The Department of Space utilizes satellite data to support various initiatives related to agriculture, water resources, and disaster management across India. Key activities include:
* **Agriculture:** Mapping of paddy crops, Kharif sown areas, weekly sowing/harvesting progress, and drought monitoring. Specific examples include detailed mapping exercises conducted for all 24 districts of Jharkhand.
* **Water Resources:** Groundwater prospect and quality mapping at a 1:50,000 scale under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) of the National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP), Ministry of Jal Shakti, along with training for approximately 150 state officers on utilizing these maps. Monitoring the water spread of over 8,368 waterbodies (larger than 1 ha) and wetland mapping at 1:50,000 (2017-18) and 1:12,500 (2018-19) scales was carried out for the 24 districts of Jharkhand. ISRO also provided eight geospatial layers for each of the 1240 Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) blocks and hosted them on the Bhuvan-JSA Geoportal, accompanied by approximately 50 technical sessions for JSA teams explaining map usage.
* **Disaster Management:** Provision of space-based products and services under the Disaster Management Support Programme (DMSP) to nodal Ministries/Departments and State Disaster Management Authorities, including those in Jharkhand. Specific activities include:
* Flood inundation mapping during major floods, provided to state nodal departments.
* Flood Hazard Zonation atlases, developed using historical satellite-derived flood data since 1998 for flood-prone states like Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh, disseminated to respective states.
* Operational spatial flood early warning systems (FLEWS) developed for the Godavari and Tapi Rivers (under the National Hydrology Project) and implemented in flood-affected districts of Assam (with plans for expansion in the North Eastern Region), with early warnings provided to state departments.
* A Landslide Atlas of India, comprising a geospatial landslide inventory database of 80,000 landslides mapped by NRSC ISRO between 1998-2022, covering vulnerable regions in 17 States and 2 Union Territories across the Himalaya and Western Ghats. The atlas has been provided to State departments.
* Daily (6-8 times) detection of active forest fires using satellite data, provided to the Forest Survey of India (FSI), MoEFCC, and concerned State Departments for forest fire management.
This information was provided by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, MoS Personnel, Public Grievances Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Key Entities Referenced
Department of Space: The Indian government department responsible for the Indian Space Programme.
Jharkhand: A state in eastern India where paddy crop mapping and wetland mapping were carried out.
Disaster Management Support Programme DMSP: A programme by the Department of Space providing space-based products and services for disaster management.
Assam: A flood-prone state in India for which flood hazard zonation atlases and flood early warning systems are being developed/implemented.
Bihar: A flood-prone state in India for which flood hazard zonation atlases were developed.
Uttar Pradesh: A flood-prone state in India for which flood hazard zonation atlases were developed.
National Hydrology Project: A project under which ISRO developed spatial flood early warning systems for Godavari and Tapi Rivers.
Jal Jeevan Mission JJM: A mission of Ministry of Jal Shakti, under which ISRODoS carried out groundwater prospects and quality mapping.
Department of Space
PARLIAMENT QUESTION: SATELLITE DATA FOR
AGRICULTURE, WATER RESOURCES AND
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Posted On: 21 AUG 2025 5:43PM by PIB Delhi
Paddy crop mapping, Kharif sown area, weekly sowing & harvesting progress, drought monitoring;
groundwater prospects, recharge plan and quality mapping at 1:50,000 scale; monitoring of water spread of
waterbodies of size greater than 1 ha (8,368 no.); mapping of wetlands at 1:50,000 scale (2017-18 time frame)
and at 1:12,500 scale (2018-19 time frame) were carried out for all 24 districts of Jharkhand.
Under the Disaster Management Support Programme (DMSP), Department of Space provides space-based
products/ services to respective nodal Ministries / Departments and concerned State Disaster Management
Authorities, including Jharkhand, for appropriate disaster management measures by them.
Specifically:
i. Flood inundation mapped during major floods every year using satellite data are provided to concerned
nodal departments of the States for effective flood disaster management.
ii. Flood Hazard Zonation atlases developed using historical satellite-derived flood data since 1998 for
several major flood-prone States, such as Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, and
Andhra Pradesh are disseminated to the respective States.
iii. ISRO developed Spatial flood early warning systems for Godavari and Tapi Rivers as part of the
National Hydrology Project are being run operationally by Ministry of Jal Shakti. Flood Early Warning
System (FLEWS) is implemented for the flood affected districts of Assam and is being extended to
other flood prone districts in the NER. Early warning from both these systems are provided to the
concerned State departments.
iv. Landslide Atlas of India comprising of geospatial landslide inventory database of ~80,000 landslides in
India are mapped by NRSC/ ISRO during 1998-2022 period. The database covers landslide vulnerable
regions in 17 States and 02 Union Territories of India, across the Himalaya and Western Ghats. This
atlas is provided to State departments for necessary utilisation.
v. Active forest fires are detected using satellite data daily 6 to 8 times during the Indian forest fire season,
every year. These inputs are provided to FSI/ MoEF&CC and to concerned State Departments for Forest
Fire Management measures.
ISRO/DoS has carried out groundwater prospects and quality mapping on 1:50,000 scale, for entire country
under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) of National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP), Ministry of Jal
Shakti. The final deliverable in the form of groundwater prospects maps have been provided to state line
department for identification of potential groundwater sources and sites suitable for artificial recharge structure.
ISRO/DoS has trained around 150 officers of state line departments in utilizing the groundwater prospects maps
for taking appropriate decision on the field.
ISRO provided eight geospatial layers each for 1240 Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) blocks and also hosted these on
ISRO’s Bhuvan-JSA Geoportal. The maps provided by ISRO helped JSA field teams for identifying sites for
various water conservation/ recharge interventions executed under JSA. About 50 technical sessions were
organized for the JSA teams by ISRO towards explaining the use of above maps.
This information was given by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Scienceand Technology, Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, MoS Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of
Atomic Energy and Department of Space, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.
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NKR/PSM
(Release ID: 2159242)