6 Google Earth; Bhuvan

Dr. Puneeta Pandey

CONTENTS

 

1.  Aim of the Module

 

2.  Google Earth

 

3.  Applications of Google Earth

 

4.  Bhuvan

 

5.  Applications of Bhuvan

 

6.  Conclusions

 

7.  References

 

 

1. Aim of the Module

 

The purpose of this chapter is:

  • To understand the portal Google Earth and its application.
  • To assess the role of Bhuvan and its contribution to solving various environmental issues in India.

On completion of this chapter, you would have got an overview of the Google Earth and Bhuvan platform and its applications in various disciplines of Environmental Sciences. You would be able to appreciate the visualization of these portals for general as well as user specific needs for finding solutions to environmental problems.

 

2. Google Earth

 

In simplest terms, Google Earth is a platform developed by means of computer programming that represents the two-dimensional (2D); and at certain places, three-dimensional (3D) view of the earth based on satellite images. It was originally developed by Keyhole, Inc. that was later acquired by Google and renamed as Google Earth in June, 2005. The earth as a whole is mapped by superimposition of data comprising of satellite images, aerial photography and geographic information system (GIS) onto a 3D globe using Keyhole Markup Language (KML).

 

 

3.  Applications of Google Earth

 

  1. Google Earth displays satellite images of varying resolution of the Earth’s surface in both 2D and 3D view. The resolution generally ranges from 15 cm to 15 metres. Although most of the places on Google Earth platform can be viewed only in 2D images; however, certain features such as buildings and terrain of a few places can also be observed in 3D view. For 3D view, Google Earth utilizes NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) that provides data in Digital Elevation Model (DEM).
  2. Besides visualization, Google Earth can also be used to search for places of interest or address besides browsing for a location.
  3.   Google Earth is also used for finding a location by entering the geographical coordinates, viz. latitude and longitude of a place.
  4. Google Earth also has a unique platform where people can add their own data which is made available through various sources such as Bulletin Board Systems (BBS).
  1. Bhuvan

 

Bhuvan is a Geo-portal of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that was started in 2009. It provides data pertaining to Earth observation, GIS functionalities, remote sensing as well as visualization services to users in public domain for varied applications. It is available in 4 Indian languages- English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. More than 6000 GIS map and services such as crowd sourcing services are currently being offered by Bhuvan portal which are freely available on the internet for users. Besides, Government agencies use this platform to share and host their data as per their requirements.

 

Some of the States using Bhuvan platform for specific applications is Punjab, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and North Eastern states. These are specific joint initiatives that address specific thematic applications in Forestry, Tourism, Municipal GIS, Geo-tagging etc. thus paving the way for becoming national assets. To facilitate similar such activities across the country, Bhuvan presently hosts 30 state geo-portals, which is bound to expand further. Figure 2 represents the Bhuvan portal for the state of Punjab.

 

Figure 2: State Portal – Bhuvan-Punjab

Bhuvan acts as a clearinghouse for satellite data that can be downloaded by users from NRSC Open EO Data Archive for research activities. The data products include scientific products generated by studying land, ocean and atmosphere under National Information System for Climate and Environmental Studies (NICES).

 

  1. Applications of Bhuvan

Some of the applications of Bhuvan are described briefly below:

 

5.1 Agriculture

 

5.1.1 Plantation

 

Geospatial technology has been used for inventory of tea plantations in Assam and West Bengal; and rubber plantation besides potential wastelands for expanding area under rubber in the North-Eastern states, especially Tripura. Other applications include Horticulture area mapping for Mango, Banana and Citrus fruits.

 

5.1.2 Geo-tagging of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)

 

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) scheme pertained to over 12000 projects involved in creation of infrastructure and assets for achieving growth in agriculture and allied sectors. Geotagging initiative was taken up to precisely locate RKVY assets through Bhuvan Geoportal using an android app; thus, aiding in visualizing asset spread.

