ANNUAL REPORT 2006-2007

LOGO

REGIONAL REMOTE SENSING SERVICE CENTRES INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANISATION DEPT OF SPACE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

VISION STATEMENT Strive to provide solutions, services and products using geospatial technologies for the development of natural resources. Core Objectives To provide state of the art digital analysis support in geospatial technology to various user agencies in the region. To evolve operational methodology using digital techniques in new areas of applications and sensory. To develop specific theme oriented software modules customization and packaging. To provide training in RS & GIS techniques towards capacity building Enhanced objectives Extended & enhanced role in the region through Natural Resources Repository (NRR). Hub of Regional Space Technology application.

CONTENTS: Directors Report RRSSCs Infrastructure Major Application Projects National Missions User Projects EOAM Projects Inhouse R&D R&D EOAM Projects Software Development Training & Capacity Building, Academic Interface Awards, Recognition & Publications Finance Human Resources

Directors Report

RRSSCs Remote Sensing Programme in the country got a major boost in 1982 with the setting up of National Natural Resources Monitoring System [NNRMS] and with Dept of Space as the nodal agency. NNRMS is a virtual system encompassing all the major user ministries of Govt of India involved in the management of natural resources. One of the major objectives of NNRMS in the initial stages was to provide easy access to user community the state of the art digital infrastructure facilities for analyzing Remote Sensing data and related services across the country. To accomplish the task, DOS/ISRO has established 5 regional Remote Sensing Service Centres with the help of major user ministries during 1986-87 timeframe. The location of these five centres was strategically choosen viz., Bangalore, Dehradun, Jodhpur, Kharagpur and Nagpur to cater to different geographic regions. Each centre equipped with identical Hardware & Software and expertise to provide RS & GIS Centric services and products. In the last 20 years of existence, RRSSCs have accomplished the goal of institutionalisation of Remote Sensing in their respective regions working closely with user community both in public and private sectors. RRSSCs have conducted manhy awarness programmes, Training programmes in DIP and GIS and established good rappo with the academic institutions around them. RRSSCs have continuously upgraded their facilities and expertise with the . development of technology, techniques and launch of new satellites and sensors. RRSSCs have earned the reputation of centres of excellence and regional leadership in RS & GIS. RRSSCs provide full support to all the major national/regional mission projects launched by DOS/ISRO apart from taking up user projects on their own. The potentials of RS are so compelling, RRSSCs are carrying out application projects encompassing all the fields of natural resources like Agriculture & Soils, Water Resources, Forestry, Oceanography, Geology, Environment and Urban. Apart from executing application projects, RRSSCs are involved in software development, customization and packaging specific to user requirements. RRSSCs have a unique mix of thematic and software scientist working in tandem towards developing new techniques, methodology in newer areas of applications.

RRSSCs Total Genesis Core Objectives Strengths Relocation

Photo Bangalore Dehradun Jodhpur Kharagpur Nagpur

Infrastructure: DIP & GIS Facilities RRSSCs are equipped with the state of the art hardware and software facilities to cater to a variety of applications and user community. To keep pace with the technological development and growing demands for the better and efficient infrastructure, RRSSCs have upgraded/augmented the digital facilities periodically. To meet the ever growing demands of storage facilities with the availability of a host of high resolution data for various application projects, RRSSCs have migrated from highly fragmented storage system to more efficient centralized main storage system configured around NAS Systems with 2.5 TB capacity and scalable and expanded upto 16 TB as and when required. The LAN also is upgraded from 100 mbps to 1 GB with manageable switches.

