ROLE OF REMOTE

SENSING
 AGRICULTURE
 Identifying crop conditions
Satellite imagery and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) technologies are used in order to monitor global
food supplies. Healthy crops area reflect infrared where other areas reflect red or blue.

 Increasing precision in farming

The health of crops, can be measured using remote sensing applications so that almost 10 percent of fertilizer, money
and time can be saved.

 Determining the soil moisture content

Active and passive sensors of a satellite in space are used in order to determine soil moisture content. Many earth
sciences such as water cycle, flood, and drought are based on the content of soil moisture.

 Crop production forecasting

Remote sensing is used in predicting crop production and yield over a given field and determine how much of the crop
will be harvested under the specific conditions. The researcher can predict the crop quantity that will be produced in a
given farmland over a given period of time.

 Determining crop damage and crop progress

In the event of crop damage or crop progress, remote sensing technology can be used to penetrate the farmland and
determine exactly how much of a given crop has been damaged or under stress and the progress of the remaining crop
in the farm.
 Crop Identification
The crop can also be identified using remote sensing technology especially in cases where the crop under
observation is mysterious or shows some mysterious characteristics .The data of crop is collected or
taken to the labs where various aspects of the crop including the crops culture are studied.

 Crop condition analysis and stress detection

Remote sensing technology plays an important role in assessment of crops health condition and the
exact to which the crop has withstood stress . This data can be then used to determine the quality of the
crop .

 Drought monitoring
Remote sensing technology is used to monitor the weather patterns including the drought patterns over
a given area. The information is used to forecast the rainfall patterns of an area and also tell the time
difference between the current and the next rainfall which can be helpful to keep track of the drought.

 Water content determination of the field crop

Apart from determining the soil moisture content, remote sensing also plays an important role in the
estimation of the water content in the field crops.

 Crop health analysis

Health analysis of a crop can be also determined which helps in determining the overall crop yield.
 CLIMATE CHANGE
 Identifying forest stands and tallying their area to estimate forest supplies
AVHRR, MODIS and SPOT quantitatively measure the loss and gain of our global forests.

 Comparing climatic factors from past to present

NASA is mapping different climate factors on a monthly basis to see how much these variables change in
Global Time-Series Climate Maps. Through this lens, climate variables like carbon monoxide, chlorophyll,
and aerosol size are being mapped as a function of time. Remote sensing satellites include MODIS, CERES,
AMSR-E, TRMM, and MOPITT.

 Measuring the rise of sea levels

Measuring sea level rise is a function of time with centimeter accuracy measurements using remote
sensing data.

 Comparing the past and present with human impact change

 DISASTERS
 Monitoring active volcanoes using thermal remote sensing
AVHRR and MODIS are prime candidates for volcano monitoring.

 Inventorying potential landslides with interferometry

InSAR can provide early warning signs for landslides because of how well it measures ground surface displacements.

 Quantifying the damage after an earthquake

Object-based image classification using change detection (pre- and post-earthquake) is a quick way to get damage
assessments. Other remote sensing applications in disaster assessments include casted shadows from buildings and
digital surface models.

 Assessing terrain stability using interferometry in the oil and gas sector

 Tracking hazards for better response and recovery

 FORESTRY
 Fighting wildfires by planning firefighter dispatch
Based on satellite data, firefighters can dispatch with pinpoint accuracy. Operational satellites like AVHRR
and MODIS are best suited because of their mid-infrared and thermal bands. Also, satellites can trace the
extent of wildfires using temporal data.

 Reversing illegal rainforest cutting

The Surui tribe in Brazil has teamed up with Google to reverse rainforest deforestation. The Surui tribe is
equipped with high-tech tools like Google Earth, smartphones, and GPS. They keep a watchful eye on illegal
mining and logging.

 Preventing the spread of forest disease types

The rapid spread of forest disease can have catastrophic effects on ecosystem health and local or national
economies because remote sensing monitors for these color changes, forest managers can better track the
occurrence of forest diseases.
 SNOW
 Calculating the depth of snowpack

 Exploring, protecting and navigating in the Arctic

Heavy-duty tasks like sea ice monitoring, ship tracking, and national defense make satellites a heaven-
sent opportunity for maintaining sovereignty in the North.

 Studying glacier melts and effects on sea levels

NASA'S GRACE satellite showed that the Alaskan glaciers were losing mass at about 20.6 gigatons per
year. But the scary takeaway is the rapid melting ice and its profound effects on sea levels.
 URBAN PLANNING
 Urban Land Use Inventory : It is quite natural that population growth increases the pressure on the land, and the
non urban land is converted into urban areas. Population growth and city expansion ultimately influence the land
use pattern of any urban center. Knowledge of the patterns and intensity of land use is relevant in urban planning,
but the preparation of a land use inventory by conventional method is expensive and time consuming. The
advantage of satellite imagery interpretation in terms of accuracy, timeliness and cost is indisputable in
comparison to conventional methods.

 Study of Urban Sprawl and Growth Trends : Since satellite based remote sensing systems have unique capability
to provide repetitive coverage for any pay of the world this makes it most suitable for monitoring and updating of
urban expansion by using very high resolution multi-temporal remote sensing data especially for town and
country planning.
 Travel Route Pattern :Physical infrastructure of an urban center comprises of transportation, water supply,
electric power supply, sewage etc. This type of study provides a methodology for analyzing the optimum
transportation network of cities.

 Urban Environment Analysis : Green spaces in cities exist mainly as seminatural areas, managed parks and
gardens, supplemented by scattered vegetated pockets associated with roads and incidental location. The
role of remote sensing in the case of green / open spaces mapping and analysis has become important for
managing, and maintenance of old and degraded spaces.
FLOOD MANAGEMENT
• Flood induction mapping and monitoring

• Rapid and scientific based damage assessment

• Monitoring and mapping of flood control works

• Monitoring and mapping of changes in the river course

• Identification of river bank erosion

• Identification of chronic flood prone areas Inputs for flood

forecasting & warning models
MINERAL SURVEY
 Remote sensing images are used for mineral exploration in two applications:
(1) Map geology and the faults and fractures that localize ore deposits
(2) Recognize hydrothermally altered rocks by their spectral signatures

Landsat thematic mapper (TM) satellite images are widely used to interpret both structure
and hydrothermal alteration.
GROUND WATER
POTENTIAL MAPPING

Hydro morphological maps

generated using satellite remote
sensing data are extensively used
for locating bore wells.
LAND USE PLANNING

•Natural resource management

•Wildlife habitat protection

•Baseline mapping for GIS input
•Urban expansion / encroachment
•Routing and logistics planning for seismic / exploration / resource extraction activities
•Damage delineation (tornadoes, flooding, volcanic, seismic, fire)
•Legal boundaries for tax and property evaluation
•Target detection - Identification of landing strips, roads, clearings, bridges, land/water
interface
OTHER MAJOR APPLICATIONS
 Unearthing ancient archaeological sites like the Mayans and ancient Egypt .

 Mapping regional economic activity

 Tracking the great distances of migratory birds and inspecting their

prevalence .

 Deriving elevation and contours using photogrammetry

 Delineating and assessing the health of riparian zones to conserve lakes and
rivers.

 Assessing the environmental change and promoting biodiversity.