This annual e-book in Figures analyses complex issues pertaining to the country’s environment and development. In today's world where information is available from so many sources that we end up not making any sense of the happenings, this report gives you compelling data stories that are credible and easy to …
a canadian researcher has discovered answer to one of the most crucial environmental challenges facing the world: how to save coral reefs. Ellsworth LeDrew, a geography professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, has devised a mathematical formula that will automatically scan satellite images to uncover changes in coral …
The destruction of the world's forests is continuing, but evidence shows that the rate of deforestation is slowing down, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (fao). The agency reported that its preliminary analysis of more than 300 satellite images shows that the rate of deforestation in tropical …
a survey conducted by the Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre (arsac), Guwahati, and the Space Research Centre, Ahemdabad, has revealed that 1,367 out of 3,513 wetlands in Assam are under severe threat due to the invasion of aquatic weeds and other developmental activities. "Our wetlands have turned into wastelands and …
The space shuttle Endeavour has captured every corner of the Earth in amazing three-dimensional images. For 11 days, beginning January 31, the globe was swathed by radar waves so that scientists from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US could obtain data for the most complete high-resolution maps …
satellite images have revealed the existence of live corals in the Gulf of Kachchh in Gujarat. Discovered by the scientists of the Gujarat Ecological Society ( ges ), the live corals were found at a depth of 25 metres off the northern coast of the Gulf of Kachhch. Coral reefs …
IT IS only when a disaster of the magnitude that struck Orissa takes place, does a country realise the need to perfect its scientific infrastructure. Space technology, for one, helps in planning development in such a way as to minimise the impact of such a disaster, or when it strikes, …
in what is being seen as perhaps the first attempt in the world, a study conducted by the Remote Sensing Applications Area of Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad, has revealed that 21 wetlands in India are in trouble. All the wetlands documented have been notified as having
did early spring in Kargil help the Pakistan-backed intruders occupy strategic heights on the Indian side of the Line of Control ( loc )? Some experts believe so. The first signs of Pakistani intrusion became known on May 14 at Kaksar. Lt Gen Satish Nambiar, director of the United Services …
tsunamis, giant waves caused by submarine earthquakes, landslips or volcanic activity, are known to wreck havoc in Japan. Now, the country's civil defence officials should be able to predict tsunamis through a new altering system that uses Global Positioning System ( gps) navigation satellites to monitor the vertical motion of …
the Kerala Forest Research Institute ( kfri ) has decided to launch an ambitious project to prepare an atlas of forests in the state using remote-sensing satellites. It is said to be the first project of its kind in the country. The project envisages to prepare range-wise information at 1:25,000 …
SCIENTISTS of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) inIspra, Italy, recently came up with a rather depressing forecast. After mapping the tropical deforestation 'hot spots' for the first time, They announced that attempts to save most of the world's remaining tropical rainforests are doomed to failure and should probably …
A SMALL radio-controlled aircraft could soon be monitoring the air for signs of biological weapons. Fitted with a sensor developed at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, the craft will venture into possible danger zones and send back data on any biowar bacteria it detects. The biosensor was …
IRS-LISS-II data along with other data sets have been utilized to extract information on the hydrogeomorphic features of a hard rock terrain in the Sironj area of Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, India. The study exhibits reservoir induced artificial groundwater recharge downstream of surface water reservoirs. IRS-LISS-II data have been …
wastelands in 14 districts of Andhra Pradesh were recently mapped by the state's remote sensing applications centre (apsrac) under the aegis of the National Wasteland Development Board. The information obtained would be used for wasteland reclamation, said apsrac director, R S Rao. The director informed that the centre was preparing …
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Delhi, has developed lien acoustic sounder to facilitate remote sensing facility for measuring meteorological data and forecast pollution dispersion patterns. A series of experiments regarding this were carried out from 1992 to 1994. Also termed 'sodar' (sound and detection ranging), the sounder has been developed …
The space shuttle Endeavour has used a new earth-imaging radar to photograph the area around the ancient Cambodian city of Angkor. Altho Ugh the main temple complex at Angkor has been restored, much of the'city is hidden in impenetrable Jungle'(Science, Vol 267, No 5200). The radar, developed jointly by the …
VILLAGLRS reading satellite images like the back of their hands: it's an absurd oxymoron. But this virtual impossibility is precisely what the Bangalore-based Actionaid team discovered in Nepal recently. The team had started with an unlikely hypothesis: that the local people, with their intimate knowledge of the vicinity's topography, would …
Different estimates of the extent of the country's wastelands area has forced the ministry of rural development to call for a remapping of such areas. The ministry's wasteland development department has asked the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) in Hyderabad to prepare a detailed map of the wastelands by the …
ANAMICA, a computer software developed by scientists at the Advanced Numerical Research and Analysis Group (ANURAG) in Hyderabad, is poised to revolutionise medical diagnosis and surgery by producing three-dimensional images of the insides of organs such as the brain, heart and even bones. What ANAMICA -- ANURAG's Medical Imaging and …
REMOTE sensing is slowly changing the contours of planning in India. In time, it could do away with conventional methods of data collection involving laborious field studies and replace dusty files in the large cupboards of officialdom with computer tapes, discs and video monitors. Providing such relatively easy access to …
