India's EO Pyramid for Holistic Development

Paper number

IAC-06-B1.5.05

Author

Dr. V. Jayaraman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India

Coauthor

Dr. S.K. Srivastava, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India

Coauthor

Dr. D. Gowrisankar, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India

Year

2006

Abstract

The Indian Earth Observations (EO) Programme has demonstrated the roles that EO could play to catalyze the developmental process at various levels. The present Indian EO constellation of six thematic satellites and the planned follow on missions viz., Cartosat-2, Resourcesat-2, Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT), Oceansat-2 and Megha-Tropiques have been a part of India’s EO strategy to have specific thematic missions to meet the cartographic, natural resources and environment monitoring and management requirements. 
Driven by the availability of EO data of diverse resolutions, India has seized the opportunity to use spatial information for integrated sustainable development. The country has demonstrated innovatively how to put to use EO for the most fundamental applications such as poverty alleviation, food security, creation of natural assets and also in building the physical and social infrastructures to minimize the regional imbalances and social inequity. While addressing such goals, the convergence of EO with geospatial technologies enabled creation of comprehensive spatial data infrastructure as national repository to help identifying environmentally degraded wastelands; sources of drinking water especially in hard rock terrain and suitable sites for ground water recharge; land use and land cover in the diverse agro-ecological zones; and fragile colonies of flora and fauna in the various biodiversity zones. The lessons from such activities led to taking up large scale mapping of urban areas and natural resources census to identify the environmentally ‘hot spot’ regions for mid-course corrections through the appropriate interventions. 
From every newer paradigm in EO technologies, India could make efforts in demonstrating newer applications, addressing ‘the hot spots’ of country’s holistic development. Taking EO based services to ‘the last’ in the social hierarchy, essentially the poor and marginalized, India has envisaged setting up village resource centers in the backward and inaccessible rural areas of the country. 
India’s EO pyramid thus embodies scientific investigation at the base; includes meteorological and oceanographic observations through thematic satellites; enables the parameterization of land surface processes towards the development of regional climate models; provides valuable inputs for holistic development; and envisions reaching the grassroots cutting across all the traditional barriers. In way, what India demonstrates truly is a ethics to EO – worth replicating especially in other developing countries.

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IAC-06-B1.5.05.pdf

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