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GEOINFORMATICS APPLICATIONS IN AGRICULTURE

A.K. Singh, U.K. Chopra
  • Country of Origin:

  • Imprint:

    NIPA

  • eISBN:

    9789389992564

  • Binding:

    EBook

  • Number Of Pages:

    354

  • Language:

    English

Individual Price: 2,950.00 INR 2,655.00 INR + Tax

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Earth functions as a complex system and existing infrastructure and methodologies are inadequate for the community to address many problems of this system. It requires an integrated and innovative approach to analyse, model and develop extensive and diverse data sets for the solution of these problems. Geoinformatics, which is the synergy of multiple disciplines, namely, earth sciences, GIS, remote sensing, GPS, photogrammetry and cartography, is developing fast in the areas where the data are identified by their locations. Currently, there is a chaotic distribution of available data sets, lack of documentation about them and the methodologies, lack of easy-to-access, tolls, computer modeling etc. which pose the major obstacles for the earth scientist in trying to work out solutions. The authors have tried to remove these hurdles by bringing together relevant informations and techniques as well as the recent advances in these fields. This book presents a comprehensive account of various topics related to the applications of geoinformatics which are highly diversified and include space and environmental monitoring, watershed management, water resources and management, productivity enhancement in agro-ecosystems, resource information systems, precision farming, monitoring of glaciers and lakes, geospatial techniques and livelihood improvement using GIS.

0 Start Pages

Preface The good to keep up with the demands of the ever increasing population is necessitating development of technologies which can retrieve, process and disseminate information in an effective and reliable manner at the fastest pace possible. The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) is, therefore, going to play a very vital role in the development and progress of any organization or nation. Realizing the importance of this, a Symposium on “Geoinformatics Applications for Sustainable Development” was organized at IARI, New Delhi to have in-depth deliberations on the state-of-art of various tools that can be used for evaluating, monitoring, managing and planning all aspects which are essential for all development processes. The writing of this book was conceived during that period. Since geoinformatics has now become very important as a tool, it was felt necessary to bring out a publication examining the scope of this important science. Earth functions as a complex system and existing infrastructure and methodologies are inadequate for the community to address many problems of this system. It requires an integrated and innovative approach to analyse, model and develop extensive and diverse data sets for the solutions of these problems. Currently, there is a chaotic distribution of available data sets, lack of documentation about them and the methodologies, lack of easy-to-access tools, computer modeling etc. which pose the major obstacles for the earth scientists in trying to work out solutions. Geoinformatics is a rapidly developing science which encompasses all modern tools and techniques like remote sensing, GIS, GPS, photogrammetry along with computer modeling to systematic data storage, analysis and retrieval for research as well as for documentation to bring out relevant information and advancements in various fields. This book presents a comprehensive account of various topics related to the applications of geoinformatics which are highly diversified and include space and environmental monitoring, watershed management, water resources and management, productivity enhancement in agro-ecosystems, resource information systems, precision farming, monitoring of glaciers and lakes, geospatial techniques and livelihood improvement using GIS.

 
1 Space Sensing and Environment Monitoring
Ajai, J.K. Garg

Key words : Remote Sensing, Ecosystem, Environmental Pollution, Biodiversity Conservation, Coastal Environmental Degradation, Wetland. Introduction National prosperity and human resources development are primarily shaped by the availability of natural resources and their use. None the less, the benefits are quite often negated by the resultant environmental degradation concomitant with their utilisation for economic values. The problems of environmental degradation have assumed critical dimensions in many parts of India due to resources exploitation; industrialisation and urbanisation, unchecked population growth and a never ending quest for energy to meet the increasing demands. Moreover, improper utilisation of resources has resulted in such environmental problems as soil erosion, waterlogging, floods, droughts and pollution of various types besides socio-economic disparity among people. After the 1972 Stockholm conference on Human Environment and Development, there has been a phenomenal increase in the worldwide interest in the environmental issues associated with development. Consequently, the focus of development has shifted to environment friendly and sustainable developmental planning in recent years. The Rio Summit (June 3-14, 1992) further emphasised the fact that earth is an integral and interdependent system, which require sustainable developmental planning. During deliberations of the Rio Summit (Earth Summit), it was emphasised that satellite imagery will be quite helpful in monitoring earth’s environment. India has a long tradition of environmental protection and has enacted laws during the last three decades to give further impetus to the conservation of natural resources and protection of environment. Some of the important laws are:

