International Archives of Photogrammetiy and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III, Vienna, 1999
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I5PR5
UNISPACE III - ISPRS Workshop on
“Resource Mapping from Space”
9:00 am -12:00 pm, 22 July 1999, VIC Room B
Vienna, Austria
I5PR5
monitor and model the Earth's surface and interior. Beginning
with the pilot projects on mapping individual natural resources
and environmental parameters at regional level using Landsat-
MSS data, improvements in the sensor technology especially in
the spatial, spectral, radiometric and temporal resolutions have
enabled the scientific community to operationalise the
methodology. Geological, geomorphological, soil resources, land
use / land cover, urban sprawl, forest cover and surface water
mapping at different scales, identification of mineral and
groundwater potential zones, generation of derivative maps like
land capability, land irrigability etc., from soil resources maps,
and generation of input for forest management working plan,
command area monitoring, crop acreage and production estimate;
and identification of potential fishing zones in the oceans, and
monitoring of navigational channels have been operationalised.
Amongst environmental parameters, waterlogging and
subsequent salinization and alkanization, soil erosion by water
and wind, forest fire, floods and drought liave been studied and
monitored at operational level.
Information on the nature, extent, spatial distribution, and
potential and limitations of natural resources is a pre-requisite
for planning the strategy for sustainable development. In
addition, socio-economic and meteorological, and other related
ancillary' information is also required while recommending
locale-specific prescriptions for taking up curative or preventive
measures. By virtue of synoptic view of a fairly large area at
regular interval, spaceborne multispectral data have been used at
operational level for generating baseline information on mineral
resources, soils, ground water and surface water, land use/land
cover, forests, etc. at scales ranging from regional to micro level
i.e. 1:250,000 to 1:12.500 scale, and monitoring the changes
therein, if any, over a period of time. Beginning with the
Landsat-MSS data with a 60X80m spatial resolution and four
spectral bands spanning from green to near infrared in early
1970s, the natural resources scientists had access to Landsat-TM
data with a 30m spatial resolution and seven spectral bands
spread over between blue and thermal infrared region of the
electromagnetic spectrum in early 1980s which helped further
refinement and generation of thematic information at further
larger scale. Further, high spatial resolution HRV-MLA and
PL A data with 20m and 10m spatial resolution, respectively
from SPOT series of satellite inn later half of 1980s have
supplemented the effort of generating information on natural
resources.
The indigenous effort on design and development of satellites
and sensors led initially to the launch of Indian Remote Sensing
Satellite (IRS-1 A and B), carrying Linear Imaging Self-scanning
Sensors (LISS-I and II) with the spatial resolution comparable
with those of Landsat MSS and TM, respectively in late eighties
and early nineties. Further development in the sensor technology
had resulted in the launch of the state-of-the-art satellite (IRS-IC)
in December, 1995 with the following three unique sensors:
(i) Wide Field sensor (WiFS) with 188 m spatial, two spectral
bands - red and near infrared, 810 km swath and a repetitiveness
of 5 days.
(ii) LISS-m with 23.5m spatial resolution in the green red and
near infrared region, and 70.5 m in the middle infrared regioa
and 140 km swath,
(iii) Panchromatic (PAN) camera with 5.8 m spatial resolution,
70 km swath and stereo capability.
While WiFS with 5-day repetitiveness and large swath provides
regional level monitoring of crop condition assessment, LISS-ITI
multispectral sensor with 140 km. swath enables identification of
individual crops in multiple cropping situations. PAN data with
5.8m spatial resolution and stereo capability- enables appreciation
of terrain's relief. Merging LISS-III data with PAN data offers
additional advantage of exploiting both spectral information
from LISS-III and high spatial resolution front PAN for such
applications as geomorphological mapping, soil resources
mapping and terrain analysis. The uniqueness of these sensors
lies in the fact that all the sensors with regional and local level
coverage are mounted on the same platform and collect data
under similar illumination condition, avoiding thereby the need
for radiometric nonnalization.
Further, the development of launch velticles especially Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has enabled India, launching
three experimental satellites, namely IRS-IE in September, 1993,
IRS-P2 in October 1994 and IRS-P3 in March. 1996. The IRS-
P3 has two payloads , namely WiFS same as the one aboard
IRS-1C/1D, and Modular Electro-optical Scanner (MOS) with
13 channels spanning from blue to middle infrared region of the
electromagnetic spectrum.
Launched in May,1999,the IRS-P4 (Oceansat) is a dedicated
mission intended for ocean resources development. It has two
sensors, namely Multi-frequency- Scanning Microwave
Radiometer (MSMR) and Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM).
Operating in four frequencies i.e. 6.6, 10.65 18 and 21.1 GHz
with 120, 80 and 40 km spatial resolution, the OCM provides
measurements of emitted energy from the oceans which helps in
deriving various weather-related parameters, namely regional
level soil moisture, sea surface temperature, sea surface wind,
cloud liquid water and atmospheric water vapour. The OCM
with 8 spectral bands spanning from blue to near infrared region
(402 run to 885 nm) and a spatial resolution of 360 x 250m. will
help generating information on phytoplankton concentration,
potential fishing zones, and primary- productivity.
For visual interpretation, the standard false colour composite
(FCC) prints generated from green, red and near infra-red bands
have been used. However, special products with varying
combination of spectral bands have also been tried out for certain
specific applications. For instance, red, near infrared and short
wave infrared combination Iras been found to help improved
