eChapters

A disaster is sudden event that causes significant damage to the people, environment and the economy. Disasters are serious disruptions to the functioning of a community that exceed its capacity to cope up using its own resources. The disasters that result either due to excess water or severe water deficit are floods and droughts.
12.1. Floods
The flood is an overflowing of water onto land that is normally dry. Floods may occur due to
• Heavy rainfall
• Ocean waves
• Snow melting
The economic losses due to floods will be very high and nearly 68 per cent of the economic losses are attributed to floods only. During the year 2018, India suffered a loss of nearly 90,000 crores due to floods alone. There are several causes for occurrence of floods in India. The major causes are
• Severe cyclonic storms in coastal areas which produce continuous heavy rainfall for 3 to 4 days in succession
• Encroachment of flood plains with residential structures
• Inadequate strength of river banks when there is high flows of water in the rivers
• Unplanned growth of urban areas
• Silting of water storage structures due to increased soil erosion thereby decreasing the storage capacity of reservoirs
• Simultaneous flooding of rivers and tributaries due to excessive water flows

Introduction
A sustainable and effective replacement for conventional soil-based farming, hydroponics technology signifies a paradigm shift in agricultural techniques. Instead of using soil to develop their plants, hydroponic systems submerge their roots in a nutrient-rich water solution or provide it to them on a constant basis. This technique allows for maximum nutrient uptake and faster development by giving plants all the vital elements they require for growth. Hydroponics has many different and extensive uses in horticulture. Leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, and kale as well as vine crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers are among the many crops that are grown there.
Furthermore, strawberries, herbs, and even decorative plants like flowers grow beautifully in hydroponic systems. One of the key advantages of hydroponics is its ability to maximize resource efficiency. By delivering nutrients directly to the plants’ roots, hydroponic systems minimize nutrient wastage and water consumption compared to traditional soil-based agriculture. Because of this, hydroponics is especially appropriate for areas with limited arable land or water resources. Hydroponics’ adaptability to climate and location is yet another important benefit. No matter the outside weather, hydroponic systems can be installed indoors, in greenhouses, or even in urban settings to allow for yearround growing. This enables farmers to raise crop yields, lengthen growing seasons, and maintain steady levels of quality and output all year round.

Agriculture nowadays is facing a complex problem. It’s the rate at which we are turning arable land into non-arable. To solve this problem, we cannot simply stop farming and wait for the Earth to return to its natural state. Hence, alternative farming methods have become increasingly popular in recent years. Hydroponics is one of these options that can help produce crops without soil and other resources needed for crops to grow.

2.1 Definitions

Hydroponics is the term for growing plants without soil and in a water-based solution, the roots may be physically supported by an inert medium such as perlite, gravel, or other substrates. While it can be used to grow all kinds of crops, hydroponics is particularly effective for growing leafy vegetables, herbs and salad greens that have high water requirements, as well as for growing plants that have very shallow root systems. 

Abstracts

To ensure safe food and adequate sanitation programs, the equipment used for processing of food products must be designed, fabricated, constructed, and installed according to sound hygienic design principles. This ensures the equipment can be adequately cleaned and sanitized, and that surfaces are resistant to daily exposure to corrosive food products and cleaning/sanitizing chemicals. This chapter focuses primarily on fundamental principles of hygienic design, which protect the product from microbial, chemical, and foreign-body contamination. This is followed by a discussion of general aspects of hygienic construction and design of food equipments, the selection of materials of construction and specification of surface finishes, fabrication, installation and cleaning and sanitization. Quality of raw materials or foods ingredients, proper processing, packaging and storage of finished products decides the quality of the food products. Planning for plant and equipment layout, its design, services (water, air, refrigeration, steam), waste disposal etc. are some of the critical factors, which contributes to quality. In addition, the food processing equipment must comply with strict standards and regulations, which are necessary for securing the quality and safety of the food products to the consumers.

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the various application of hyperspectral remote sensing data carried out by the scientists of India emphasizing its advantages.

1. INTRODUCTION

The most significant recent breakthrough in remote sensing has been the development of hyperspectral sensors. The ‘Hyper’ in hyperspectral means ‘too many’ and refers to the large number of measured wavelength bands. Hyperspectral images are spectrally over determined, which means that they provide ample spectral information to identify and distinguish spectrally unique materials. Hyperspectral imagery provides the potential for more accurate and detailed information, extraction than is possible with any other type of conventional remotely sensed data.

