GIS, GPS & Remote Sensing
Geographic information system (GIS)
● Geographical Information System, simply stated is a technology that deals with
information on geographical, that is locations or positions on the Earth.
● GIS is a computer-based system used to digitally represent and analyse the
geographical features and events taking place.
● GIS is a powerful tool for solving a real-world problem.
● It is also called a Geo-based information System.
● It is a technology and a concept to manage natural resources to improve
decision making.
● It deals with capturing or collecting the information first, followed by storing it
and then processing it to give the desired analysis or results.
● These results are finally transmitted to individuals and institutions who operate
with this GIS data.
● Since its evolution, this technology has played a critical role in spatial
(concerned with topography or land space) data infrastructure.
● G.I.S has following components
◊ Hard ware (computer)
◊ Software
◊ Data management
◊ End User and
◊ Methods
● It captures data in any form that has an element of geographical location to it,
like:
◊ Latitudes
◊ Longitudes
◊ Zip/Pin code
◊ Country codes like +91, +1, etc.
◊ Address
◊ Time Zones, etc.
Acceptable Data formats:
● It accepts data in both, hardware or physical format and software or digital
formats.
● Data Capture is the first step in processing the data in the GIS system.
● One of the most reliable sources for digital data is the satellite system.
● The technology accepts data in the following formats:
◊ Cartographic data - Data in map format containing information about rivers,
valleys, mountains, road networks, air routes, shipping routes.
o It can also include data in map format collected during surveys,
location tracking software systems.
o Maps that are collected in physical format are first scanned and
converted into digital format and then uploaded in the GIS system.
o Example - Google Maps, Google Earth, etc.
◊ Photographic or pictographic data - Data in photographs like aerial
photographs or digital photographs.
o Nowadays, drone technology is revolutionizing the system of aerial
photography.
o Photos of locations are one of the most important inputs in the GIS
system.
◊ Digital data - Data collected in physical forms can be easily converted to
digital formats today.
o Satellites information systems are of prime importance as far as
digital data is concerned.
o Data already in digital format are easy to capture, store and
process, along with being time-saving.
◊ Data in spreadsheets - Data in excel format or table or grid or cell formats
are also accepted in the GIS system.
o Spreadsheet data is generally generated during the analysis of
information like population demographics, internet browsing
preferences, online payments and purchases by individuals, etc.
Applications of the GIS:
● Weather forecast and Early Warning Systems - Needless to say, GIS has been
advanced the early warning systems of natural disasters and probable weather
phenomena like floods, cyclones, heavy rains.
● Agriculture and Irrigation systems - GIS can also help people dig deeper when it
comes to forecasting and predicting cropping intensities. seasons and use of
fertilizers creating Soil Health Cards, Vertical Farming, Permaculture,
Greenhouse effect farms, etc.
● Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals.
● Water resources conservation and management - Replenishment of groundwater
resources, categorization of 'water stressed' and 'water scarce' regions.
● Wildlife conservation and protection - Geo-tagging animals for reducing wildlife
trafficking, poaching, man-wild conflicts, dedicated corridors, etc.
4 Ms of GIS
The applications of GIS in this context have been referred to as the 4Ms:
◊ modelling
◊ mapping
◊ maintenance
◊ monitoring
Global Positioning System (GPS)
● It is a navigation system which tells about the location, speed and time and all three in
synchronicity.
● It is objective in nature as it identifies the exact location of a person, place, object or
anything that has a location element to it.
● Nowadays, GPS is almost an integral part of almost every electronic, automatic device
we use today like cars, mobile devices, smart watches.
GPS working in detail:
● The system first collects data through satellite communication through the ground
receiver.
● It is then passed through a set of procedural steps to synchronize the data with respect to
the time, location and speed.
● Extremely important for high speed rail, sea, land and air travel.
● For this purpose, a constellation of 24 satellites is required to cover the entire Earth.
● Every country has their own regional navigation system, along with some of the global
navigation systems.
● India's regional navigation system is called Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System
(IRNSS) or Navigation India Constellation (NavIC).
Components/Segments of GPS:
● Satellites:
o These transmit signals to the ground users on the spatial or geographical position
of the location along with the time of the day.
o This helps in easy synchronization of the received signal with respect to different
time zones, locations, latitudes and longitudes.
● Antenna or Ground Receivers:
o The system of ground receivers is a part of a larger system called the Control
Segment.
o This control segment consists of monitor stations, ground antenna and master
control stations.
o This entire system functions to operate, regulate, monitor and track the satellites
in space.
● User devices:
o These are devices or equipment that receive the signals directly on the devices.
o They may include smart watches, televisions, mobile devices, cars and other
automobiles, etc.
Structure of GPS
● The GPS system comprises three parts: Space segment, User segment and Control
segment.
Space segment:
● The satellites are the heart of the Global positioning system which helps to locate the
position by broadcasting the signal used by the receiver.
