 6 had failed to achieve the orbit when launched in October 1993. It may be mentioned that Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper is still functioning. The Landsat 7 data products will be made available to public from July 1999 onwards.

IKONOS-1 Anomaly

Space Imaging and Lockheed Martin Astronautics have not successfully acquired telemetry signals from IKONOS 1 satellite following its launch by a Lockheed Martin Athena II rocket on 27 April, 1999. The Athena was launched from Space Launch complex 6 (SLC-6) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Space Imaging and its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corporation, have begun an investigation into the anomaly. IKONOS 2, an identical twin to IKONOS 1, has already been built as a backup in case of an anomaly such as this.

(Source : llidov@spaceimaging.com)

(IKONOS 2 launched successfully on September 24, 1999)

National Wetland Maps Prepared

Conservation  of  wetlands has been neglected not only in India but also throughout the world. This is primarily due to  lack of  scientific inventory of wetlands. In a landmark  initiative, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India sponsored a  project  for state-wise inventory of wetlands in  the  country using   Indian   Remote sensing  Satellite (IRS) data at Space Applications  Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad in 1993. An important task to carry out the inventory was to develop a National Wetland Classification System and then inventory  the country’s wetland resources. Mapping was done on 1:250 000 scale for most of the states and  all wetlands greater than 56.25 ha were delineated. For North-Eastern states, Union Territories  and Punjab, Haryana, Goa, Himachal  Pradesh,  Sikkim and  West Bengal work was carried out on 1:50 000 scale  and  all wetlands  larger than 2.25 ha were delineated. A total  of 1576 maps have been prepared for the entire country.

Results of the project have indicated that there are 27403 wetlands  in the country  bigger  than  the minimum mapping  unit (56.25  ha  or 2.25 ha depending  on  the  scale) occupying  7581871 ha area. In addition, 80, 000 wetlands  which are smaller  than  56.25 or 2.25 ha (depending on  the scale  of mapping) have been detected in the imagery but not delineated.

An  important  feature  of  the study  is  the  creation of attribute  database of the wetlands in the country. State-wise atlases have been also prepared as a ready reference.

Nation-wide wetland data base includes the following information:

• SOI topographical map no.
• state, district, taluka/tehsil
• type of wetland (2 major groups, 4 sub-groups, 27 categories)
• wetland name (if known/available)
• nearest village
• distance and direction from the village
• geographical location (central latitude and longitude)
• wetland extent
• water spread during post-monsoon
• water spread during pre-monsoon
• qualitative turbidity (low, moderate, high as manifested on FCCs) in both the seasons
• status of aquatic vegetation (completely vegetated, partially vegetated, vegetated at fringes, vegetated islands)
• satellite: sensor, path/row, date of pass in both seasons
• other information, if any, specific to a particular wetland such as protected area status, land tenure, floral and faunal values.

Statewise atlases of the wetlands have been prepared as a ready reference.

Database has been created in FoxPro environment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For further information please contact: Shri J.K. Garg, Project Manager, FED/FLPG/RESA, Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad 380 053

NASA names Observatory Chandra

NASA’s newest space observatory, formerly the Advanced X-rayAstrophysics Facility, has been renamed the Chandra X-ray Observatory in honor of Nobel laureate Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, a University of Chicago faculty member for nearly 60 years, who died in August 1993 at age 84. Known as "Chandra", which means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit, he won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his studies of stellar structure and evolution.

NASA held a contest to name the observatory, drawing more than 6,000 entries, 59 of which recommended Chandra.

"Chandrasekhar made fundamental contributions to the theory of black holes and other phenomena that the Chandra X-ray Observatory will study", says NASA Administratory Dan Goldin. "His life and work exemplify the excellence that we can hope to achieve with this great observatory".

First proposed in 1976 , the observatory has taken 20 years to build. It will be launched no earlier than mid-May on the space shuttle Columbia, mission STS 93 - the first NASA shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman, astronaut Fileen Collins. In space, the Chandra observatory will join NASA’s two other orbiting "great observatories": the Hubble Space Telescope, named for Edwin Powell Hubble, AB’10, Ph.D’17, and the Compton Gama Ray Observatory, named for Nobel laureate Arthur Holly Compton, a member of the Chicago faculty from 1923 to 1945.

Weighing more than 5 tons and measuring more than 45 feet in length, the Chandra observatory cost $1.3 billion and will be the largest satellite Columbia has ever launched.

Using the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, the observatory will help scientists understand the structure and evolution of the universe by examining X-rays emanating from objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and matter falling into black holes.