Imaging spectroscopy (Goetz et al., 1985) in hyperspectral imaging is concerned with the measurement, analysis, and interpretation of spectra acquired from a given scene (or specific object) at a short, medium or long distance by an airborne or satellite sensor. The concept of imaging spectroscopy originated in the 1980's, when A. F. H. Goetz and his colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory began a revolution in remote sensing by developing new instruments such as the Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS), then called AVIRIS, for Airborne Visible Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer (Green et al., 1998). This system is now able to cover the wavelength region from 0.4 to 2.5 μm using more than two hundred spectral channels, at nominal spectral resolution of 10 nm. The special characteristics of hyperspectral datasets pose different processing problems, which must be necessarily tackled under specific mathematical formalisms, such as classification and segmentation (Jia et al., 1999, Green, R 1998) and spectral mixture analysis (Adams et al., 1986; Smith et al., 1990a, b).

ABSTRACT

In earth system about 60% of the world's population live within 60 km of coastline and use the coastline for their livelihood. Environmental pollution of the coast, inshore water and deep ocean is one of the important topical issues in the context of human health and global warming. To combat this natural and man made problem, we have to rely on qualitative analysis quantitatively. In the recent advancement in information and technology field, spectral data plays a major dominant role in the environmental studies. This could provide more powerful and accessible means to exploit the enormous wealth of data available in the system. The high-resolution imaging spectrometry (hyperspectral imagery) will help to analyze the data for mapping and other environmental modeling applications. This could attain advanced approaches to deduce surface characteristics and extract features from hyperspectral images. The current capabilities are in which, the prototype system can classify pixels according to surface type. The classification process employs neural network analysis of inputs which include pixel spectra and a variety of processed image metrics, including image “texture spectra” derived from fractal signatures computed for sub image tiles at each wavelength. Thus, this kind of technical analysis can prove to achieve coastal area studies well in advance in the ongoing environmental changes more precisely.

ABSTRACT

Multispectral imagery has been used as the data source for natural resource mapping and land observational remote sensing from airborne and satellite systems since the early 1960s. Over the past two decades, advances in sensor technology have made it possible for the collection of several hundred spectral bands. This is commonly refe rred to as hyperspectral imagery. Thus it is possible to construct a complete reflectance spectrum of every pixel in the scene. This review highlights the hyperspectral remote sensing system development, hyper spectral data processing and difference between multispectral and hyperspectral data; spatial and spectral resolutions and focuses on the application of hyperspectral imagery in natural resource studies and, in particular the classification and mapping of land resources.

ABSTRACT

Remote sensing has undergone tremendous development in past decades. Hyperspectral imaging refers to the imaging of a scene over a large number of discrete, narrow contiguous spectral bands in the visible through thermal infrared portion of the spectrum. Thus it is possible to construct a complete reflectance spectrum of every pixel in the scene.

Classification of hyperspectral image requires thorough understanding of surface material properties, sensor characteristics and atmospheric absorption spectra. The reflectance spectra of most materials on the Earth's surface contain diagnostic absorption features. Remote sensors, capable of acquiring complete reflectance spectra over large areas, offer a powerful tool to study of the Earth and the environment. Methods are being developed to extract information from remote sensing data using image-processing approaches. Specific absorption features of reflectance spectrum can be used to identify a number of important rock forming minerals, and have been used by geologists for geologic mapping and studies of volcanoes.

The present discussion includes an application of thermal characteristics of near- IR bands of Landsat TM to estimate the temperature of over and around the crater of Barren Island volcano in 1991. A method using dual band temperature characteristics related to radiant source of sub-pixel size was developed and utilized to prepare temperature contour map of the Island using unsaturated pixels of band 5 and 7.

ABSTRACT

Over the last decade, hyperspectral remote sensing has become a powerful analysis tool for applications in environment and ecology, aquaculture, forestry, agriculture, and geoscience. A hyperspectral imagers advantage over broadband sensors, such as Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and the SPOT Haute Resolution Visible (HRV) sensor series, is its ability to detect molecular absorption and particle scattering signatures of constituents. The finer spectral resolution of a hyperspectral imager allows detection of surface materials and their abundances, as well as inferences of biological and chemical processes. This review highlights the vast extent to which hyperspectral technology and their application with special reference to ocean have been discussed.