● The signals are blocked when they travel through buildings, mountains, and people. To
calculate the position, the signals of four satellites should be locked.
● It is required to keep moving around to get clear reception.
● In this step the GPS signal is detected first.
User segment:
● This segment includes military and civilian users.
● It comprises of a sensitive receiver which can detect signals (power of the signal to be less
than a quadrillionth power of a light bulb) and a computer to convert the data into useful
information and provide it as output to the user.
● GPS receiver helps to locate your own position but disallows you being tracked by someone
else.
Control segment:
● This helps the entire system to work efficiently. It is essential that the transmission signals
have to be updated and the satellites should be kept in their appropriate orbits.
The following table gives information regarding the Global Positioning
System.
Global Positioning System
a. For stationary objects minimum, 3 satellites are required.
b. For moving objects minimum, 4 satellites are required.
c. The position of the observer (moving person or vehicle) on the
Characteristics of ground is determined by an orbiting satellite
GPS d. Atomic clocks are fixed in satellites to calculate the
positioning of the satellite to aid in determining travel times.
e. Absolute positioning, where the accuracy of 1 cm to 5 cm is
needed, depends upon the health of the satellite.
a. Geodetic Control surveys
b. Cadastral surveys
c. Photogrammetry, Remote sensing and Surveying
d. Geographical Information systems (GIS)
e. Military applications
Applications of GPS
a. Navigation
b. Tracking
c. Bomb and missile guidance
d. Rescue
e. Map updation
NavIC:
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, with an operational name of NavIC, is an
autonomous regional satellite navigation system that provides accurate real-time positioning and
timing services. It covers India and a region extending 1,500 km around it, with plans for further
extension.
● It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as
the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.
● An Extended Service Area lies between the primary service area and the area enclosed by
the rectangle from Latitude 300 South to 500 North, Longitude 300 East to 1300 East.
● IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which
is provided to all the users, and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service
provided only to the authorized users.
● The IRNSS System is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the
primary service area.
Some applications of IRNSS are:
● Terrestrial, Aerial, and Marine Navigation
● Disaster Management
● Vehicle tracking and fleet management
● Integration with mobile phones
● Precise Timing
● Mapping and Geodetic data capture
● Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers
● Visual and voice navigation for drivers
Remote Sensing
It is the art and science of obtaining information about an object or feature without
physically coming in contact with that object.
● Aerial photographs and satellite images are obtained by remote sensing.
● Remote sensing plays an important role in activities such as estimation of
damage from natural disasters, the preparation of geographical maps, and for
various scientific studies.
● The use of remote sensing technology started in India in 1960.
● Professor Pisharoth Rama Pisharoty is known as the father of remote sensing in
India.
Advantages of remote sensing are:
● It provides seamless coverage of a wide expanse of territorial regions.
● It allows capturing images of objects in different spectral bands and different
wavelengths which are significant in the analysis of in-depth information about
the objects.
● The remote sensing satellites rotate over one particular region at regular
intervals.
● This allows repetitive coverage of a particular region like some water resources,
forestry, etc.
● The technology allows the collection and storage of information in different
scales and resolutions.
● It provides a wide variety of resolutions - spectral, spatial and radiometric.
● Active remote sensing can work even without sunlight and can provide
all-weather, unobstructed observation.
● False Colour Composite images can help in the effective classification of distinct
objects.
● It can reach out to otherwise inaccessible regions quite easily. It is therefore
highly effective in cases of forecasting of natural disasters, groundwater
mapping, etc.
● Easy and seamless surveys like spatial distribution of land resources and
land-use, forest, water resources and water use can be done with the help of
remote sensing.
● Has helped in improving interactive visual education of subjects like geography,
history, etc.
Disadvantages of remote sensing are:
● Skilled Professional required for interpretation of data.
● Objects can be misclassified.
● Atmospheric effect.
Types of remote sensing:
● Passive remote sensing:
◊ T
his type of remote sensing depends on the natural source of energy, the Sun.
◊ This type of remote sensing is possible only in regions where Sun's illumination is
available.
◊ Satellites that depend on the sun's energy cannot operate during the night when
there is no availability of the sun's light.
◊ Examples:
o Film photography
o Radiometers, etc.
● Active remote sensing:
◊ T
his type of remote sensing does not depend on the sun's energy or the sun's
electromagnetic spectrum.
◊ It creates its own electromagnetic spectrum using different modes.
o Back setting energy (energy that is reflected back from the object's surface).
o Detected by the remote sensor's receivers
o Energy is transmitted from the sensor towards the object's surface.
◊ This type of remote sensing is applied and used in the following technologies:
o RADAR - Radio Detection and Ranging:
▪ Uses long wavelengths' radio waves for remote sensing.