 

5.1.3 Agriculture Pest/Disease Surveillance

 

It is an initiative by NRSC (National Remote Sensing Centre) / ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) where Geo-ICT (Geospatial Information & Communication Technology) application was developed, viz., ‘Agriculture Pest/Disease Surveillance : Collaborative Portal on Bhuvan’, was created using various open source tools like Open layers, PHP, Geoserver and Mapserver; that allowed users to share, access and upload the pests and disease related information in a near real time basis on Bhuvan portal.

 

5.2 Forestry: Bhuvan services are actively utilized for various forestry services, an example being ENVIS program of Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change which is actively using Bhuvan services.

 

Figure 3: Centralised Resource Inventory System – CRIS

(http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/governance/moef_cris/)

 

The applications of geospatial technology in the field of forestry include:

 

5.2.1 Fire Management: This includes identification of fire sites, spread of fire and means to model and control forest fires.

 

5.2.2 Change Monitoring: Changes brought about in natural forest cover whether by natural or anthropogenic factors help estimate the area under forests.

 

5.2.3 Wildlife: Since forests provide habitat to wildlife, maintenance of forests plays a crucial role in wildlife management.

 

5.2.4 Cadastral Forest Maps: These maps were prepared for the state of Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

 

5.3 E-Governance: Bhuvan Panchayats is a web portal that facilitates decentralised planning at grassroot level by incorporating both spatial and non-spatial data. Bhuvan provides a platform for digital empowerment of Society for Panchayat level Planning and Governance by means of Space Based Information Support for Decentralized Planning (SISDP). It utilizes IRS satellite images, administrative boundaries, thematic data such as drainage, Land use land cover and slope; as well as assets mapped by citizens. The portal also provides the detailed information regarding household amenities data and Census Population data at district and village level respectively..

Figure 4: Bhuvan Panchayat (http://bhuvan-panchayat.nrsc.gov.in/)

 

5.4 Water Resource Management: Bhuvan acts as a platform for management of water resources nationwide by providing more than 20 ministry portals and 30 state portals; besides active support for flagship programmes of the government such as Integrated Watershed Development Program (Srishti-Drishti) and National Mission for Clean Ganga.

 

5.4.1 Water Resource Management in Maharashtra: NRSC, ISRO and WRD, Maharashtra has initiated efforts for management of water resources and monitoring of Irrigation Projects in Maharashtra by utilizing information services through Bhuvan.

Figure 5: Water Resource Management Support: Maharashtra

(http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/governance/MH_wrds)

5.4.2 SatAIBP: Satellite based Monitoring of Irrigation Projects

 

Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP) was launched in 1996-97 by Government of India to implement irrigation projects in States, monitoring of which had to be carried out periodically by Central Water Commission (CWC). Satellite data of high resolution, viz. Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2 is used for inventory of canal network and other infrastructure pertaining to irrigation by NRSC, ISRO. Initially, 103 projects (Phase I-53 and Phase II-50) were undertaken by NRSC which was later extended to 150 projects by CWC using satellite data and online monitoring through ISRO-Bhuvan web services.

 

Figure 6: Satellite based Monitoring of Irrigation Projects

(http://bhuvan3.nrsc.gov.in/applications/aibp/aibphome/aibp.html)

5.4.3 Water Body Information System (WBIS)

 

NRSC monitors the status of about 2 lakh water bodies in India having an area of 2 ha or more in size using multi-resolution satellite images since January 2012. The area of water spread is estimated based on this monitoring and is published as WBIS. Thus, WBIS provides information spatio-temporal information and visualization of water spread, thus, aiding in identifying potential water bodies for various applications such as fisheries etc. Country wide ground water maps, with state-wise access to the online services for drinking water and recharge structures are also provided by Bhuvan. The tool “Bhuvan Ganga” is now available on public domain for people to participate in providing vital information for Clean Ganga project.

Figure 7: Bhuvan Ganga

5.5 Tourism

 

5.5.1 Tourism-GIS: Tourism Web GIS through Bhuvan facilitates the users to search and select the sites of tourism along with routing.