ABSTRACT

Mineral composition and their distribution on planetary surfaces provides important clues to the evolutionary processes that the planetary bodies have undergone since their formation. For distant and inaccessible planets, remote sensing, either from Earth-based telescopes or from an orbiter around the planetary body, using reflectance spectroscopy over a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum (UV-Visible-IR), can provide surface distribution of minerals. With advances in technology, a high-resolution hyperspectral imager onboard an orbiter has developed into a powerful tool for compositional mapping of planetary surfaces. Interpretation of the signals from these distant and relatively unknown destinations is a challenging task due to scarcity of available ground truth. Here, we describe the technique with its applicability to airless bodies, such as Moon, in the context of the Indian Moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, and, the intricacies involved in the data analyses.

Keywords : Reflectance spectroscopy, hyperspectral data, remote sensing, planets, moon

1. INTRODUCTION

The primary goal of planetary exploration is to understand the mechanism by which planetary objects (planets, dwarf planets, satellites and small solar system bodies) have evolved with time. The information gathered from the study of individual bodies is integrated to comprehend the development of our solar system. The present understanding envisages our solar system to have formed from the solar nebula, produced as a consequence of the collapse of a molecular cloud. While the central mass gravitated and formed the sun, the gas and dust surrounding it condensed to form grains and formed the proto-planetary disk. These grains, through a series of processes, finally aggregated to form of the various planetary bodies. Existing Astronomical, chemical and mineralogical evidences from studies of lunar samples, meteorites and, remote sensing observations suggest that the planetary bodies are heterogeneous and possess extreme compositional and morphological diversity. The internal energy of a planetary body, a function of its size, is responsible for the differences in the degree of differentiation a body has undergone leading to the variations in their surface composition. Large planets like the Earth and Venus are still evolving whereas the small asteroids have barely evolved after their formation and are considered primitive. The wide variety of planetary bodies in our solar system is therefore reminiscent of the various stages of evolution that our solar system went through. The degree of melting and cycling through episodes of differentiation determine the mineral inventory on a planetary body. Therefore, distribution and composition of various minerals can be used to understand various stages of chemical evolution of a planetary body. Mineral mapping of planetary surfaces is thus useful in understanding the petrogenetic history.

ABSTRACT

This paper is an attempt to highlight the problems of coastal environmental impact assessment owing to logistic constraints, costs of analytical data generation, time gap between data generation and interpretation, quantum of physical and chemical data required for assessment of environmental data through conventional methods and to examine the potential of hyperspectral remote sensing as an alternative for conventional methods. As hyperspectral remote sensing is non-destructive, offers repetitivity and high resolution (spatial and spectral) and hyper-sensitive to many physical and chemical properties of coastal soils and minerals, we recommend use of hyperspectral remote sensing for reduction of cost and man-hours in coastal environmental assessment, without compromising the quality of data.

ABSTRACT

Hyperspectral image reduction processes use only information drawn from knowledge related to the surface reflectance properties. The chemical composition and crystal structure control the shape of spectral curve, position and amplitude of absorption bands. Spectral database provide a source of reference spectra useful in classification of hyperspectral images.

An attempt has been made to put all such available data on a structured database for easy access and visualization. A Web-based interface for reference spectra of natural surfaces facilitates data sharing and increases access to reference material for classification.

1. INTRODUCTION

Hyperspectral imaging refers to the imaging of a scene over a large number of discrete, narrow contiguous spectral bands in the visible through thermal infrared portion of the spectrum. Thus it is possible to construct a complete reflectance spectrum of every pixel in the scene.

Field spectroscopy is a nondestructive way to collect information on natural resources and is becoming a common exercise in remote sensing field campaigns. Specific absorption features of reflectance spectrum can be used to identify a number of important rock forming minerals, and have been used by geologists for geologic mapping and studies of volcanoes. Spectral database provide a source of reference spectra useful in classification of hyperspectral images.

9.1 Introduction

The objective of this chapter is to design an icloud and cayenne based perimeter monitoring system for agricultural field. Mobile app is designed to monitor the sensory data. The complete system comprises of two sections field device and mobile app. Field device comprises of NodeMCU, battery, motion sensors and laser sensors. The system is designed to monitor the agriculture field perimeter with motion and laser sensors, which are deployed at different locations of field. The sensory data is transmitted through NodeMCU and received at mobile app which can be accessed by authorized person. The same data can be accessed on webserver from anywhere in the world. Fig.9.1 shows a block diagram for a system. Table.9.1 shows the component list.

