eChapters

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.

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 21^st 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.

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:

Applications of Remote Sensing

The era of satellite remote sensing was open in the 1960s when cameras and electronic sensors were mounted on spacecraft. Nowadays there is a big assortment of satellite systems actively recording information about the Earth. A wide variety of imagery is available from satellites. Both active and passive sensors, operating from the microwave to the ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum collect a large amount of information about the earth’s surface every day. Each of the systems vary in terms of their spatial, spectral, radiometic and temporal resolution. Those characteristics play an important role in defining which applications the sensor is best suited for. The main benefits of satellite remote sensing are the following:

Introduction

A geographic information system or geographical information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of spatial or geographical data. The acronym GIS is sometimes used for geographic information science (GIScience) to refer to the academic discipline that studies geographic information systems and is a large domain within the broader academic discipline of geoinformatics. What goes beyond a GIS is a spatial data infrastructure, a concept that has no such restrictive boundaries. In a general sense, the term describes any information system that integrates stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information. GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations. Geographic information science is the science underlying geographic concepts, applications, and systems.

GIS is a broad term that can refer to a number of different technologies, processes, and methods. It is attached to many operations and has many applications related to engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and business. For that reason, GIS and location intelligence applications can be the foundation for many location-enabled services that rely on analysis and visualization. GIS can relate unrelated information by using location as the key index variable. Locations or extents in the Earth space–time may be recorded as dates/times of occurrence, and x, y, and z coordinates representing, longitude, latitude, and elevation, respectively. All Earth-based spatial–temporal location and extent references should, ideally, be relatable to one another and ultimately to a “real” physical location or extent. This key characteristic of GIS has begun to open new avenues of scientific inquiry.

Introduction

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The system provides critical capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, and makes it freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver. The US began the GPS project in 1973 to overcome the limitations of previous navigation systems, integrating ideas from several predecessors, including a number of classified engineering design studies from the 1960s. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) developed the system, which originally used 24 satellites. It became fully operational in 1995. Roger L. Easton, Ivan A. Getting and Bradford Parkinson of the Applied Physics Laboratory are credited with inventing it.
 
Advances in technology and new demands on the existing system have now led to efforts to modernize the GPS and implement the next generation of GPS Block IIIA satellites and Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX). Announcements from Vice President Al Gore and the White House in 1998 initiated these changes. In 2000, the U.S. Congress authorized the modernization effort, GPS III. In addition to GPS, other systems are in use or under development. The Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) was developed contem-poraneously with GPS, but suffered from incomplete coverage of the globe until the mid-2000s. There are also the planned European Union Galileo positioning system, China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, and India’s Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System.

Digital image processing is the use of computer algorithms to perform image processing on digital images. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing. It allows a much wider range of algorithms to be applied to the input data and can avoid problems such as the buildup of noise and signal distortion during processing. Since images are defined over two dimensions (perhaps more) digital image processing may be modeled in the form of multidimensional systems. Introduction to image processing 
Image processing is a method to convert an image into digital form and perform some operations on it, in order to get an enhanced image or to extract some useful information from it. It is a type of signal dispensation in which input is image, like video frame or photograph and output may be image or characteristics associated with that image. Usually image processing system includes treating images as two dimensional signals while applying already set signal processing methods to them.
Image processing is a method to perform some operations on an image, in order to get an enhanced image or to extract some useful information from it. It is a type of signal processing in which input is an image and output may be image or characteristics/features associated with that image. Now-a-days, image processing is among rapidly growing technologies. It forms core research area within engineering and computer science disciplines too.

Introduction

Although both maps and aerial photos present a “bird’s-eye” view of the earth, aerial photographs are NOT maps. Maps are orthogonal representations of the earth’s surface, meaning that they are directionally and geometrically accurate (at least within the limitations imposed by projecting a 3-dimensional object onto 2 dimensions). Aerial photos, on the other hand, display a high degree of radial distortion. That is, the topography is distorted, and until corrections are made for the distortion, measurements made from a photograph are not accurate. Nevertheless, aerial photographs are a powerful tool for studying the earth’s environment. 

Because most GISs can correct for radial distortion, aerial photographs are an excellent data source for many types of projects, especially those that require spatial data from the same location at periodic intervals over a length of time. Typical applications include land use surveys and habitat analysis. 

This unit discusses benefits of aerial photography, applications, the different types of photography, and the integration of aerial photographs into GISs.

Introduction
Remote sensing is the art and science of recording, measuring, and analyzing information about a phenomenon from a distance. Humans with the aid of their eyes, noses, and ears are constantly seeing, smelling, and hearing things from a distance as they move through an environment. Thus, humans are naturally designed to be remote sensors. In order to study large areas of the Earth’s surface geographers use devices known as remote sensors. These sensors are mounted on platforms such as helicopters, planes, and satellites that make it possible for the sensors to observe the Earth from above.