University of Chicago professors Donald Lab and Robert Rosner will use the observatory to study the production of X-rays by compact stars and to compare stars ‘X-ray emissions to similar emissions from the sun. The two, along with Cole Miller; Peter Freeman, Sm’90, Ph D’97; and Vinay Kashyap, SM’93, PhD’94 (now a member of the Chandra observatory science team), helped design and test the telescope’s data analysis software.

Stop Press! Chandra observatory was launched successfully on July 23, 1999 by Columbia space-shuttle (Eds.).

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Reproduced with permission from University of Chicago Magazine.

Literature

GIS@Development, March-April, 1999, Vol 3.2

1. GIS@development for the South Asian Region : Discusses various aspects for having a regional outlook in GIS for South Asian countries.
2. GIS for Urban Development and Planning- A Bhutan Experience : The urban GIS project is expected to build capacities for national strategic planning and policy formulation and for integrated urban management focusing on the major centres of Thimpu and Phuentsholing.
3. Unshackle the Maps : Under this theme there are two articles to describe shortage in map availability in south Asian countries. The first article says that, in Srilanka most of the spatial databases, which should be available in the public domain, have become personal properties of individuals denying others access to this information. In India, the second article says, due to ‘imaginary reason’ of security, the country practices an unjustified policy of secrecy. ‘Ironically the 1:250,000 scale topo-sheets which are restricted by the Survey of India on security consideration along external border and coast line are available for sale in the Stanford International Map Centre, London’.
4. GIS Cruises through Business Lanes : The article describes the usefulness of GIS in corporate sector. GIS can be a tool for strategic planning in marketing organisations.

GIS India, April-June, 1999

1. GIS based integrated project for Land Capability Classification in Bargi command areas
2. Preparation of GIS data sets under the hydrology project.
3. Internet and Geo Info Systems : InterGIS
4. Translation - A tool for Automated Mapping
5. GPS- few tips, Tricks and Hazards
6. Open GIS Consortium
7. Cadastral Surveys in A.P.
8. Towards Effective Utility Management

BOOKS

Events

• Report on Geoinformatics Beyond 2000
• Report on Western Region StateTown Planners Meet

Report on Geoinformatics : Beyond 2000

There is an urgent need to develop a strategy/methodology by which the benefits of the geoinformatics technology will reach all levels of decision making. It involves capacity building (man and machine), institutional re-organisation and policy formulation at top level to implement geoinformatics technology. Realising this, International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), The Netherlands and Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), India have taken up various issues related to geoinformatics in research and educational programme. Their prime aim is to demonstrate the potentials of this technique through training and education and in recent years their emphasis has shifted from technology-driven approach to problem-driven approach addressing the needs and challenges of sustainable development.

In the present scenario, the impact of geoinformatics technology is far from its potential. In the future we can expect to witness great improvements which will make this technology less expensive and more viable to apply for common problems. As a part of a joint strategy, IIRS and ITC organised, Geoinformatics : Beyond 2000, an International Conference on "Geoinformatics for Natural Resource Assessment, Monitoring and Management", during 9-11 March, 1999 at IIRS, Dehradun, India. The prime aim of the conference was to deliberate on such issues, which will guide the technology in the next millennium and discuss the challenges for the way ahead to make geoinformation available for one and all.

The three-day long International conference began with a welcome address by Dr. P. S. Roy, Dean, IIRS and was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Dr. D. P. Rao, Director, National Remote Sensing Agency, India. In the inaugural address, Dr. D. P. Rao, highlighted the role of Space Technology, particularly Indian Space Programme in providing Geoinformation to world community. He also elaborated the application of GIS at national level with the illustrative examples of several projects, viz., Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD), National (Natural) Resources Information System (NRIS), Bio-diversity Conservation, Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agrometeorology and Land Based Observation (FASAL) and Agro-Climate Planning and Information Bank (APIB). He described the futuristic scenario of Geoinformatics with emphasis on knowledge based Expert System, Aritificial Neural Networks (ANN), Three dimensional GIS, Virtual Reality (VR) and Environmental Modelling using GIS.

The Guest of Honour, Prof. Dr. Karl Harmsen, Rector, ITC, The Netherlands, presented the keynote address on Developments in Geo-information Technology. He emphasised elaborately the past, present and future role of Information Technology (IT) in developing Geoinformation Technology and its ramifications for addressing needs and issues of developing countries. As a special guest, Prof. Shunji Murai, AIT, Bangkok spoke on the occasion touching upon various issues related to the main theme of the conference and presented a new concept of Kansei Engineering for the virtual reality map simulation.