All agriculture universities have three main Directorates – Education, Research and Extension of the three, I have often observed that Extension Department comes in for maximum criticism. ‘Loose links’ and need to do much more in transfer of knowledge and technology are frequently emphasized at various levels – especially in meetings with farmers groups. This is understandable – as it is said that less than 10% - often less than 6% of lab scale knowledge and development reach the farmers fields in developing countries and even in many ‘developed’ counties. The situation is much more challenging when we consider a large population of small and marginal farmers – who as we saw can play extremely important role in eco-agriculture. A large percent of such farmers – women and men are practicing eco friendly agriculture without realizing it. Their ‘ignorance’ can be converted in to advantage and new opportunity. The age old extension practice of reaching farmers through meetings, visit , seminars, camps, demonstrations all have limitations and need to be ‘scaled up’. New developments in information and communication Technology offer a great opportunity for a big jump in reaching the unreached. Again to alarge population of ‘Green Revolution’ – there is a new hope and opportunity.
ICT in Agriculture
The potential for using ICT in agriculture can be divided broadly under two heads (1) as a tool for direct contribution to agricultural productivity and (2) as an empowering tool for the farmer to take and quality decisions. There have been several excellent examples of practical use of ICT in Agriculture and expectations are rising such that a major transformation

All agriculture universities have three main Directorates – Education, Research and Extension. Of the three, I have often observed that Extension Department comes in for maximum criticism. ‘Loose links’and ‘need to do much more in transfer of knowledge and technology’ are frequently emphasized at various levels – especially in meetings with farmers groups.

This is understandable – as it is said that less than 10% - often less than 6%, of lab scale knowledge and development reach the farmers fields in developing countries and even in many ‘developed’ counties. The situation is much more challenging when we consider a large population of small and marginal farmers – who as we saw can play extremely important role in eco-agriculture. A large percent of such farmers – women and men are practicing eco friendlyagriculture without realizing it. Their ‘ignorance’ can be converted in to advantage and new opportunity. The age old extension practice of reaching farmers through meetings, visit , seminars, camps, demonstrations all have limitations and need to be ‘scaled up’. New developments in information and communication Technology offer a great opportunity for a big jump in reaching the unreached. Again to alarge population of ‘Green Revolution’ – there is a new hope and opportunity.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to utilize thermal infra red remote sensing data to find the location of heat processing units which contribute to high temperatures. These industries occur as anomalous pixels in urban area on the temperature map derived from the thermal remote sensing data. The night scenes of ASTER thermal infra red data were used for this study. It is concluded that analysis of temporal thermal remote sensing data can be used as a tool in environmental impact assessment and management. The temperature maps can be helpful in decision making process of siting / relocation of heat producing industries in and around cities.

1. INTRODUCTION

For sustainable industrial development, management and regular monitoring of the industries is needed. Knowledge of industrial impacts on the environment is an essential for environmental impact assessment and management. Thermal remotes sensing techniques can be applied for this.

ABSTRACT

The study was aimed to identify and delineate the groundwater potable zone in and around Madurai region. The study area is composed of Charnockites and Khondalites of Archaean age. The information of lithology, geomorphology and land use/land cover was generated using the Resourcesat (IRS P6 LISS IV data) and Survey of India (SoI) toposheets of scale 1:50,000 and integrated them with GIS to identify the groundwater potable zones of the study area. On the basis of hydrogeomorphology, groundwater potential zones was identified and delineated. From the overlay analyses landuse and EC, it is inferred that, poor category groundwater is found in the scrub forest, current fallow, canal and scrub with land areas.

Abstract

High Altitude zone is comprised of 40 mandals distributed in parts of Srikakulam, Vishakhapatnam, East Godavari and Khammam districts of Andhra Pradesh covering a geographical area of 1.8 m. ha. The area of this zone lies between 50 to 1680 MSL and is characterized by high slopes, mountains, hills and hillocks as part of Eastern Ghats. Red soils are the most predominant type (94.8%). A small area is covered under alluvial soils and coastal sands. The mean annual rainfall ranges from 1245 to 1288 mm of which about 70 per cent is contributed by southwest monsoon. Large geographical area (58.9%) in the zone is under forests and the net cropped area is only 19.2% with very little irrigation sources. The tribal people of this area practice shifting cultivation locally known as “podu” cultivation for their subsistence. Rice is the most important crop in the zone occupying 36.2 per cent of the gross cropped area of 0.42 m. ha. The other principal crops grown are millets, mesta, niger and tuber crops. Tea, coffee and other plantation crops are also grown in addition to aromatic and medicinal plants. Cropping intensity is 120 per cent. Forest produce such as honey, gum, soap nuts, tamarind fetch income to the tribal people (www.angrau.net).