Use of Remote Sensing for Development by the Indian Space Research Essay - 1

Use of Remote Sensing for Development by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) - Essay Example National development normally requires a comprehensive survey of the available natural resources in a country. This will help to optimize the management and sustainability of the available resources by making use of the strengths of remote sensing (Navalgund et al, 2007). India as a country has embraced remote sensing in development activities through various institutions such as the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in various fields such as agriculture, water resources management, management of forests and ecosystems, climate change and urban planning. These areas in which ISRO has employed the use of remote sensing for development activities are as discussed below. Agriculture normally supports 60 % of the total population of India and normally contributes about 2.5 % of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. Remote sensing techniques have been extensively used as a tool for improvement on crop production by providing solutions for the current problems. A joint operation between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Agriculture resources inventory and survey experiment (ARISE) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been used to forecast the production of crops in the country. Aerial color infrared photographs were used to estimate the acreage of crops in the district of Anantapur and in Patiala district of Punjab (Navalgund et al, 2007). In the year 1986, a project referred to as the crop acreage and production estimation was created under the umbrella of remote sensing application missions.  Ã‚  The CAPE project provided the district-level forecast of production of all the major crops in India includin g Wheat, rice, sorghum, cotton, and groundnuts. The acreage of land under each crop was estimated using satellite imagery obtained using remote sensing techniques.