MRSAC PROFILE
Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre
(Department of Planning, Govt. of Maharashtra)
VRCE Campus, South Ambazari Road, NAGPUR 440 011 (M.S.) INDIA
MAHARASHTRA
REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS CENTRE - MRSAC
Recognizing the potentials of remote sensing technology, scope and its applications in Maharashtra, the Government of Maharashtra established Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre (MRSAC) in September 1988 at Nagpur as an autonomous organisation under the Department of Planning, Govt. of Maharashtra. The set up of the centre is shown in the Chart. Today MRSAC is one of the well-established remote sensing applications centres.
With the full support of the Government of Maharashtra, MRSAC is recognised as premier institution to offer benefits of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to the mankind. With its existence for about 10 years, MRSAC has promoted technology to Academic Institutions and Government Departments. The application areas related to these departments include soil and water conservation, ground water potential, forest fire monitoring, forest stock mapping, crop acreage estimation, watershed development, coastal studies and urban development.
The Centre is aiming to achieve perseverance of the natural resources of the State by providing innovative and effective solutions to natural resources management problems. MRSAC is striving to make effective use of Remote Sensing and GIS technologies for achieving twin targets of meeting the demands of increasing human population and maintaining ecosystem balance.
OBJECTIVES
- To create awareness on the applications of remote sensing technology in diverse resources areas
- To ensure reliability of resources information system in appropriate formats for the state
- To develop approach for optimising resources utilization through integrated resources management.
- To identify, plan and evolve remote sensing needs for resources survey and management in the State, based on continuous dialogue and interaction with the user departments.
- To provide on the job training and education in the field of remote sensing applications.
- To establish remote sensing based ‘State Resources Information and Management System (SRIMS)’.
FACILITIES
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- Full fledged visual interpretation laboratory supporting cartographic facilities. The interpretation facilities include simple light tables, Large Format Optical enlarger,Procoms, High magnification Enlarger, Digital planimeters, Digital Curvimeters etc.
- A library with collections of reference books, periodicals and reports related to Natural Resources, Remote Sensing and GIS.
- State of the art computer facility.
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HP Apollo 9000/735 PA-RISC Workstation networked on Ethernet with HP7000-735 Envizex X-terminal and three VT-220 terminals is used for image processing, GIS and RDBMS related activities. Another series of workstations include Silicon Graphics O2 and Indy workstations, which are used mainly for computerisation of resources maps in GIS environment. Personal computers and workstations are linked together in LAN environment. |
SCIENTIFIC TEAM
Multidisciplinary team of scientists possessing expertise in various fields of applications such as earth sciences, physical sciences, agriculture and soils, forestry and ecology, cartography computers etc. form the core team of scientific staff. The team efforts applied by the MRSAC staff ensure quality and standards in information generation.
MRSAC ACTIVITIES
The satellite data products and resources related data pertaining to Maharashtra are archived at this centre for reference. These include satellite data coverage of the State once in five year, data products produced during the application projects, thematic maps containing resources information generated by MRSAC as well as other organisations relevant to Maharashtra State.
MRSAC conducts tailor-made programmes on the request of various personnel involved in resources planning and development. MRSAC also holds seminars and workshops for exchange of information on remote sensing technology and GIS application areas.
Popularisation of remote sensing technology is intended to generate awareness amongst potential users of the technology. MRSAC publishes pamphlets, reports, articles concerning remote sensing. Besides, MRSAC scientists deliver lectures to various organisations and academic institutions and encourage students and others to interact with MRSAC staff. Facilities are available for training students, academicians, planners, administrators and resources scientists with prime intention of encouraging research and developmental activity coupled with scientific planning of resources development and management.
Resources DataBase available at MRSAC can be considered as the valuable asset for Maharashtra State. During execution of various application projects, large quantity of spatial data has been generated. The data is archived as part of database management at MRSAC. The storage and retrieval are planned as per the administrative units. These maps are generated on two scales, namely, 1:250,000 and 1:50,000 scale. District-wise Resources Atlas prepared on 1:250,000 scale are already computerised which covers themes of geology, geomorphology, groundwater potential, surface water reservoirs, drainage, watershed, land use/ land cover, vegetation types and socio-economic situation for all districts of Maharashtra except Mumbai.
