UN-SPIDER's Regional Support Office in Nepal, ICIMOD, published an overview of the events following the heavy monsoon rains this past month in Nepal and India causing heavy flooding. In their brief note, the following questions are addressed: What kind of climatic events led to this disaster? Could anything have been done to reduce the loss of life and property? What can we learn from this disaster for the future? With in-depth figures and facts, the experts look at the Mahakali river flood (transboundary river between Nepal and India), the intense monsoon precipitation levels in Central Nepal, and give an overview of the currently known impact of the floods on... read more
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On 28 May, 2013, the Indian Space Research Organisation unveiled a new Navigation Centre in Bangalore Rural Disctrict, as The Economic Times reported. The new Centre (INC) will serve the proposed Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), a constellation of seven satellites that will enable users to determine their precise location and time.
The Centre is located at the Indian Deep Space Network complex at Byalalu and will be responsible for the time reference, generation of navigation messages and monitoring and control of ground facilities including ranging stations.
ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said: "INC will host several key technical facilities for supporting these navigation functions and the key to the navigation support is the time reference to which all ground based... read more
UN-SPIDER's Regional Support Office, ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development) and its partner Aaranyak-India are developing and testing the establishment of flood early warning systems in selected rivers of the project area. The project aims to enhance community resilience to water-related hazards in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and is part of the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP)
To implement the system, ICIMOD has developed a wireless flood... read more
Regional Support Offices mentioned:
India will soon establish its own GPS-like satellite navigation system. According to the newspaper Times of India the first of seven satellites of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) will be launched in June 2013. This system will provide India with its own data for location and time in all weather conditions.
Times of India cites K Radhakrishnan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation IRSO: "The satellite constellation, IRNSS, aims to increase position accuracy and provide standard positioning service for common users and restricted service for authorized users. A space based augmentation system for GPS will make major difference in the way the air ports are operated in India. In the next two years, our country will be blessed with several new satellite based... read more
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is planning to build Cartosat-3, a satellite capable to take images of the earth with a resolution of 0.25 metres, as TheHindu reported. This remote sensing satellite is expected to exceed GeoEye-1, which is currently the satellite taking the highest resolution images of our planet. GeoEye-1 is capable of taking panchromatic images with a resolution of 0.41 meters. WorldView-2, another satellite operated by the same company, DigitalGlobe, offers a best resolution of 0.46 metres... read more
The UN-affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP) in India has announced its new training course programme 2013-2014 covering the fields of Remote Sensing and GIS, Satellite Communications, Satellite Meteorology and Global Climate and Space and Atmospheric Science. The courses are designed for scientists, engineers and university... read more
Indo-French space cooperation is all set to soar to new heights with the scheduled launch of a satellite to study changes in the environment soon after the visit of French President Francois Hollande in New Delhi next week.
The SARAL-Altika satellite, a joint project of the space agencies of India and France, will complement the observations of the seas made by current satellites.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has identified a launch window between February 22 and February 25 for putting the 450 kg Indo-French satellite into... read more
ArcGIS announced that an additional batch of the large set (up to 50 million square kilometers) of high-resolution imagery to be added to the World_Imagery map service is fully processed and published to ArcGIS Online. The World Imagery map was recently updated to include expanded coverage of 1m resolution GeoEye IKONOS imagery for parts of India and Africa. This represents the latest update as additional IKONOS imagery is fully p, rocessed and published.
The International Charter Space and Major Disasters was activated for a floods and landslides in India and fires in Ecuador.
The Charter for India was acticated by the Indian Disaster Management Support Programme (DMS) on Sunday, 16 September 2012. On Friday, 14 September 2012, a series of cloudbursts had struck the Himalayan state of Uttarkhand, triggering flash floods and landslides. At least 45 people have been killed and 35 others are missing whilst several more are injured. The worst affected areas include several villages: Chunni, Mangoli, Kimana, Sansari, Giriya, Brahmankholi, Premnagar and Juatok. Heavy rains are known to be deadly in this area and will continue until September.
The Charter for Ecuador was activated by Sistema Federal de Emergencies (SIFEM) on behalf of Secretaria Nacional de Gestion de Riesgos (ECUADOR) on Saturday, 15... read more
SPOT-6, the new high resolution optical Earth observation satellite, built by the European leading space technology company Atrium, will be launched from India next month. . It will provide a wide view over a large area and it will offer enhanced performance compared with its predecessors and it is also lighter. It will have a service life of 10 years.
More information about SPOT 6: http://www.astrium.eads.net/node.php?articleid=8892
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) will set up 14 Automatic Weather Station (AWS) within the city limits to monitor monsoon accuracy and flood-like situation. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is funding Rs 10 lakh for the project.
The International Charter: Space and Major Disasters was activated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 29 June 2012. Floods, caused by heavy rains over the last two weeks, have taken a toll of 27 human lives in Assam State, India and affected almost one million. The population in 2084 villages in 22 districts have been affected by floods this year. 173 relief camps have been set up so far to provide shelter for those affected.
The Brahmaputra river was reported, on 28th June, as flowing above the danger mark in all its gauge stations at Dibrugarh, Neamatighat, Tezpur, Guwahati, Goalpara and Dhubri, according to the evening flood bulletin of the Central Water Commission. The districts affected by the current wave of flood include Barpeta, Dhemaji, Jorhat, Golaghat, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivsagar, Nagaon, Morigaon, Lakhimpur, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Nalbari, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Baksa, Sonitpur,... read more
The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) of India published the e-book "Ecosystem Approach to Disaster Risk Reduction", which is freely available on the UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal.
