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IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”, Hyderabad, India, 2002 
ROLE OF REMOTE SENSING AND DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS 
IN RESOURCE MAPPING AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING 
PVSP.Prasada Raju, Sujata Ghosh, Novaline Jacob, A.S.Rao, and J.Saibaba 
Advanced Data Processing Research Institute (ADRIN), Dept. of. Space, Govt. of India 
203, Akbar road, Tarbund, Secunderabad-500009 pvspraju@hotmail.com 
KEY WORDS: Remote sensing, satellite imagery, Temporal data, Natural resources, disasters, Landslides, Flashfloods 
Environment, Monitoring, Decision support system, Decision Space software 
, 
ABSTRACT: 
Disasters are the most widespread phenomena on the earth's surface; about one fourth of the world's population is facing some kind 
of disasters always. Most of the disasters are outcome of natural processes like tectonic activity, global/regional climatic changes etc. 
However, human induced activities like deforestation, mining, indiscriminate land exploitation etc., equally contributing various type 
of disasters/hazards. Hence, there is a necessity to develop an effective mechanism to monitor such events in a systematic way at 
regular intervals. Remote sensing and Decision support systems (GIS) are such type of technologies and they will definitely play an 
important role in monitoring /predicting disasters. Significant advancements in the remote sensing technology in terms of spatial, 
spectral and temporal resolutions visa-vis data handling capabilities in the GIS environment during the last decade facilitates 
mapping the natural resources inventory and environmental monitoring in a very effective manner. The Decision Space software 
(built around Arc/Info GIS) is one such tool developed at ADRIN had been used in some of the major projects of the Dept.of.Space 
such as Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD), Landslide Hazard Zonation (LHZ) mapping etc. The present study 
is aimed at monitor/mapping natural hazards like landslides, floods etc, using temporal satellite imagery. It also aimed at 
inventory/assessment of resources such as locating suitable sites for (surface) water harvesting structures, prediction of potential 
Landslide Hazard Zones (LHZ) using Decision space. In order to demonstrate the capability of remotely sensed data and GIS 
software (Decision Space) in disaster monitoring and resources mapping, ADRIN was carried out a few pilot studies during last two 
years. In this paper, two case studies on flashfloods namely over the Tsangpo and Sutlej Rivers were carried out using temporal 
satellite imagery. Landslides are another major form of disasters that the country is being faced recurrently. In fact, the two 
flashfloods over the Tsangpo and Sutlej rivers were caused by major landslides, which in turn (they were) initiated by earthquakes, 
followed by impoundment and subsequent breach of the water bodies in the upper catchment areas. The Decision Space software 
developed at ADRIN has been used to delineate the potential landslide zones near Pithoragarh town, Uttaranchal state. The output 
maps derived using Decision Space software was compared with those (maps) prepared by a domain expert (using visual 
interpretation techniques) and were found perfectly matched. The capabilities of GIS and Remotely sensed data in monitoring/ 
prediction of hazards like landslides, floods etc., and also in resources conservation/inventory studies such as locating favorable sites 
for construction of check-dams and percolation tanks were carried out at ADRIN through a few pilot studies using Decision Space 
software. Hence, it is suggested that the Decision support system (such as Decision Space) together remotely sensed data would be 
very useful in locating, predicting and monitoring various types of disasters. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
Disasters are most widespread phenomena on the surface of the 
earth and nearly one fourth of the global population is at some 
kind of risks. Majority of these risks are outcome of natural 
processes such as earthquakes, cyclonic storms, floods etc., 
However, human induced hazards like deforestation, mining, 
indiscriminate land exploitation etc., are equally contributing 
calamities/disasters like floods, landslides, droughts etc., The 
entire zone of Himalayas is often subjected to earthquakes of 
moderate to severe nature and many times these tectonic 
disturbances together heavy precipitation/snowfall initiates 
landslides of moderate to severe magnitude. In order to tackle 
such events in an effective manner an integrated disaster 
mitigation/monitoring system should be available at important 
focal points like district headquarters. Remote Sensing 
technology together Decision support systems will definitely 
plays an important role in prediction/monitoring such events in 
near real time and cost effective manner. Significant 
developments in the field of remote sensing technology in 
terms of spatial, spectral & temporal resolutions visa-vis data 
handling capabilities in GIS environment during last decade, 
facilitates inventory of natural resources and environmental 
monitoring in a more efficient manner. The Decision space 
software (built around Arc/Info package) is one such tool 
developed at ADRIN had been used in some of the remote 
sensing application projects undertaken by the Dept.of.Space in 
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the recent years such as Landslide Hazard Zonation (LHZ) 
mapping for Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh and locating 
suitable water harvesting structure under Integrated Mission for 
Sustainable Development (IMSD) project etc. (Anon 1998a; 
Anon 2001; Novaline et al 1997). Further, the Decision space 
tool had been incorporated as one of the main modules in the 
National Natural Resources Management system (NRIS) of 
Dept.of.Space (Anon 1998b). The main focus of the present 
study is aimed at assess the capability of remotely sensed data 
and Decision Space (GIS package) tool in the 
inventory/monitoring of natural resources and hazards/disasters 
etc., In this paper, a few case studies that were carried out at 
ADRIN presented in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the 
Decision Space in handling problems like delineation of 
. (potential) Landslides Hazard zones (Prasada Raju et al 1999) 
and locating the suitable water harvesting sites etc. (Anon 1995; 
Prasada Raju et al 2001).The year 2000 was a disaster year for 
India, because two major flood events takes places over the 
Tsangpo and the Sutlej rivers during June and August 2000 
respectively. They caused significant loss to the public as well 
as government properties worth of few hundred crores rupees 
besides, loss to human life and cattle. In order to locate the 
source of flood origin and extent of damage caused due by 
these floods, two studies were carried out in a detailed manner 
using temporal IRS-1C/1D satellite data (Anon 2000; Anon