The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), UN-SPIDER’s Regional Support Office (RSO), has developed a programme in order to prevent and manage forest fires through the SERVIR-Himalaya Small Grants Programme, and in conjunction with the South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE). The project includes a platform based on remote sensing
information to understand how land use affects forest fires, and awareness campaigns among the local communities of Northeast India.
India
Noticias
Regional Support Offices mentioned:
The Indian advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D has already completed two years of successful activity after its launch on July 26, 2013.
The INSAT-3D mission's main aim is to provide meteorological observations through the monitoring process of land and ocean surfaces and the generation of vertical profile of the atmosphere in terms of temperature and humidity for weather forecasting and disaster... read more
The Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences in collaboration with the Department of Space of the National Remote Sensing Centre, and the Center for Ocean and Atmospheric Prediction Studies (Florida State University), has found a more precise parameter for predicting rainfalls during monsoons. It is called Ocean Mean Temperature (OMT) and is a better indicator than the currently used Sea Surface Temperature (SST). Scientists state that the SST does not represent the heat energy available to the... read more
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched on Friday, July 10, three 1 meter resolution optical Earth observation satellites as part of the PSLV-C28 / DMC3 Mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota (SDSC-SHAR), the spaceport of India.
The three identical DMC3 satellites were built by the British company Surrey Satellite... read more
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is working on the creation of 3D Geographic Information System (GIS) maps to ease the evacuation of people from vulnerable areas at risk of tsunami or other natural disaster.
The INCOIS team has been focusing on a multi-... read more
The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), carried out by the Government of India, will monitor the pollution of river Ganga using geospatial and crowd-sourcing technologies.
The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has signed an agreement with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organization in order to use geospatial and crowd-sourcing tools for pollution monitoring in river Ganga.
To support Clean Ganga Mission on decision making and planning, the Bhuvan Ganga mobile application and the Bhuvan Ganga web portal have been launched. The mobile app allows users to collect and report information related to pollution sources affecting the water quality of river Ganga.
The... read more
UNESCO Category 2 Centre on World Natural Heritage Management & Training for the Asia-Pacific Region is organizing the “International Workshop and Training on The Role of Natural World Heritage Sites in Disaster Risk Reduction”, which will be held in the headquarters of the Wildlife institute of India, in Dehradun, between the 24th and 28th of August.
UN-SPIDER is also participating in the workshop, as well as UNISDR, IUCN-DRR, UNESCO, FAO, NDMA, ICIMOD, TISS-JTCDM and IIRS, in order to discuss, deliberate and train on the... read more
India has prepared a concept note of the new SAARC satellite (tentatively called SAARC SAT) to the other members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), in preparation of a special meeting this week. SAARC is an economic and geopolitical organisation of eight countries that are primarily located in South Asia or Indian subcontinent.
The main areas of application for SAARC SAT include telemedicine, emergency communication in... read more
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are working together on a project to monitor earth changes in high detail.
The project is called NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) mission and will be launch into Earth’s orbit in 2020. The mission will study the consequences of climate change by continuously monitoring changes occurring on the Earth’s surface, even ice-sheet movements,... read more
The state government of India is using satellite technology to keep an eye on the progress of water conversation schemes across more than 30,000 sites of Jalyukta Shivar Scheme in Maharashtra. 'Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan' is the flagship programme of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who has set a target to rid Maharashtra of drought within a period of five years.
All projects are supervised by the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Center (MRSAC), whose office is in Nagpur. The state is monitoring the progress in order to complete the work... read more
The Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Indian Department of Space will promote cooperation in remote sensing and outer space technology via joint projects in human resources training and in applying remote sensing technology.
According to an article in Vietnamplus, the two sides made the joint decision during working sessions between a delegation of the Vietnamese ministry, which made a three-day visit to India recently, and officials from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Space, and Space Research Organisation.
... read more
An agreement signed by all South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) states (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and India) is underway to promote a rapid response to natural disasters.
A Saarc monitoring system including tools for early warning system... read more
On Saturday, 25 April 2015 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and India with several aftershocks following on Saturday and Sunday. GDACS estimates that 6.5 million people are affected. Several actors from the satellite and mapping communities have become active in supporting response efforts in the region; particularly in Nepal, which was most severely affected.
- Copernicus... read more
The International Charter: Space and Major Disasters was activated to support response efforts in Jammu and Kashmir State with satellite-based maps. The region is experiencing flooding and resulting landslides following several days of heavy rain.
16 people were killed after an unpredictable landslide crushed two houses in Chadoora. In the affected area several hundred people have been evacuated, inhabitants of the less dangerous regions have been advised to move to higher ground until... read more
UN-SPIDER is planning to conduct two training programmes in April.