The publication focuses on the importance of protecting and improving ecosystems for reducing disaster risk. It gives general introductions to the topic of Eco-Disaster Risk Reduction and showcases specific issues such as coastal... read more
On 26 April 2012, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched their first indigenously built all-weather Radar Imaging Satellite, RISAT-1. RISAT-1, weighing 1,858 kg and being the heaviest satellite launched yet by the carrier PSLV, is an Active Microwave Remote Sensing Satellite carrying a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that will operate in the C-band. This means that RISAT-1 can send imagery of earth's... read more
On 9 April 2012 UN-SPIDER inaugurated the international training course “Space technology applications in Disaster Risk Reduction” organised at the Centre for Space Science Technology Education for Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP), the UN affiliated regional centre based in Dehradun, India. The Course will be conducted until 4 May 2012. During the first two days of the course, UN-SPIDER provided a brief overview on relevance of space technology for implementing priorities of Hyogo Framework for Action and addressed the topic related to effective use of space technology for disaster risk reduction.
The course is jointly conducted by the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing of ISRO,... read more
UN-SPIDER and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of India jointly supported a training workshop on "Space technology applications in disaster management and emergency response" at New Delhi India. The workshop was organised by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM). The event provided a platform to the... read more
The first of India's own little regional positioning satellites to better the US military-owned GPS may be put up in sky this year. The seven-satellite constellation, called the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System, when fully in place over the coming years, will be far more accurate than the GPS that the world depends on. It would be available to users in the sub-continent all the time come rain or shine, according to ISRO. The space agency along with its other government partners on Wednesday briefed 250 current and potential users, planners, industry and scientists on the uses of navigational systems. The Airports Authority of India co-sponsored the first Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) meet. ISRO's Director, Publicity and PR, Mr S.Satish, said GPS signals and position... read more
India must embark on a “new evergreen revolution” with the extensive use of appropriate bio- and space technology inputs to ensure food security for all and enable the country to compete successfully in a globalised economy, says renowned space scientist U.R. Rao. India’s population is bound to cross 1.6 billion by 2050, which will demand doubling of our foodgrain production to ensure food security to all our people, according to him. And in the past one decade, India’s agricultural production has remained stagnant between 220 and 240 million tonnes. Agricultural productivity (1.8 tonne per hectare) is much less than the world productivity of 2.6 tonne per hectare. The solution, the former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said, lay in the application of science and technology... read more
National Disaster Management Guidelines for Information and Communication System (NDMICS) prepared by National Disaster Management authority (NDMA) were released in New Delhi today. Speaking at the occasion, Shri M. Shashidhar Reddy, Vice Chairman, NDMA stressed that the holistic approach for Disaster Management calls for a dedicated fail-proof communication system to ensure seamless flow of value-added information products on GIS platform not only in the response phase but also for... read more
[NEW DELHI] Combining remote sensing technology with water and soil conservation techniques can help raise crop yields in South Asia, scientists have reported.
Satellite data can help identify specific problems on farmlands such as moisture shortage, excessive soil wetness and flood occurrence.
Using the data along with appropriate resource conserving technology (RCT) will increase productivity, a study team of researchers reported this month (8 September) in Applied Geography.
The study team included researchers from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Manila, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, Banaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi,... read more
In the days and weeks before the monsoon, heat builds over India. Hot air rises over the baked earth and westerly winds rush in to fill the void, bringing dust-laden air from the deserts of southwest Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. Through April, May, and June, as monsoon conditions build, the air over the Ganges River plain grows thick with dust, smoke, and haze. Air quality over India is at its worst at this time of year. Finally, in mid- to late-June, the winds shift and cleansing monsoon rains fall.
This image provides a profile of the pre-monsoon air over India on May 12, 2007. The lower image was made with data from the CALIPSO satellite, which sends pulses of... read more
The government of India made two major data sharing policy decisions on the 4th of July regarding remote sensing. They have opened up the possibility for more government agencies to own and operate remote sensing satellites other than the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and they have freed up all remote sensing imagery up to one meter resolution, where the previous restriction required data up to 5.8 meter resolution to be protected.
Both restrictions have hampered the commercial viability of the organisation, and the geospatial industry development within the country. Geospatial practitioners within... read more
Chennai, April 28 (IANS) India’s latest advanced remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2 launched last week beamed its first set of pictures Thursday. In a statement, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the three cameras of Resourcesat-2 were switched on and high quality images were received by the National Remote Sensing Centre’s Earth Station near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.
On April 20, an Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C16) precisely launched three satellites – the 1,206 kg Resourcesat-2, the 92 kg Youthsat for stellar and atmospheric studies, and a 106 kg mini satellite X-SAT for imaging applications. Remote sensing satellites send back pictures and other... read more
Shimla: Smt Sarojini Ganju Thakur, Additional Chief Secretary (Environment, Science & Technology) said that action needs to be taken at various levels to implement Disaster Management Plan in the State. She was inaugurating a two-day workshop on 'Training Need Assessment for Disaster Management in Himachal Pradesh' organized by State Council for Science, Technology and Environment in collaboration with Revenue Department at Himachal Pradesh Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) here today.
Smt Thakur stressed upon the need for swift, timely and appropriate action, keeping in view the of the State to earthquake, flash floods and other natural or man made hazards. She said that State Government had taken a slew of concrete measures for disaster management.... read more
WAM New Delhi, Apr 20 (WAM)--The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched three satellites today. The primary mission of the launch was to put a sophisticated earth observation satellite, Resourcesat-2, which has three cameras and another system to monitor the movement of ships.
India now has a total of 10 satellites for remote sensing of earth and ocean waters, and a few more are due to be launched to track the movement of very small vessels as a result of the 26/11 terror attacks on India's commercial... read more
