Disaster Management Support (DMS) Programme The Disaster Management Support (DMS) Programme of ISRO, provides products and services emanating from the space systems (INSAT and IRS satellites) and airborne systems, on a reliable and timely basis, to support disaster management in the country. These include monitoring of major natural disasters using satellite and aerial data; creation of digital database for facilitating hazard zonation, damage assessment, etc., development of appropriate techniques and tools for decision support, establishing satellite based reliable communication network, deployment of emergency communication equipments and R&D towards early disaster warning. Floods: The DMS-Decision Support Centre (DMS-DSC), set up at NRSC, has monitored and mapped major flood events that occurred in nine states (Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu). Over 275 flood maps were prepared and information was provided to the concerned for relief measures. At the request of Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC), river configuration mapping was carried out for Kosi River using satellite data for the past 15 years (1994 to 2008). Aerial survey was taken up during the Gandak River embankment breach near Semaria in North Bihar’s Gopalganj district on September 16, 2010. From the aerial imageries, the flood affected area is estimated to be about 1680 ha and the length of the breach was measured as 115 m. A cloudburst over LEH (J&K) on August 6, 2010 led to flash floods and mud slides, causing extensive damage to lives and properties. The affected area was analysed using RISAT-2 data of August 07, 2010 and CARTOSAT-1 data of July 16, 2010. The information derived from these images was provided to the concerned authorities. A Flood Forecast Model was developed for Godavari basin using space based inputs and geo-spatial database such as landuse/ land cover, digital elevation model, soil texture and non-spatial inputs such as hydro-meteorological data and gauge discharge curves. The model was calibrated and validated and installed at CWC, Hyderabad. Leh, as seen by Cartosat-1 Drought: The prevalence and severity of agricultural drought in 13 states in the country is assessed at district and sub-district level on a monthly basis, using satellite data and ground information, during the kharif season. A new product indicating crop sown area/Area Favourable for Crop Sowing (AFCS), has been derived from Shortwave Angle Slope Index (SASI) images and incorporated in the drought assessments. AFCS reflects the agricultural area with significant surface wetness and hence favourable for crop sowing activity. AFCS is a direct indicator of early-season agricultural situation. Forest Fire: Active forest fires in the Indian region were monitored and information was uploaded to Indian Forest Fire Response and Assessment System (INFFRAS) website. The services were strengthened in terms of high temporal coverage of 4 passes a day, semi-automated dissemination system of fire information, rapid damage assessment in terms of burnt area and providing early fire warning information towards fire management. National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM): NDEM is conceived by MHA as a GIS based repository of data to support disaster/ emergency management for the country on a near real time basis. It is envisaged to have base data, hazard-specific data, and dynamic data in spatial as well as aspatial form. Under NDEM, database organisation and Decision Support Systems (DSS) development for flood, drought, Landslides and radiological disasters are under progress. NDEM data portal ver1.0 for effective Search, Browse and Visualisation of the geospatial database and its extraction has been developed. Aerial Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) Development: The flight model of the C-band ASAR integration is completed and presently under testing. Onboard test flights are planned soon. The X-band ASAR Radio Frequency (RF) subsystems are ready for use. Near Real Time Processing (NRTP) system with 64 bit processor is ready and tested along with the C-band ASAR. The processing of the Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping (ALTM) data collected earlier over Sabari Basin (Andhra Pradesh) and Mahanadi basin (Orissa) are nearing completion. Communication Network: Towards providing emergency communication for disaster management activities, and at the behest of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), ISRO has set up a satellite based Virtual Private Network (VPN) linking the National Control Room at MHA with DMS-DSC at NRSC. Important national agencies, key Government Offices in Delhi and the Control Rooms of multi-hazard-prone States are also part of this network. Emergency Communication: INSAT Type-D terminal (two way portable voice communication terminal operating in S-band) is developed keeping its primary use for voice communication during disaster when all other communication means brake down. Out of many terminals put to use, 27 are being used by CRPF for emergency operations and 3 were used by National Disaster Management Authority during flash floods at Leh. As a continued effort to develop system with increased capacity, ISRO has initiated development of a handheld satellite phone, which would use high power SxC MSS transponder in the future. System configuration is finalised; RF and Baseband modules are under fabrication and Antenna design is in progress. Simulation for demodulator is completed and development is under progress. Distress Alert Transmitter is a low cost satellite transmitter for emergency communication of alert messages from fishing boats. At present, 800 DATs are distributed to fishermen in the first phase of implementation and field trial. Development of a small size DAT is also completed. 