Goal: to increase the use of Earth science in decision making through training for:

-policy makers

-environmental managers

-other professionals in private and public sector

Indicator 15.1.1 - Forest area as a percentage of total land area

This indicator measures the proportion of the world's land area that is forested and is expressed as a
percentage. Changes in forest area reflect changes in demand for land for other uses and may help
in identifying unsustainable practices in the forest and agriculture sectors. The indicator will measure
progress towards SDG Target 15.1.

By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland
freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in
line with obligations under international agreements.

Target 15.2

By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt
deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation
globally.
Target 15.3
15.3 By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land
affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-
neutral world

STATE FACTS FROM FAO REPORT

Data

Earth observation data are continuous in their spatial and temporal resolutions

-Helps in capturing changes and progress related to SDGs over time.

-Establish baseline and trends

Numerous classes of selective information on available resources such as soil humidity, soil use and
cover, crop natures and state, and soil type data can be mined since the satellite information
Indices of Remote Sensing and Signification
Crop state estimation necessitates an information input, for example, environmental conditions
such as air temperature, relative humidity, and rainfalls and surface condition like soil moisture
and soil temperature.

Remote sensing indices like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Land Surface
Water Index (LSWI), Temperature-Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation
Index (SAVI), Water Deficit Index (WDI), etc. obtained from satellite imagery are helpful to
derive crop development state and/or soil humidity state.

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculates vegetation density through
evaluating the variation between near-infrared (which vegetation powerfully returns) and red
luminosity (which vegetation attracts).

Moreover, the Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) employs the Shortwave Infrared (SWIR)
and the Near-Infrared (NIR) zones of the electromagnetic range [3].

There is powerful luminosity assimilation by liquid water in the SWIR, and the LSWI is well
recognized to be susceptible to the entire quantity of liquid water in vegetation and its soil [4].

In addition, the Temperature-Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) is acquired from spatial Land
Surface Temperature-NDVI and can be employed as a marker of soil humidity and therefore the
vegetation water pressure [5].

The SAVI (Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index) takes in consideration the visual soil
characteristics on the plant cover reflectance [6].

The Water Deficit Index (WDI) represents the relative rate of hidden heat change, so it
illustrates a rate of “zero” for totally wet surface and a value of “one” concerning dry surfaces
where there is no hidden heat change [7].

Remote sensing method aids to create a temporal development profile of plants over its
development phase. With the recovery of environmental factors in addition to remote sensing indices,
it is simple to recognize the development model of crop and also their connection among each other and
consequence of concerned variables on crop development. On the basis of preceding information and test,
remote sensing method is especially helpful in estimating the crop development at land level in addition
to large level. Assimilation of ecological, surface, and crop state acquired through remote sensing method
in addition to soil station aids in improvement of model to calculate the crop state [8].

Remote Sensing of Land Indicators for Sustainable Development Goal 15

Role of remote sensing for Goal 15

Remote sensing data sources for land cover

EAI contributes in particular to Goal 2: Zero Hunger, but also has less immediately apparent
contributions in the realms of water (Goal 6), responsible consumption and production (Goal 12),
climate action (Goal 13), life on land (Goal 15), and global partnerships for sustainable development
(Goal 17)

CROP INSURANCE
Many satellites have been specifically designed, keeping requirement of agriculture in view.
Ministry of Agriculture has launched many national level programmes for use of satellite
remote sensing. These include FASAL (Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-
meteorology and Land based observations), NADAMS (National Agricultural Drought
Assessment and Monitoring System), CHAMAN (Coordinated Horticulture Assessment and
Management using geo-informatics), KISAN (Crop Insurance using Space technology And
geo-informatics). The technologies developed in these programmes are being used for
better implementation of the crop insurance program

There are many possibilities of use of satellite remote sensing for crop insurance,
specifically PMFBY.  These include:

1. Smart Sampling
2. Yield Estimation

 Area Discrepancy

1. Yield Discrepancy and Quality Checking

2. Loss Assessment and On Account Payment
3. Prevented Sowing

 Risk Zone Mapping

 Area Discrepancy
 It has been seen that there are many cases, where the area insured is much more
than actual area sown, which results in reduction of sum insured and consequently
reduction in claims of insurance. There has been also cases, where area is insured
for a particular crop, but actually sown with a different crop. Since, SRS has been
operationally used for crop area estimation (under FASAL project), this can be used
for checking area discrepancy, especially for major crops of the country.
 Yield Discrepancy/Quality Checking
 Many times, there has been issues regarding the quality of the yield data derived
from crop cutting experiments, i.e. yield is abnormally low or high, compared to
general crop condition. The PMFBY guidelines mentions that in these cases satellite
 image data and other technologies can be used to check the quality of yield data.  
Mahalanobsis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) has developed a protocol of
checking yield data through statistical analysis, weather analysis, SRS based
vegetation indices and other collateral information.
 Loss Assessment & On Account Payment
  
 PMFBY proposes to provide immediate relief to insured farmers, in case of adverse
seasonal conditions during the crop seasons, e.g. floods, prolonged dry spells,
severe drought etc., where expected yield is likely to be 50% of the threshold yield.
Since, this payment has to be given mid-seasons, it has to be assessed in absence
of CCE data. In these cases, weather data and SRS can be very useful. Various
applications have shown that it is possible to assess the severity of impact of
drought, hailstorm and flood using satellite data. The NADAMS project regularly
assesses the severity of drought at district/sub-district level using an integrated
approach. Similarly, microwave remote sensing data are useful to assess the flood
inundation of crops.
 Prevented Sowing
  
 Due to unfavourable weather conditions (deficiency or delay in rainfall, unfavourable
temperature conditions, etc.), farmers may not be able to sow the crops. PMFBY
covers this risk. A comparison of High resolution SRS data of two years (normal year
and the current year) can identify the areas with prevented sowing. This can be
overlaid with digitized cadastral maps to identify the farms with prevented sowing
condition.  
  
 Risk Zone Mapping
 Under PMFBY, in order to diversify/spread the risk and cover high risk/low risk area
equally, the districts/sub-districts are grouped in such a way that, each group
contains mix of districts/sub-districts with different risk profile. Generally, risk is
assessed using long term yield data. In absence of high quality long-term yield data
at block/taluka level, one can use long term satellite based vegetation indices values
for risk zoning. These can be combined with long-term weather data, disaster
frequency, etc. for better risk analysis.
  
 Conclusion
  
 The above discussion has shown that satellite remote sensing can play a major role
for the success of the Crop Insurance programme of the country. However, there are
still a lot of limitations of using satellite remote sensing for operational purposes: i)
Limited availability of cloud free data during Kharif season and iii) Use of remote
sensing for quantitative estimation of crop loss or crop yield at farm level is still a
challenge. Hence, there is a need to integrate remote sensing with other inputs and
models for catering to the requirements of operational applications. With the frequent
availability of high resolution satellite data from Indian and International satellites and
also the increasing use of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)/ Drones for crop
insurance programme, the remote sensing can prove to have a strong role in
successful implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
CROP CUTTING EXPERIMENT – CCE