1 - 38 (38 Pages)
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2 Geoinformatics in Precision Farming: An Overview
Rajender Prasad, Anshu Dixit, P K Malhotra, V K Gupta

Introduction Precision Farming (PF) revolves around the idea that any agricultural land contains wide spatial variations in soil types, nutrient availability, and other important factors. If these variations are not taken into account, then there may be a loss in productivity. Precision farming is one of the most scientific and modern approaches to sustainable agriculture that has gained momentum in 21st century. Consider the situation: ‘A farmer goes to his/her field with his/her Global Positioning System (GPS) guided tractor. The GPS senses the exact location of the tractor within the field. It sends the signal to a computer on the tractor that has a Geographical Information System (GIS), storing the soil nutrient requirements map in it. GIS, in consultation with a Decision Support System, decides what is the exact requirement of the fertilizer for a given location and then commands a variable rate fertilizer applicator, attached with the tractor, to apply the exact dose at that precise location. All this is done within a second, before the tractor moves further.’ This may sound like an excerpt from a scientific fiction, but this is what precision farming means to the large growers of the United States or European countries and day is not far off when it will be feasible for large Indian farmers as well. PF refers to a developing agricultural management system that promotes variable management practices within a field according to site or soil conditions. Within a short span of time, this concept has been described with various names viz. farming by soil; farming soil, not fields; farming by the foot; spatially prescriptive farming; computer aided farming; farming by computer; farming by satellite; high-tech sustainable agriculture; soil-specific crop management; site-specific farming; and site-specific crop management.

39 - 78 (40 Pages)
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3 Geoinformatics Applications in India-Retrospect and Prospects Experience of National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA)
P.S. Roy

Key words : NRSA, Natural Resource and Disaster Management, Agricultural Drought, Ecosystems, Biodiversity Information System, Water Resources, Sea Surface Temperature. Introduction A few decades ago, paper maps were the principal means to synthesize and represent geographic information. Manipulating this information was limited to a manual, non-interactive process. Since then the rapid development of new technologies to collect and digitize geographic data, together with an increasing demand for both interactive manipulation and analysis of this data, has generated a need for dedicated software’s namely geographic information systems (GISs). A GIS is more than a cartographic tool to produce maps. It stores geographic data, retrieves and combines this data to create new representations of geographic space, provides tools for spatial analysis, and performs simulations to help expert users to organize their work in many areas like public administration, transportation networks, military applications and environmental information systems. These above mentioned are few among many others where we are concerned with geographical locations, their present status, its potential for developmental activities, patterns of change over the years and the processes on the surface of the earth. Geographic information technology is used to manipulate objects in geographic space, and to acquire knowledge from spatial facts. Spatial information theory provides a basis for GIS by bringing together fields that deal with spatial reasoning, the representation of space, and human understanding of space.

79 - 102 (24 Pages)
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4 Horticultural Resources Information System – A Geo-informatic Tool For Horticultural Development
S.C. Kotur, D. Sreenivasa Murthy, T.M. Gajanana, Reena Rosy Thomas, Chitra Mothkur, L.B. Ashok, G.S. Geetha