 

5.5.2 Archaeology: Archaeological Survey of India has prepared database of heritage sites and monuments of all the states and was hosted on geospatial platform by National database for Ministry of Culture & Archaeological Survey of India.

 

5.6 Urban Studies

 

5.6.1 Urban Information System: This involves thematic services that facilitate the users to select, browse and query the Thematic Datasets from this portal and integrate into their systems as OGC Web Services. With administrative and hydrologic base for the country, Bhuvan provides high resolution satellite data (about 1m) for more than 350 cities which is continuously updated for database generation.

 

5.6.2 Municipal GIS: Municipal GIS in Bhuvan projects facilitates citizens to know about the wards and facilities available, various schemes executed by the government, grievances redressal system besides facilitating administrators/planners to have a one stop online planning tools towards better governance. The figure 8 shows Municipal GIS portal for Ludhiana, Punjab.

 

5.6.3 Urban Growth: Bhuvan provides a platform for monitoring urban growth pattern of various cities of India using Multi temporal and multispectral satellite data. For example, the urban growth pattern of the city of Bathinda based on datasets of 1991, 1999, 2009 and 2014 is described below in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Monitoring of urban growth (http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/urban/sprawl/urbangrowth.php)

Another example is Geo-tagging and controlled crowd sourcing application for Andhra Pradesh (AP) Housing Corporation Ltd., which has enabled geo-tagging of 3.8 million houses in AP with field photos and important attributes of housing in AP.

Figure 10: 3D View of Built-up area – Hyderabad City

(http://www.isro.gov.in/isros-geo-portal-bhuvan-gateway-to-indian-earth-observation)

Application on 3D city models / views with extrusions of the buildings and virtual city models would be a useful tool for Smart City program of the Government.

 

5.7 Watershed Management

 

Management of watershed nationwide is an integral aspect of planning programme of Government of India (GoI). One of these flagship programmes is Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) with the objective of restoring the ecological balance of natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water. The outcomes are prevention of soil run-off, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharging of the ground water table.

 

A web-based GIS portal enabling the monitoring and evaluation of IWMP watersheds, using satellite remote sensing, field data and mobile smart phone applications is known as Bhuvan IWMP-SRISHTI. This application enables National, State, District and watershed level access for information and report generation

 

The micro-watersheds in IWMP have been given below in Figure 11:

 

5.8 Disaster Management

 

Bhuvan supports management of disasters like Cyclone, Floods, Landslides, Earthquakes, Forest Fire and Drought. Examples include Uttarakhand disaster in 2013, J&K floods and Hudhud Cyclone in 2014 and Nepal Earthquake in 2015. Another example is landslide forewarning system which provides rain induced landslide warning for major pilgrimage routes in Uttarakhand hills.

 

 

6. Conclusions

 

At the end of this module, you would have been able to gain an understanding of geospatial portals-Google Earth and Bhuvan. While Google Earth is mainly used for the purpose of visualization and geo-location based on geographical coordinates; Bhuvan also acts as a warehouse of geospatial data besides visualization. These portals can be applied for providing solution to general as well as user specific environmental problems.

  1. References
  • http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/bhuvan_links.php# http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/governance/rkvy/http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/governance/moef_cris/ http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/gis/thematic/index.php http://bhuvan-panchayat.nrsc.gov.in/
  • http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/governance/MH_wrds
  • http://bhuvan3.nrsc.gov.in/applications/aibp/aibphome/aibp.html http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/urban/municipalgis/municipal.php
  • http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/urban/sprawl/urbangrowth.php
  •  http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/projects/iwmp/index.php?type=citizen https://data.gov.in/catalog/bhuvan-geoportal-nrscisro
  • https://google-earth.en.softonic.com/
  • http://www.isro.gov.in/isros-geo-portal-bhuvan-gateway-to-indian-earth-observation http://www.epic.noaa.gov/talks/nns/forums/google.html