Eminent speakers from India and abroad contributed technical papers demonstrating the capabilities of the technology. ITC delegation led by Prof. Karl Harmsen, Rector, ITC, was represented by Dr. Robert van Zuidam, Prof. J. Alfred Zinck, Prof. Andrea Fabbri, Prof. J.L. van Genderen, Prof. A.M.J. Meijerink, Dr. Cees J. van Westen, and Dr. Dhruba B.P. Shrestha, who contributed significantly during technical proceedings of the conference. The conference received overwhelming response from contributing authors in India and abroad. In total 109 papers were presented in the fine technical sessions of the conference. An Abstract Volume of all accepted papers (142), Pre-Conference Proceedings Volume of selected 35 full-length papers and a Souvenir Volume were released on the occasion.

The conference was well attended by more than 300 delegates including 51 foreign participants from 19 countries, mainly from South-East Asian region. Additionally the conference was attended by more than 200 professionals from various organisations from Dehradun and adjoining region as special invitees and visitors at the Geoinformatics technical sessions and Geoinformatics exposition.

The main theme of the conference revolved around five technical sessions.

The second technical session on Applications of Geoinformatics in Resource Management attracted three invited talks by Prof. S K Bhan, Dr. R R Navalgund and Prof. A M J Meijerink and ten contributed papers.

The third technical session on "Spatial Modelling and Decision Support System" had three invited talks by Prof. Sunji Murai, Prof. B L Deekshatulu and Brig. R N Srivastava. Besides, six contributed papers were also presented.

There were four invited talks and two contributed papers in the fourth technical session on Geoinformatics for Disaster Management. The invited talks were delivered by Prof. Andrea G Fabbri, Prof. J A Zinck, Dr. A K Chakraborti and Prof. C J van Westen.

In the technical session five on "Trends and Opportunities", four invited talks were delivered by Dr. M K Munshi (Rolta India), Prof. B H Subbaraya (ISRO), Shri Rajesh Mathur (NIIT GIS) and Prof. JL van Genderen (ITC). Besides, four contributed papers were presented during the session.

Apart from the above mentioned papers, around fifty papers were presented on wide ranging topics covering all five main themes through special Interactive Poster Sessions. In recognition of high quality presentation and technical contents of the papers, Award committee of the conference, chaired by Prof. B L Deekshatulu, presented seven best paper awards to two authors of oral sessions and five authors of Interactive Poster Sessions.

In order to demonstrate the operational remote sensing capabilities in practice, particularly in India, a special workshop was organised on "Operational Remote Sensing". Eminent scientists and policy makers involved in major on-going and accomplished national projects delivered talks on wide ranging topics, viz. Commercialisation of Remote Sensing, National Natural Resource Management System (NNRMS) Programme, National Soil Mapping, Assessment and Monitoring of the National Forest Cover, National Land Use Mapping, Geoinformatics in urban Planning and Management, Crop Production Forecasting, Land degradation Analysis, Fishing Zone Mapping and Management of Groundwater Resource in India.

The Working Group VII/2 of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), used this unique opportunity to hold a special workshop on "Environmental Modelling". The workshop was well attended by foreign and Indian delegates, who were exposed to various aspects of technology and application potentials in Remote Sensing which are necessary for the understanding and implementation of sustainable development programmes.

Another important component of the Conference, "Geoinformatics Exposition" was attended by leading companies from India and abroad, viz. Rolta India Ltd., PCI Software Ltd., Geoimage (France), Spot Image (France), Pentafour Communication Ltd. NRSA Data Centre, ESRI India Ltd., Cadd Centre Scanning Technologies, Tata Infotech Ltd., Winsmul (Italy), IN-RIMT and Speck Systems Ltd., Together these companies demonstrated wide range of products and services related to geoinformation collection, analysis and presentation. A special session on Industry presentation and a popular talk on Radarsat by Dr. Ashok Kaushal, C-DAC, Pune provided a unique opportunity to all delegates to know about the capabilities of industry to meet the challenges of the user demand in recent years and in the next millennium.

The tremendous impact of the Conference was felt during the deliberations of Concluding and Plenary Session on the last day of the conference. All Chairpersons of technical sessions and workshops presented a summary report of the proceedings and presented their viewpoints on the future direction of Geoinformatics technology. The following are the major recommendations that emerged during the technical deliberations of the conference.

1. Research emphasis should be laid on advance spatial data processing techniques and its applications.
2. Advances in geoinformation collection from space should be in tune with the expectation of the user community.
3. Information infrastructure should be developed for resource and hazard monitoring and management.
4. Training and educational opportunities are to be strengthened to multiply the trained manpower base in public and private sector.
5. Data exchange formats have to be well defined for information exchange over Internet.
6. New methods of data representation should be explored to facilitate better human interpretation and analysis.
7. Internet GIS should be promoted to provide very simple to complex information sharing in a much simplified manner, e.g. through user friendly modules in regional languages for rural users.