From 5 to 9 April 2015, the programme is jointly organizing the five-day course "Earth observation technologies for disaster damage and loss assessment" in Dhaka, Bangladesh with the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) in Bangladesh.
It aims to strengthen damage and loss assessment by teaching the use of satellites images to contribute to damage and loss assessment. It will allow DDM and important stakeholder departments with easy, rapid and accurate ways of assessing damage and loss during... read more
As announced in the beginning of March, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its fourth regional navigation satellite IRNSS-1D on 27 March from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India. The satellite, launched onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C27), was already in orbit 21 minutes after take-off.
IRNSS-ID is part of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), which is currently created by ISRO. Once completed, it will consist of 7 satellites and provide navigation, tracking and... read more
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) anounced the launch of its fourth regional navigation satellite at the end of March, after deferring the planned launch on 9 March.
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1D) was supposed to be launched on March 9 by the Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL), however the launch had to be postponed due to one of the telemetry transmitters not working properly.
M.Y.S. Prasad, director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), stated: “We are planning... read more
The private company Trimble India developed a new instrument for improved earthquake early warning and volcano monitoring. The intergrated Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reference receiver, broadband seismic recorder and a force-balance triaxial accelerometer for infrastructure and precise scientific applications can provide real-time GNSS positioning and seismic data for disaster... read more
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) analysed satellite images collected from the CartoSat-2 satellite in order to evaluate the damages caused by a landslide in the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir.
The landslide, which occurred on 31 December 2014, is blocking the Tsarap River which may lead to a damaging flood downstream. According to ISRO's evaluation, the earthen dam is about 600 meters long and about 60 meters high.
CartoSat-2 satellite imagery show that the artificial lake that formed behind the mound of debris blocking the river is nearly 8 kilometers long and covered about 55 hectares.
While the chance of a catastrophic flood is lower with the lake... read more
The Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) is preparing the launch of four navigation satellites in order to finalize the seven-satellites constellation of the the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).
The IRNSS satellites will be put into orbit in 2015 to complete the constellation of navigation satellites that provides accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its borders.
IRNSS-1D will be the first satellite to be launched during the year and... read more
The Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP) has recently announced its 20th Post Graduate Course in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems. The Course will take place at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), ISRO, Dehradun, India from July 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016. CSSTEAP is now accepting applications from qualified candidates.
So far, CSSTEAP, which is affiliated to the United Nations, has conducted 18 Post Graduate Courses in Remote Sensing and GIS (nineteenth course is presently ongoing), 9 courses in Satellite Communications, 8 courses each in Satellite Meteorology and Space Sciences (ninth course is ongoing) and several short terms courses/workshops. 1389 participants from 34 countries of Asia-Pacific have benefitted from these programmes.
More information on the programme and on the application process is available from... read more
The "Roundtable Meetings on Innovations in Technologies for Disaster Rescue Efforts amongst ASEM countries" took place on 4 and 5 December 2014 in New Delhi, India. ASEM is the Asia-Europe Meeting. Shirish Ravan of UN-SPIDER co-chaired a session on Technology Transfer: Joint ventures among ASEM Countries and presented the topic "Consideration for Effective Use of Space-based Information for Emergency Response".
The main objective of the meetings was to focus the attention of ASEM member countries on how technology innovations can be utilized to save lives and reduce effective... read more
The government of the state of Andhra Pradesh in South India announced its considerations of employing satellite technology to provide rural areas with broadband services, including computer networks, television and internet access.
To this aim, a committee chaired by IT advisor J. Satyanarayana and composed of representatives from the National Remote Sensing Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO/NRSC), Intersat, Gilat Satellite Networks, Airtel and Hughes Communications India as well as by the planning department... read more
During the inaugural session of the 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Kathmandu, Nepal, representatives of the eight member countries of SAARC discussed new ways of strengthening regional cooperation.
Among other things, the leaders highlighted the benefits an enhanced regional collaboration in the use and development of space-based technology could have for sustainable development of the region.
Addressing this issue, India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced that India is planning to develop and launch a SAARC satellite by 2016. According to him, the satellite will benefit the region in areas ranging from disaster... read more
On 22 October 2014, India and Mexico formally agreed on a cooperation in areas related to the peaceful use of the outer space, such as remote sensing and satellite communication. The pact was signed in New Delhi during the Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) presided by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Jose Antonio Meade Kuribrena of India and Mexico, respectively.
The Ministries chaired the sixth meeting of the India-Mexico JCM, established in 1984 and formulated a Memorandum of Understanding committing the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO... read more
