Name: - Chavan Vaishanvi Hemant

College Name: -Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj Polytechnic Gangapuroad Nashik

Branch: - Computer Technology

Year: - Third Year

Topic For Essay Writing :-

SPACE TECHNOLOGY IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Introduction

There are several types of Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, tropical

cyclones, wildlife, tsunami, volcanic eruptions, landslides etc., that inversely affect the

national progress and human life causing damage, death and loss of valuable goods.

The recent cloud burst the at hit Uttarakhand, the heavy earthquake that affected

Gujarat in 2001 and a number of disasters of the recent time clearly shows that India is one of

the world's most disaster prone countries of the world. About 40 mha of India's geographical

area is flood prone (National Flood Control Commission Report, 1980). One of the important

ways to escape from these potential risks is to develop technologies for early prediction of

disasters, proper strategy for disaster management and developing awareness among the

civilians to overcome the critical situations, during natural disaster.

A Disaster management process is broadly divided into three parts i.e. :

1. Early-warning: If the occurrence of an event is known earlier then proper planning

could be done to evacuate the common people and their movable property to a relatively

safer place.
 Technical expertise, facilities and communication network are required for collecting

ground data in real time forecasting and then disseminating the forecast & warning

informations.

2. Disaster relief: This consists of organizing relief camps, air dropping of food and

other materials, medical facilities, etc. This is the most critical step and actions have to

be taken on the spot at the earliest.

3. Rehabilitation/Reconstruction: The victims need to be rehabilitated; they have to

beprovidedwith essential services by restoring/establishing communication till the

situation comes to normal.

Space Technology is playing an important role for minimizing the adverse effect of

Natural disasters. Satellite imagery, giving real-time information over a large area and space-

based technologies like telecommunications, global navigation satellite systems,

Geographic Information Systems and Web Technology can be used for prevention,

preparedness, relief, reconstruction, warning and monitoring the various phases of

disaster management.

Polar Orbiting satellites provide higher resolution imageries, even low temporal

frequency, are used for detailed monitoring, damage assessment and long-term relief

management. It is known that Geo-stationary satellites provide continuous and synoptic

observations over large areas on weather including cyclone monitoring. In the recent times,

Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT) and Ultra Small Aperture Terminals (USAT) are also

used with increasing capability.

Natural Disaster management systems in India

India, the seventh largest country having second largest population of the world,

surounded by the Himalayas on the north, northeast and northwest the Bay of Bengal on the east,

the Indian Ocean on the south and the Arabian Sea in the west, is prone to various natural

disasters such as droughts, floods, earthquakes and cyclones. The reasons are mainly due to its

tropical climate, unstable landforms, high population density, poverty, illiteracy and lack of

adequate infrastructure.

It is known that the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India is the nodal ministry

for handling such natural disasters. It has started many institutions at national, state and district

levels for strengthening disaster management programme in India. Some of them are given

below:

⚫ National Disaster ManagementAuthority (NDMA)

⚫ State Disaster Management Authorities

⚫ District Disaster Management Authorities

⚫ National Institute of Disaster Management

⚫ National Disaster Response Force

Space Technology Applications: Role of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Department of Space is providing major support to the disaster management programme

of the Government of India. Indian National Satellite (INSAT) and Indian Remote Sensing

(IRS) series of satellites provide informations related to warning dissemination, monitoring and
damage assessment, tracking cyclones and measurement of wind vectors, communication support

etc. The capability of Geographic Positioning System (GPS) of USA and our indigenous

IRNSS-series, to precisely determine the position of a location is being used to measure

ground movements associated with plate tectonics.