Definition
Remote sensing can be defined as any process whereby information is gathered about an object, area or phenomenon without being in contact with it. Our eyes are an excellent example of a remote sensing device. We are able to gather information about our surroundings by gauging the amount and nature of the reflectance of visible light energy from some external source (such as the sun or a light bulb) as it reflects off objects in our field of view. Contrast this with a thermometer, which must be in contact with the phenomenon it measures, and thus is not a remote sensing device.

During the last 21 years, the scientists and scholars of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) have been working on the design and implementation of projects which could have a large extrapolation domain in respect of imparting a pro-nature, pro-poor, pro-women and pro-sustainable livelihood orientation to technology development and dissemination. I would like to write about a few of the MSSRF initiatives, which have now become state, national and global programmes.

Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana: Strengthening the role of women in agriculture

MSSRF initiated the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra in 2007 for empowering women farmers, including the widows of farmers who had committed suicide, in areas related to enhancing the productivity, profitability and sustainability of small-scale rain-fed farming. The empowerment measures incorporated access to technology, credit, inputs and market.

Mamata Banerjee has raised the important issue of land use and acquisition for public, political, professional and media debate. With increasing population pressure on land, this issue deserves careful consideration and rational discussion. The Singur dilemma in a wider sense relates to both land use policy and norms of compensation for land acquired by government for non-farm purposes. Land conflicts are also spreading in other parts of our country, as far example where land is needed for establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The Maharashtra Government has wisely adopted the policy of holding a referendum to seek the views of farmers and others who will be dispossessed of their land for meeting the needs of SEZs. Pro-active consultations will help to avoid difficulties later. Water conflicts are also affecting important irrigation projects. Land conflicts are likely to do the same and may affect the balanced growth of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy. How can we deal with this situation in a manner which leads to a win-win outcome for all the stakeholders ?

Mahatma Gandhi mentioned to those who wanted to serve rural India that their most useful contribution would be in linking brain with brawn.  Only such a combination of intellect and labour can lead to sustainable advances in the productivity and profitability of agricultural holdings.  West Bengal’s Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (BCKV), almost four decades old, is a fitting example of such work.  It has helped the development of two more universities in the State, namely, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences and the Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya.  It is important that these three universities function like a consortium of educational institutions mandated to help in achieving agricultural advance, agrarian prosperity and rural transformation in the State.

Livestock and livelihoods are intimately related in our country.  The ownership of livestock is more egalitarian than that of land.  Similarly, West Bengal is full of fish ponds.  It is important that cultivation of crops like rice is done by adopting integrated pest management procedures, so that the water in which fish is cultivated does not get polluted with pesticides.

Livestock and livelihoods are intimately linked in our country.  Mixed farming involving crop-livestock as well as sometimes fish integration has been both a way of life and a means to sustainable livelihoods.  Also, the ownership of the livestock is more egalitarian than that of land.  That is why in our ancient culture, livestock has been given a pride of place in the area of spiritual veneration and natural resources conservation.  Maharashtra is rich in its livestock resources and has also a long coastline with a wide range of living aquatic resources.

The crop-livestock integrated farming system provides an opportunity for promoting organic farming and restoration of soil health, and thereby of an ever-green revolution leading to an enhancement of productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm.  It also strengthens household nutrition security.  The country as a whole has over 500 million farm animals.  However, grazing land has been reduced to less than 5 per cent of the arable land area.  Village common property resources, which used to provide fodder and shelter to farm animals, have been overexploited.  Consequently, our farm animal productivity is very low.

India’s Northeast region — one of natural beauty and cultural richness — is both a mega-biodiversity area as well as a “hot-spot” for genetic erosion. The rural population is around 82 per cent and depends largely on agriculture and allied sectors for work and income security. The forests harbour 8000 out of the 15,000 species of flowering plants occurring in the country. Of about 1300 species of orchids reported from India, the Northeast has the highest concentration with about 700 species. The species richness is highest in Arunachal Pradesh where over 5000 flowering plants occur and the lowest in Tripura with 1600 species. Bamboo is the lifeline of the Northeast and 63 out of 136 species found in India occur in this region. Sadly, however, 25 species of bamboo fall under the rare and endangered category. The region is also home to the eri and muga silkworms. The yak and the mithun are unique animals which are threatened by the spread of non-edible invasive species like Lantana, Eupatorium and Mekenia. The cultural diversity of this region is well known, with 225 tribes out of 450 in the country living here. 

Managing the National Food Security System

Rajiv Gandhi understood the wisdom of Gandhiji’s doctrine that Gram Swaraj is the pathway to Purna Swaraj and launched the Panchayati Raj movement. Schedule 11 of Constitution Amendment 73 entrusts panchayats with the responsibility of managing natural resources and fostering sustainable agriculture. Representative democracy through elected members, one third of whom are women, and participatory democracy through Gram Sabhas, are powerful tools for ensuring a pro-nature, pro-poor, pro-women, and pro-livelihood orientation to all rural and agricultural development programmes.
 