Key words : Horticultural Resource Information System. INARIS. Introduction Wide ranging Indian climatic conditions are well suited for boosting production of a variety of horticultural crops (fruits, vegetables, flower/ornamental/medicinal and aromatic crops) which presently hold an important position in the global scenario. Development was at a very low ebb till the Third Five-Year Plan and increased significantly since the Seventh Five Year Plan (Rs.10,000 millions plan outlay). Government of India established National Horticultural Board (NHB) in 1984 and Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) in 1986 to facilitate its larger development. The outlay is expected to increase even more in the Tenth Plan. Significant progress has been made in area expansion of different horticultural crops resulting in higher production. Besides, use of modern technologies has also brought about improvement in productivity. More than 50 per cent increase in production is seen in many of the horticulture crops during last one decade. The efficient planning and implementation of different developmental programs on horticultural crops depends on production parameters like soil suitability, varietals dominance, marketable surplus, marketing channels, post harvest handling practices, cost of cultivation and market availability for sustained production. In addition, information on latest technologies developed by various research organizations on horticultural improvement, production, protection and post-harvest technologies are needed to be collected and made available to the scientists, planners and managers working in the related fields. But the available information on this aspect is scattered and the database is too weak to provide adequate support for developmental strategies. The digitization of comprehensive database on horticultural crops will definitely enhance the pace of increasing the area, production, productivity and promoting industry of horticultural crops that have taken lead in the new millennium with reference to nutritional quality of food and export potential. A strong, well-knit database to support need-based, market-driven and cost-effective horticultural development is imperative. Therefore, under National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) a Mission Mode Sub-project on “Integrated National Agricultural Resources Information System (INARIS)” has been taken up to evolve a comprehensive computerized data management system on various agricultural resources like crops, animals, fishes and natural resources by harnessing RDBMS and GIS. The Co-operating Center at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore has developed the “Horticultural Resources Information System” with the objectives of (i) integrating existing databases in horticulture, (ii) designing and developing a comprehensive database in horticulture and (iii) developing resource maps of major horticultural crops in the country by integrating attribute and spatial data through GIS. In addition to simple storage and retrieval it will include other functions such as manipulation and dissemination of information to various users. This database will be integrated with 13 other Co-operating Centers dealing with different agricultural resources through a virtual private network (VPN). The Lead Center at Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi provide warehouse facility with a capability to analyze the data variously and provide report as cubes, tables and graphs to form a national database to cater to the needs of the users through a website. The facility of retrieving information as value-added maps using GIS will also be built in.

103 - 120 (18 Pages)
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5 Geoinformatics in Support of Food Security and Poverty Alleviation: A Perspective Based on National Wasteland Mapping Project
S K Srivastava, CBS Dutt, R Nagaraja S Bandyopadhayay, H C Meena Rani , V S Hegde, V Jayaraman

Key words : Wasteland Reclamation, Poverty Indicators, Food Insecurity, Alternate Livelihood Systems, Rural Infrastructure Index. Introduction The countries of Asia and the Pacific region accounts for nearly two-thirds of the chronically poor and undernourished in the world. FAO estimates indicate that, by 2010, Asia will still account for about one-half of the world’s malnourished population (FAO 2000). In Asia, poverty has mainly been rural phenomenon and nearly three-fourth of the poor live in rural areas, with large majority of them dependent on natural resources for employment and income. South Asia, which had a poverty incidence of 43 percent (or about 520 million people), contributed about 40 percent of the world’s poor. Development of natural resources thus offers a potentially enormous means of poverty reduction. In developing countries poverty and environmental deterioration are often viable in proximity to each other, and have led many to infer that a two-way causality exists between human and environmental degradation. Environmental degradation usually occurs when production and consumption activities of growing population irreversibly weaken nature’s recycling capabilities. These economic activities are also attributed to the development of markets, the advent of modern technology, and the spatial integration of inaccessible areas to market systems. In many developing countries, however, environmental degradation such as soil erosion, deforestation and pollution are most visible around poor settlements, leading some policy makers to highlight the direct links between poverty and the environment. One has to recognize that both poverty and the environment are descriptions of states of human and natural resource attributes and cannot be reduced to simple one-dimensional cause-effect relationships. Apart from conceptual difficulties in modeling linkages, another handicap has been the absence of adequate or reliable data sets on poverty and environment characteristics. The challenge for operational research is exploring how circumstantial evidence and inductive logic can be used to explain the nature of interactions between the two states. Based on nationwide wasteland statistics vis-à-vis state and district wise poverty estimates available with the concerned agencies, this study is one such attempt, and evaluates the incidence of poverty with the backdrop of natural resources degradation and role of institutional interventions with illustrations from India.

