Monitoring Vegetation Cover using Interactive Visualisation and Geospatial Data Analysis

Vision

To leverage Geospatial data and technologies for monitoring and managing the planet’s green cover, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals for life on land (SDG 15) and climate action (SDG 13).

Objectives

y To enable interactive visualisation and geospatial analysis of multi-satellite, multi-sensor and multi-date EO data and data products pertaining to vegetation cover on a single platform. y To assist farm-level assessment of vegetation condition and crop growth using EO data.

Stakeholders Involved

Central and state government departments, research institutions, private sector companies, and start-ups working in the agriculture sector.

Solution and Implementation

The vegetation monitoring application continuously archives Vegetation indices, Soil Moisture, temperature, rainfall and many such parameters pertaining to vegetation growth, derived from Indian Remote Sensing Sat-

ellites (Resourcesat 2/2A and INSAT) and freely available foreign satellites (MODIS, SMAP, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-1, and ALOS).

The application facilitates interactive visualization and analytics on the web. The repository of multi-temporal (over 22 years) and multi-resolution (500 to 10 m) NDVI time series data is available on VEDAS. Capabilities to perform several image processing operations such as image differencing, temporal classification, Geospatial query, principal component analysis, temporal NDVI compositing and long-term statistics, have been provided.

The application also supports the presentation of data such as heat maps, temporal profiles, and Year-on-Year (YoY) comparisons. Zonal statistics at the district, taluka and village levels are also supported. Furthermore, the time series of vegetation indices derived using Sentinel-2 data enables farm-level assessment of vegetation condition and crop growth.

Use of Geospatial Technologies

The project uses an in-house developed raster analysis server, open-source image processing library (GDAL, RasterIO), spatial RDBMS (PostGreSQL/ PostGIS), web-GIS software (GeoServer), client-side GIS-based Javascript libraries (OpenLayers, VueJS) and Python. Key Outputs

A dedicated website is available at https://vedas.sac.gov.in/vegetation-monitoring/index.html. The data and APIs can be used to develop customised software development such as the dashboard for vegetation condition assessment.

Outcomes Achieved

The application is being used for providing inputs for Agro-met advisories by IMD. It complements the activities of Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare. The application has the potential to provide feedback for timely policy interventions for defining import-export policies, fixing MSP, and monitoring and evaluating irrigation programmes and canal command areas. Insurance companies can use it for claim settlement and risk assessment for crop insurance. The application can also be used for providing advisories to farmers for efficient agricultural management practices, precision agriculture, contract farming etc.

Contact Information

Name of Contact Person: Designation: Organization Name: Email: Telephone: Dr Nilesh M Desai

Director Space Application Centre, ISRO director@sac.isro.gov.in +91 79 26913401/02

Alignment with the IGIF Framework

S.no IGIF Strategic pathway Description and Remarks

SP4 Data This is a good example of value creation through data curation and delivery for a specific purpose.

SP9 Communication and Engagement The data and APIs can be used to develop customized software development such as the dashboard for vegetation condition assessment. Insurance companies utilize it for claim settlement and risk assessment for crop insurance. The application are used for providing advisories to farmers for efficient agricultural management practices, precision agriculture, contract farming etc.