1000 Small size DATs will be delivered soon for deployment. The DTH based Digital Disaster Warning System (DDWS) developed by ISRO was demonstrated to various key officials after a pilot phase with 2 remote headends (warning centres) and 5 user nodes in association with Doordarshan. The network will be increased to 500 nodes in association with India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Doordarshan in the near future. International Initiatives: The DMS programme is supporting the disaster management globally, by sharing data and information for the specific events. ISRO has provided about 26 IRS imageries for 7 disasters during 2010 including Haiti Earthquake, oil spill in Mexico and floods in Venezuela and Thailand, through the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’. Through the Sentinel Asia (SA) initiative, for supporting disaster management activities in the Asia-Pacific region, ISRO has responded to 5 emergency disaster requests by providing data for forest fires in Bhutan, Nepal and floods in Pakistan during 2010. IRS datasets were uploaded on to Sentinel Asia server for appraisal, study and other emergency operations and relief measures. Remote Sensing Applications Remote sensing application projects at national, regional and local levels are being carried out through NRSC, Hyderabad and its five Regional Remote Sensing Centre (RRSC) located at Bangalore, Dehradun, Jodhpur, Kharagpur, and Nagpur, as well as SAC, Ahmedabad and North-Eastern Space Application Centre (NE-SAC), Shillong. State and Central government departments, State Remote Sensing Application Centres and others are also associating in the execution of these projects. Some of the major application projects, carried out during the year, are highlighted below: Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology and Land based observations (FASAL) is a countrywide project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation and executed by ISRO/DOS along with various State Remote Sensing Applications Centres, State Departments of Agriculture and Agricultural Universities. Under this project, crop area and production forecast for the Kharif season of 2010-11 was released on August 31, 2010 using two date SAR data. This year, the forecast was advanced by 15 days and significant reduction in rice area in West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand states have been observed. For the first time, the forecast for the Jute crop is also done using SAR data. Work on satellite derived rainfall based soil moisture estimation led to weekly monitoring of Kharif rice suitable area identification. FASALSoft package (prototype) has also been developed. FASALSoft is a distributed software & automation consisting of three major sub-systems viz. (i) Computing System (ii) Central Geo-Spatial Archival System and (iii) Online Geo-Spatial Query System apart from an administrative subsystem. Groundwater Prospects Mapping: Under Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, funded by the Department of Drinking Water Supply of the Ministry of Rural Development, preparation of ground water prospects maps at 1:50,000 scale with digital database pertaining to ground water prospecting such as lithology, geomorphology, geological structures and hydrology was taken up for entire country in phases. After successful completion of Phase I and II activities, under Phase III A & B of the project, ground water prospects mapping for ten states, viz., Andhra Pradesh (western part), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal (6 districts) and Uttar Pradesh (14 districts) has been covered in the current year. Mapping is completed for all the states and in progress for J&K, Arunachal Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh. Under Phase-IV, remaining 13 states and 5 union territories, which were not covered under earlier phases is being taken up. Similarly, the ground water quality layer for the earlier phases of the project (Phase I, II & III-A) as well as digital database and standardisation of groundwater data generated in Phase I to IV is also taken up. Water Resources Information System: A major project on “Web Enabled Water Resources Information System” (India-WRIS) in collaboration with CWC, New Delhi has been taken up. India-WRIS will provide a comprehensive, credible, and contextual view of India’s water resources data along with allied natural resources data and information. India-WRIS will allow users to search, access, visualise, analyse, look into context and study spatial patterns of water resources in the nation. India - WRIS is currently hosted on NRSC server: www.india-wris.nrsc.gov.in. The present version provides the information on spatial distribution of waterlogged and salt affected soils in major and medium irrigation commands of the country, soil sample points location and values of chemical properties (pH, EC & ESP), ground water observation wells location with pre and post monsoon water levels. It also has information on river basin boundaries along with large number of attributes like dam location, G&D sites and district wise distribution of minor irrigation schemes. Functional tools for data visualisation, charting, search, query, contextual analysis, personalisation, geo-tagging are also developed.