System Block Diagram

Major Application Projects National Missions Village Resource Centre (VRC) VRC initiative by ISRO/DOS is a powerful illustration of linking Space technology applications to societal purpose of grassroot levels. VRCs are envisaged to empower and engender rural transformation through bridging the information gap with a host of sevices related to Natural resources, know-how, best practices in Agriculture depending on the carrying capacity of resources timely and relevant information on weather, market potential for agriculture produce, etc. The digital infrastructure at VRCs are also used for chanellising services related to health and education through telemedicine and teleeducation modules. RRSSCs have taken up the VRC project as one of the important flagship programme in both development & content generation and implementation. RRSSCs are thickly involved in developing software modules in opensource environment to handle natural resource module with the capabilities of RS data handling and basic GIS functionalities to answer the queries. The software package is penultimate stages of development, customized and packaged in local language with very simple to use tools ofr content browsing, delimitation and updation periodically. The software is totally platform independent, easy to install and perform as stand alone system or on web. The software module has builtin FAQs and can handle simple and complex queries fixed by users. The Beta version of the model is already installed in few VRCs in Tamilnadu state. RRSSCs are also involved in content generation for the natural resources modules encompassing basic resource information on present landuse/landcover, soils, surface and Groundwather resource3s, Transport network and Cultural resources alongwith a host of attributes information on demography, weather, etc. All the five RRSSCs are the co-ordicators of VRCs in their respective regions and are responsible in identifying the NGOs, location of VRCs and assisting in establishment and functioning of VRCs. The following table gives the involvement of RRSSCs in different regions and states. Sl # 1 2 3 4 5 RRSSC Bangalore Dehradun Jodhpur Kharagpur Napur Region South North West East Central States Tamil Nadu, Kerala Uttarachal, Himachal Pradesh, Prts of Uttar Pradesh Rajasthan, Gujarat West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh No. of VRCs

Software Module Image:

Typical output from one VRC Natural Resources module Attirbutes module

FAQs Output

Major Application Projects One from each Centre (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Outputs

List of Major User Agencies: Central Govt: State Govt: Private: Academics:

R&D: RRSSCs devote considerable amount of time in inhouse and sponsored R&D activities with an aim to realize operational projects. The R& D activities are focused on use of new sensor data, new application areas and software development for specific application projects. RRSSCs are actively pursuing the Cartosat data utilization in developing innovation application projects in rural and infrastructure development sectors.

Carto DEM Utility in. Mini hydal power plant location

Watershed Dev programme using high resolution data

EOAM Project: RRSSCs also take up research and application development project relevant to their respective regions under EOAM. Presently, there are 38 ongoing projects in various stages of development with a total outlay of Rs.26 lakhs. 5 more new projects are proposed in the niche areas of application in Agriculture drought, Groundwater modeling microwave and marine applications with a total out lay of Rs.68.95 lakhs. chart Software Development One of the core strengths of RRSSCs is software development, customization and packaging for different national missions and specific user application projects. The current focus is on developing software in open source environment for stand alone and web based applications in digital image processing and GIS fields. A cost effective indigenous software module in core image processing field are in the advance stage of development with also includes support for downloading data from various national and international RS satellite missions/sensors like IRS, INSAT, MODIS, NOAA, Cartosat, Oceansat, IKONOS, Quick bird, Radarsat, etc. Specific software modules customized packages developed in the year are about 10.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

RRSSCs have developed a Beta version of software package for project VRC which is platform independent and developed around the concept of open source freeware, simple to use stand alone and web based. Software provides basic GIS functionalities and interface between different modules of VRC like NR, Telemedicine, Tele-education.

Sample Screen Shots

The package is named. and will be soon ready for deployment at various VRCs across the country

Academic Interface, Training & Capacity Building: Apart from providing RS & GIS Centric services, RRSSCs are also involved in technology promotion and capacity building in their respective regions. RRSSCs provide theme specific training programme and general training programme in RS & GIS for professional s from Govt/Non-Govt and private organizations. RRSSCs also conduct one day/two days awarness programmes at school/university level.

Chart RRSSCs have a good acemic interface with universities and technical colleges in the region wherein Scientists give expert lectures in RS & GIS and a number of students at UG & PG level work on their dissertation work at RRSSCs involving in operation projects and specific research projects of current interest.

Chart

Awards, Recognition, Publications RRSSC encourages Scientists in publishing papers in journals and presentation of scientific work in national and international seminars/workshops. There are papers published in national/international journals. Chart 2 Scientists are awarded Ph.D in the field of..

Finance:

Human Resources: RRSSCs is a small and compact organization with a sanctioned strength of personnel of which .. are in Scientific and Technical category and .. in administrative category. The strength in each RRSSC is identical with a pool of highly committed and dedicated thematic and software scientists with core competence in earth sciences like Agriculture, Water resources forestry, geology, soils, etc., and software development. Chart S&T / Admn

Strength of each RRSSC Bangalore Dehradun Jodhpur Kharagpur Nagpur

4 Senior Scientists are on deputation to various State/Central Govt Organisations. 1 Scientist on post doctoral studies abroad.