The National Commission on Farmers has emphasised the need for community-managed food and water security systems promoted with the help and oversight of Gram Sabhas.  The Gram Sabha can serve as a Pani Panchayat to ensure that rainwater is not only harvested, but is used in a sustainable and equitable manner.

There are reports in financial newspapers that the ongoing (2010) drought affecting nearly 200 districts in the country may not have much effect on GDP, since the farmers in the drought-affected areas contribute hardly 3 per cent to GDP.  It is sad that such a measure of the impact of drought on the lives and livelihoods of millions of rural families is even considered. It is this mindset, typical of the growing insensitivity to human suffering in our country, that is responsible for India being the home for the largest number of undernourished and malnourished children, women and men in the world.  No wonder we are finding it difficult to achieve the first among the UN Millennium Development Goals, namely, reducing hunger and poverty by half by 2015.  Unless we realise that agriculture in India is not just a food- producing machine, but is the backbone of the livelihood of over 60 per cent of our population, rural deprivation and suffering will not only continue to persist, but will get worse, leading to severe social unrest.

How can we develop a sustainable water security system in an era of climate change and global warming ?  In my view, every country should develop a sustainable water security system with the following four major components.

Supply augmentation

The major sources of irrigation water are from rainfall, rivers, tanks, reservoirs and other surface water resources, groundwater, industrial and domestic effluents, and seawater.  Seawater comprises almost 97 per cent of the global water resource and is an important social asset.  With the melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice, sea level will go up with disastrous consequences. The tsunami of December 2004 gave a glimpse of what could happen in the future.  To augment supplies, we must harvest rainwater and store it carefully, both above and below ground.  Also, we should ensure that all waste water which emerges from industry and domestic use is purified and recycled.  Rainwater harvesting should become a way of life, so that it becomes everybody’s business.

A climate-resilient agriculture, which we need urgently, will have to be based on a two-pronged strategy: maximising farm productivity and production during a normal monsoon period, and minimising the adverse impact of unfavourable weather as witnessed during 2009.  Unfortunately, we are yet to develop an anticipatory research and extension programme to minimise damage during unfavourable monsoon periods.  For example, the deficiency in rainfall during the southwest monsoon of 2009 was 23 per cent.  The growth in agriculture and allied sector GDP was minus 0.2.  The highest growth rate in agriculture GDP of 5.2 per cent was observed during 2005-06 when the growth in total GDP was 9.5 per cent.  Had we had a scientific monsoon management strategy, we could have minimised the loss in 2009-10.  Similarly, if we have a strategy for maximising the benefits of a good monsoon, we can hope to achieve at least 5 per cent growth rate during 2010-11 in agriculture and allied sectors.  In parts of China like the Yunnan province, which has experienced 60 per cent less rainfall than normal, there is a move to grow different crops together in the same field, thereby distributing the risk arising from monoculture. It is time to develop a pro-active monsoon management strategy.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is the core of the many climate agreements arrived at so far, including the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the Bali Plan of Action (2007).  The differentiated responsibilities aim to meet the special needs of developing countries for accelerated and equitable economic development.  Both at Copenhagen and Cancun, the industrialised countries proposed limiting the rise in mean temperature to 2ºC above normal.  Even this seems to be unattainable in the context of the present rate of emission of greenhouse gases (GHG).  Hence, the principle of common but differentiated impact of the 2º change in mean temperature is essential for prioritising climate victims. For example, small islands like Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean, Maldives, Lakshadweep, and Andaman and Nicobar, as well as the Sunderbans in West Bengal, Kuttanad in Kerala and many other coastal locations will all face the prospect of submergence.  Floods will become more serious and frequent in the Indo-Gangetic plains.  Drought-induced food and water scarcity will become more acute. South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the small islands will be the worst victims.  In contrast, countries in the northern latitudes will benefit due to longer growing seasons and higher yields.

In 2009, the world celebrated the 200th anniversary of the life and work of Charles Darwin, a transformational scientist who brought about a revolution in our understanding of evolution.  Evolution through natural selection among living organisms leading to the survival of the fittest was a concept which was alien to Christian thought in Darwin’s time, as faith was strong in the divine creation of the living forms of our planet.  Evolution of higher forms of life, including human beings, from fish and other forms of living organisms was an accepted view in ancient Indian thought, as exemplified by the ten forms of manifestation on earth of the Hindu god Vishnu.

“Variety is the spice of life” is a common saying.  Variation is a must for selection to occur.  Today, we are confronted with the prospect of human-induced changes in climate, leading to adverse variations in temperature, precipitation, flood and sea level.  We will have to be prepared for facing the consequences of drought, flood and coastal storms more frequently.