About 50% of Maharashtra is already mapped on 1:50,000 scales comprising themes of geomorphology, land use/land cover, soil, and watershed. MRSAC expects to complete mapping of all the themes for entire State on 1: 50,000 scale by the end of 1999.
MRSAC has
completed several application projects in various areas. The areas where remote
sensing and/or GIS technology has been used by MRSAC are as follows:
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Wasteland development planning |
Land use planning |
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Forest fire assessment |
Vegetation cover assessment |
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Catchment treatment studies |
Soil mapping |
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Mapping and assessment erosion prone areas |
Crop acreage estimation |
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Integrated natural resources survey |
Identification of salt pans |
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Surface water monitoring |
Analysis of earth quake affected areas |
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Hilly area development programmes |
Coastal studies |
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Wetland identification and mapping |
Forest stock mapping |
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Water resources assessment for minor irrigation projects etc. |
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Projects activities of MRSAC are not just restricted to the mapping of resources using remote sensing data, but also to offer solution to natural resources management and development needs through integrated analysis carried out using GIS.
MRSAC, as executive consultant, is participating in the prime mission of the Govt. of Maharashtra, disaster management programme and carrying out the task of creating a Disaster Management Information System (DMIS). The DMIS is envisaged to develop capacity to utilize remote sensing and other data for planning and Decision Making under the GIS environment.
INTEGRATED MISSION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - IMSD
MRSAC is an active participant in the IMSD, a National Project initiated by the Department of Space. The work is executed in selected blocks of 14 districts. The activities include mapping of watershed with an integrated analysis of resources in relation to socio-economic status for land and water development planning.
SRIMS - STATE RESOURCES INFORMATION AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
SRIMS activities aims at creating a sound database on the resources of the
State using GIS and RDBMS. In this context, the centre has taken up gigantic
task of computerisation of resources maps and non-spatial data of Maharashtra
State, covering an area of 308000 sq km. The thematic maps on Land use / land
cover, soil, geomorphology, geology, drainage, watershed, contour,
administrative boundaries are being generated and computerised in phased
manner.
To accomplish the above task,
technical documents have been generated related to creation and computerisation
of resources/thematic maps. Approaches mentioned in the documents aim to
achieve uniformity and high standards in the database generation.
DMIS - DISASTER MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
DMIS is one of the most prestigious and
challenging projects undertaken by MRSAC, the World Bank through Govt. of
Maharashtra supports the project. The project aims at creating Information
System, which contain all the data required for managing disaster situation.
DMIS will be a computerised information system containing spatial and
non-spatial data in GIS domain. The data will be made available to government
authorities at State, Division and District levels for the purpose of planning
and management of resources.
INSTITUTIONAL LINKAGES
MRSAC is closely working with Department
of Space organisations for various projects. Besides, various government
departments are users of database generated at MRSAC. At present more than 50
departments/authorities are using thematic maps generated by MRSAC for various
developmental purpose.
NEW INITIATIVES
Demonstration of applications of technology in various sectors has
drawn attention of user departments in the state. Prominent amongst them are
Department of Rural Development, Directorate of Land Records, Irrigation
Department, Police Department, and Public Works Department (PWD) etc.
Following are the major initiatives taken up by MRSAC for the
above departments:
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Road Information System for PWD
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Sugarcane Acreage Estimation for Krishna Valley Development
Corporation Ltd.
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Georeferencing of village Maps of the State for Directorate of
Land Records and Planning Department.
· Information System for Mumbai Police.
WHAT NEXT
The need for information system for developmental planning, action
plan implementation and monitoring is increasingly being felt by various
sectors. To meet the felt need conscientious efforts are being made by some
institutions to build databases, which is a prerequisite for any information
system. Building a database is a stupendous task demanding generation of
spatial and non-spatial data in appropriate format. However, maintenance, management,
utilization and creation of information system as per the purpose are tasks of
large magnitude.
In the information system creation, modern technologies like remote sensing and GIS have prominent role to play. With the advent of high-resolution satellite data in combination computer aided GIS, the capabilities are further enhanced for planning and decision making.
Mere generation of digital data is not adequate, unless, it is translated into useful information system. MRSAC will not be complacent with just creating digital database for the State, focused efforts will be focused towards effective utilization. Towards this, MRSAC will be devoting all its attention in developing user friendly information system for the sectoral planning and implementation, query shell development to address specific resources development and management issues, updation of data and development of trained man power for the utilization at the district level.