121 - 138 (18 Pages)
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6 Geoinformatics for Monitoring Glaciers and Glacial Lakes
R.M. Bhagat, Chitra Sood, Vaibhav Kalia, Pradeep Mool, S. Bajracharya, Basanta Shrestha

Key words : Glaciers, Glacial Lakes, Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF), Himachal Pradesh, Glacial Inventory, Glacier Recession. Introduction Glaciers are large masses of snow, re-crystallized ice and rock debris that accumulate in great quantities and begin to flow outwards and downwards under the pressure of their own weight. Glaciers form when yearly snowfall in a region far exceeds the amount of snow and ice that melts in a given summer. In this way, massive quantities of glacial material accumulate in relatively small periods of geologic time. The glaciers exist in environments of high and low precipitation and in many temperature regimes; they are found on all the continents except Australia and they span the globe from high altitudes in equatorial regions to the polar ice caps. Presently, 10% of the Earth’s land area (5.8 million square miles) is covered with glaciers storing about 75% of the world’s freshwater. However, during the last Ice Age, glaciers covered 32% of the total land area of the planet.

139 - 174 (36 Pages)
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7 Monitoring and Management of Water Resources
Sanjay K. Jain, Rakesh Kumar, K. D. Sharma

Key words : GPS, GIS, DSS, SDSS, RS, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Ground Water Exploration, Conjunctive Use of Surface and Ground Water, Digital Terrain Modeling (DTM). Introduction Water is one of the most precious gifts of nature to living beings and particularly to the mankind. On account of erratic distribution of rainfall both in time and space, the country is subjected to cycles of floods and droughts. With the increase in demand for water for various purposes and to mitigate the twin problems of floods and droughts faced by the country, a coordinated approach for optimum utilization and proper management of this precious resource is of prime importance. In addition, proper development and management of both irrigation and drainage systems are essential. This would require integrated management of surface water as well as gorund water. All the water related problems whether mitigating droughts or floods or better irrigation management practices, dictate for adoption of state of the art water management practices. Water management deals with the control, distribution and allocation of water flows and the treatment of rivers and catchments, consequently, solutions to many of the problems in water management require the knowledge and expertise from diverse sources.

175 - 208 (34 Pages)
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8 Application of Geospatial Tools, Techniques and Concepts for Integrated Watershed Management
A. Sarangi, A.K. Singh

Key words : Integrated Watershed Management (IWM), GIS, DTM, Watershed Delination, Water Quality Modeling, RS, DSS, Ground Water Information System (GWIS). Introduction The availability of land and water resources has a major effect on the economic and ecological aspects of life everywhere around the world. As a result, the need to develop better tools for efficient land and water resources management has become very vital. For quicker, reliable and precise results, it is necessary to use the geospatial tools and techniques such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) image interpretation and analysis techniques to manage the natural resources. The application of these tools and techniques not only facilitates timely and repetitive analysis of all the topological features, but also assists in development of Decision Support Systems (DSS) to generate alternative scenarios for optimal use of the natural resources in the long term. The optimal use of these resources through integrated management of land water and vegetation leads to enhanced production and productivity of food, fodder, fiber, fuel, fish, flower and forest resources. Moreover, the holistic management of the resources to produce these outputs is plausible and manageable within the watershed systems, which are hydro geological units from which the runoff resulting from precipitation flows past through a single outlet to downstream locations. The systematic management of land, water, vegetation and livestock resources within the watershed systems is termed as Integrated Watershed Management (IWM). Broadly, IWM can be defined as a multidisciplinary, holistic way of protecting and managing a watershed’s natural resources to enhance biomass production in an eco-friendly manner. The watershed is viewed as a hydro-geological complex and dynamic ecosystem in which natural and anthropogenic processes occur and interact resulting in generation of runoff at the watershed outlet.