The launch of Resources at series and Cartos at series with much better imaging capabilities

and frequent coverage has increased India's capability for managing disaster effect, particularly

floods. Earlier the ISRO launched Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) and its data were used

to monitor the potential flood threat to Himachal Pradesh in 2004 with high spatial resolution of

about 1 metre. RISAT series satellites use Synthetic Aperture RADAR and thereby having

capability of imaging during both day & night and during adverse cloudy conditions (including

flood and cyclone monitoringcapabilities). Mobile telephony, MSS reporting terminal and

VSAT based communications have enhanced communication capabilities in disaster affected

areas. For users like Shipping Authority, Airports Authority of India, Coast Guard, Defence

(Army, Navy and Air force) and Mountaineering expeditions, ISRO is providing satellite-

aided Search & Rescue services on an operational basis through participation in the COSPAS-

SARSAT international programme. Further, Ext-C band based satellite communication nodes

can be extremely helpful because of the little effect due to weather or clouds (wherein antenna

size will be smaller than that of the normal C-band antenna).

ISRO has established a Decision Support Centre (DSC) at National Remote Sensing

Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad, under its Disaster Management Support Programme (ISRO-

DMSP). It provides dedicated services for timely information meeting the user needs in terms of

information content, turn-around- time and format. Such information will be disseminated to

the State and Central user agencies. ISRO has reorganised Disaster Management Support
 Programme (DMSP) in May 2013, having functional designates, for monitoring the activities

and for providing

policy guidelines and for subsequent interaction with other ministries on Disaster

Management. A wing of this which is called Decision Support Centre (DSC) at NRSC is meant

for providing appropriate response to major natural disasters in India. Another wing of this is to

plan operationalization of Airborne synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) and collection of high

resolution data using Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper(ALTM), Large Format Digital Camera etc

for DMSP (for example, DMSAR was delivered to NRSC, Hyderabad, from Space Applications

Centre, Ahmedabad in December 2012). NRSC/ISRO has been instrumental in providing

operational flood information services, free of cost, to several states through State Remote

sensing Application Centre (SRSACs), Flood management improvement support Centre

(FMISC), etc. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), for post-flood (mitigation

measures) in the country has been identified to give guidelines for flood management utilizing

remote sensing data.

Indian experiences in operational use of satellite data for disaster management

Mapping of flood-affected areas is an important application of satellite remote sensing

in flood management. In order to assess the extent of damage due to crop-loss, destruction of

infrastructure facilities etc., multi-date satellite imageries are used. Meteorological satellites

are useful for monitoring and forecasting cyclones. A Cyclone Warning Dissemination

System (CWDS) consisting of over two hundred

disaster warning receivers installed in cyclone prone areas of the country, provide warning to

coastal villages about an impending cyclone (the recent example being Phailin that struck

Odisha & Andhra Pradesh in October 2013).

 Monitoring and assessment of droughts is required to minimize the reduction in

agricultural productivity. Since Vegetation Index (VI) derived by satellite data is sensitive to

moisture stress, it is used to monitor drought conditions. National Agricultural Drought

Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS) is a developed establishment for drought

management.

Satellite data, aerial photographs and GIS techniques are used for terrain classification

and preparing maps showing landslide prone zone-formation.

Satellite imagery could be used in delineating neo-tectonic structures and to elucidate

seismo-tectonic conditions in earthquake-prone zones.

Satellite imagery in infra-red region and ground/aerial photographs has been

instrumental in mapping damaged-areas by forest fires.

Disaster management courses in India

It is found (fo r example, [email protected]) that there are about 2000

colleges which offer a course on disaster management topic in their MBA programme.

If these students are made aware of the role of SpaceTechnology in Disaster Management,

they can be harnessed and many of them grouped together to form volunteering-teams to assist

people during post-disaster events.

They can also be trained to assist as linkages between the paramilitary personnel and

the respective state-wise nodal agencies.

In other words, ISRO can also establish a Technology Management Group (TMG),

which can constantly evaluate the technologies developed within centers and their

relevance for Disaster Mitigation & Disaster Management activities.

 TMG should closely interact with State/ National level Disaster Management entities.

Conclusion

Constant developments in space technology have led to improved capabilities to

support disaster management.