The three day long conference completed on a successful note with everybody realising the need of the user community, trends on the technology front and immense untapped application potential of this unique type of Information Technology, the Geoinformatics.

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Rapporteur: Dr. P.S. Roy, Dean, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehra Dun

Report on Western Region State Town Planners Meet

Workshop on "RS and GIS in Urban Planning"–Retrospective and Prospective"

The Planning Commission has constituted a Planning Committee – National Natural Resources Management System (PC-NNRMS, which has the prime responsibility for promotion of the use of the satellite-based remotely-sensed information for optimal utilisation of country’s natural resources. Under the aegis of PC-NNRMS, a Standing Committee on Urban Management (SC-U) has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Secretary, MUA&E, Govt. of India, for guiding the activities of NNRMS and to co-ordinate the application of Remote Sensing data in the context of Urban Planning and Management.

The SC-U in its first meeting at New Delhi on January 22, 1998 noted that considerable work was done by many agencies in using remote sensing data for urban applications. It, however, observed that there is a need for orienting remote sensing inputs for urban development planning and to constantly update the maps and information generated through remote sensing for use in decision making. It also pointed out that the enhanced resolution capabilities of IRS-1C/1D satellites offer better urban base maps preparation specifically in metropolitan regions, mega cities, large towns etc. The meeting also critically observed the necessity for increasing the interaction and strengthening with the state departments (users) to make projects or activities as part of the SC-U.

It is towards the fulfilment of this vital objective, a decision was taken to organise regional workshops to understand the state Government’s requirements and also to reduce the information gaps by sharing the available information with remote sensing agencies like SAC, NRSA and other ISRO/DOS centres. In all six regional workshops viz. 1. Southern Region (Hyderabad), 2.Western Region (Ahmedabad), 3. Central Region (Bhopal), 4. Northern Region (Chandigarh), 5. Eastern Region (Bhubaneswar) and North East Region (Shillong) have been planned to cover the entire country. Towards this, the first workshop was organised at NRSA, Hyderabad to cater to the needs of State Town Planners of Southern region of India and the second workshop was organised on June 14, 1999 at Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad on "RS and GIS techniques in Urban Planning – Retrospective and Prospective". A number of planners from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan states attended this workshop to discuss various issues related to urban planning and possible solutions with RS and GIS techniques. A number of case studies carried out in these states using remote sensing data were presented and the following things were discussed.

Non-availability of base maps, their scales, sources of survey and its time period, an updation of base maps at regular intervals, non-availability of spatial/aspatial information systems in digital form and creation of integrated information systems for better infrastructure development and planning.

Identification of possible areas for co-operation, projects and schemes using RS and GIS techniques between ISRO/DOS and town planning departments, municipal corporation and development authorities.

Assessment of available level of expertise and trained manpower in RS and GIS techniques and infra-structural facilities in various state town planning and development authorities and municipal corporations.

Computerisation of development plans, town planning schemes for monitoring of plan implementation schemes.

Training of manpower essential to adopt new technology of RS and GIS in Urban and Regional planning exercises.

The conclusions drawn from the workshop are a) Mismatch of cadastral boundaries with map and RS data. It has been pointed that the cadastral boundaries will not match with either of SOI maps or RS data as the cadastral maps are not cartographically corrected maps i.e. they do not have any projection system. Hence, if one tries to match with SOI or RS data, the shift will occur either in distance, shape, size or in direction. No solution exists as on today to encounter this problem, b) Non-availability of RS data for sensitive areas like defense units is tied with policy matters and hence difficult to resolve, c) As far as training is concerned, the three training programmes lined up by DOS during the year were disclosed to the house. But the need for the continuous training at large scale remains a problem, d) A need was felt for defining the role of stake holders like TCPO, state planning departments, DOS centres, education institutions and industry. There was clarity on some roles but doubts were expressed about the credibility of vendors claiming comprehensive abilities without much proof and need was felt for ISRO/DOS certification. Educational institution could play the role of conceptualising/theoretical aspects of planning. Enactment of laws, guidelines, rules on usage of RS/GIS can help establish scientific planning in state town planning departments and municipal corporations as well as development authority areas, e) It was emphasised that urban planning should be holistic instead of being based purely on physical parameters. Hence pollution problems, hazards and human aspects should be incorporated and f) Scales used for various levels of urban planning seemed arbitrary and house felt the need for evolving/using standard scales. TCPO standards available for this purpose may be widely circulated particularly in RS and GIS journals, newsletters for creating awareness.

At the end of all the six workshops, the sub-committee will be able to synthesize the workshop recommendations and finally focus on important issues of town and urban planning through various projects, schemes and policies.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rapporteur: Shri S.K. Pathan, LPPD/ FLPG/RESA, Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad

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