209 - 244 (36 Pages)
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9 Geoinformatics for Enhancing Productivity in Flood Plain Agro-ecosystem
R. N. Sahoo, R.K. Tomar, I.P. Abrol, R.K. Gupta, D. Chakraborty, V.K. Sehgal, N. Kalra

Key words : Flood Plains Agro-ecosystem, GIS, RS, Spatial Cropping Pattern, Radiometric Normalization, NDVI, Agricultural Systems. Introduction Of late, evidence is accumulating to suggest that high productivity and growth rates achieved during the Green Revolution era in the well-endowed regions of the country (i.e North West India) are no longer being sustained to meet the needs of still increasing population in the country. Past growth sources have nearly exhausted and there is also no scope for expansion of crop land. Indeed pressure for competing land uses will likely reduce area under food grain crops. Shrinking natural resource base (per capita availability of land and water devoted to agriculture), declining quality of resources and environmental degradation issues will imply increasing threat to our ability to meet the basic needs of the growing population of the region unless we shift our effort to potential regions like flood plains of the country for improving productivity. The flood plain riverine lands of India covering approximately 42 m.ha though most endowed with natural resources and has all the potential of becoming rich, is still economically backward. The reason behind this paradox of extent of poverty in the midst of richness of resources is that the natural resources of the region are not being productively harnessed into the process of the economic development and thus are not delivering their potential and commensurate benefits to the people. The Green Revolution technologies evolved during of 60’s and 70’s had little or no impact in this region of the country. Undesirable spatio-temporal distribution of flood in these areas keeps agriculture under uncertainty and risks. These are also the areas where the poorest are concentrated and agriculture largely continues to be more of subsistence. The nature of agricultural problems are highly variable due to great diversity in the production system as also in the socio-economic conditions of the communities requiring location specific approaches to address the problems and enhance the productivity.

245 - 270 (26 Pages)
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10 Groundwater Modelling Using GIS
M.S. Mane, D.K.Singh, A.K.Singh, A.K.Bhattacharya

Key words : Groundwater Modelling, GIS, PMWIN, ArcInfo Interface Con2grid, Interface Programme, ArcMacro Language. Introduction Groundwater is an important source of irrigation in India and has played a major role in increasing the food production. About 50 per cent of total irrigated area in the country is dependent on groundwater (Central Water Commission (CWC), 2000). Productivity of groundwater is normally more than the surface water due to the fact that it is available at the point of use, requires minimum conveyance infrastructure, is available on demand and maximizes the application efficiency. However, in past few years, excessive and unplanned groundwater pumping in certain parts of the country has resulted in depletion of groundwater resources. Water table in these region is going down day by day and making it beyond the reach of poor farmers. Therefore, keeping the water table in the desirable range is a major concern. This can be achieved by adopting proper pumping rate and pumping schedule. Groundwater modelling has successfully been used for deciding the pumping rate and pumping schedule. Groundwater modelling refers to simulation of groundwater behaviour under varying pumping and recharge conditions. A groundwater model is simply a set of equations, which describe the physical processes active in the aquifer subjected to certain assumptions. While the model itself obviously lacks the detailed reality of the groundwater systems, the behaviour of the validated model approximates that of the aquifer.

271 - 292 (22 Pages)
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11 Participatory GIS for Planning Livelihood Improvement – A Case Study in Canal Command Areas of Bihar
B.Saha, R.P.Jones, A.K.Sikka, P.R.Bhatnagar, S.Chowdhury

Key words : Participatory GIS (P-GIS), Geo-Participatory Rural Appraisal (Geo-PRA) Social Mapping, Resource Mapping, Seasonality Maps, DGPS. Participatory GIS Geographical information System (GIS0 and Geographics Information Technologies (GITS) are no more restricted to the elite group of the society. Planners are busy in searching ways in merging community participation with GIS in the context of urban planning, environment equity, sustainable development etc. (Aitken and Michael, 1995, Craig and Ehwood, 1998; Talen, 2000 and Sieber, 2000). In all the cases, common thing is the linking of community participation and GIS in a diversity of social and environmental contexts. Through development, demonstration and modification of methodologies by academics and practitioners the concept of Participatory GIS (P-GIS) emerges. It is an outcome of a spontaneous fusion of participatory forms of development planning with modern information technologies. Experts gave considerable thoughts on the probing questions like whether a bottom up GIS could be successfully developed, how many community participation could be incorporated into GIS and to what context such participation would serve only to legitimize conventional top-down decision making. From these reflections only the concept of people’s participation GIS arose.

293 - 324 (32 Pages)
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