▪ Radio waves are sent to interact with the object's surface which is
reflected back (Back setting energy).
o LIDAR - Light Detection and Ranging:
▪ Uses light in place of radio waves for remote sensing.
o SONAR - Sound Navigation and Ranging:
▪ Uses sound waves as reflected back by the object's surfaces and
detected by the remote sensing detectors.
Limitations of remote sensing:
● Active remote sensing:
◊ Active remote sensing generates its own EMR.
◊ This may in turn interfere with the natural EMR spectrum and disrupt the operations
of other satellite systems that depend on the natural EMR for their investigations.
● Requires highly skilled workers:
◊ The entire process of remote sensing requires sound technical knowledge.
◊ This in turn requires highly trained and skilled personnel for managing the system.
● Fairly expensive:
◊ If remote sensing technology is installed for a particular region that is geographically
sparse, the entire system may seem a bit expensive.
◊ It may be a cost-effective system if installed for covering a wide expanse of
territorial regions or objects.
● Radioactive pollution:
◊ This is a cause of concern with most of the new age technologies today.
◊ The devices used are made of heavy, toxic chemicals.
◊ When these devices come in contact with radiations, they pose serious, sometimes
life-risking hazards to humans and wildlife.
● Disruption of marine biodiversity in particular:
◊ The SONAR technology involves the use of devices that use the technology
of echolocation.
◊ Quite a lot of aquatic species like blue whales, dolphins, etc. use echolocation.
◊ The echolocation signals generated by the SONAR system hinder the signals
generated by the animals.
● Technical and mathematical errors during detection:
◊ Committing errors during the detection of the objects or places may forward
erroneous information further.
◊ If objects are detected through the infrared rays, they may confuse the classification
of the objects by depicting objects in say colour blue instead of green.
◊ This may create classification errors for the objects captured by the sensors.
Types of resolution in remote sensing
● Resolution primarily implies the quality of the captured image. It is the total amount of pixels
that get captured for an image.
● In remote Sensing, there are three types of resolution that are supported.
◊ Spatial resolution
◊ Spectral resolution
◊ Radiometric resolution
Spatial resolution:
● It is akin to the resolution that increases with zooming and zooming out, just like we
generally do with our camera on our mobile devices.
● Just like we use spectacles to improve our resolving power, we use high spatial resolution
payloads on our remote sensing satellite systems.
Spectral resolution:
● This involves capturing images in different spectrums of the EMR.
● The images are obtained in different spectral bands.
● The natural physical phenomenon of 'dispersion of light' is the basic philosophy behind this
resolution.
Radiometric resolution:
● It is the ability of the sensor to distinguish between two objects as discrete targets.
● It distinguishes targets in different gray-scale values.
● It records even the slightest differences between the targets.
About visual interpretation of data in remote sensing:
● This process comes after the process of collection of data by the sensors.
● Visual interpretation is a manual exercise that involves the reading of images of objects for
their appropriate identification.
● This process involves a lot of hardware as well as software components.
● interpretation of data can be done using two different types of data products or images in
simple terms.
◊ Photographic image
◊ Digital image
Elements of visual interpretation of data in remote sensing:
● Tone - The tone or colours of the images are studied.
◊ They may be grayscale or black and white or colourful, belonging to the visible
spectrum.
◊ Changes in the tone or colour of the images depends on external factors like
incoming solar radiations, changing atmospheric phenomena, etc.
● Texture - The images of different terrain may show or depict differences in the smoothness
of the terrain or the structure, natural or man-made.
◊ The readings show even the slightest variations in the changes in the texture of the
structures of objects.
◊ For example, dense urban cities have a fine-grained texture.
● Size - The different sizes of different objects are reflected in the different resolutions of the
images.
◊ This may help in classifying large complexes.
● Shape - The form or the outline of objects play an important role in its interpretation of the
images of the objects.
◊ Shapes help in easily classifying and distinctively identifying different objects.
● Shadow - The shadow of the object is a function of the available sunlight and the height of
the object.
◊ This is, though, not much of importance for remote sensing.
● Pattern - This shows the spatial arrangements of a group of objects or structures.
◊ For example, drainage systems, agricultural land patterns, etc.
● Association - It helps in associating and identifying relations between the objects and
surroundings.
◊ It links the objects, their surroundings by indexing them to the nearby geographical
location.
◊ For example, a school or college might be easily associated with the location in or
near a residential area or nearby playground.
Electro-Magnetic Radiation Spectrum (EMR):
● Electromagnetic waves are a combination of electric as well as magnetic components of an
atomic particle.
● These waves move perpendicular to each other.
● The wavelength of a wave is inversely proportional to the frequency. Waves with short
wavelengths have high frequency.
● These waves are measured in terms of frequency, wavelength and energy depending on the
size of the waves and the purpose of measurements.
● The entire EMR is divided into seven regions.
◊ Gamma rays
◊ X-rays
◊ UV rays
◊ Visible spectrum
◊ Infrared waves
◊ Microwaves
◊ Radio waves.
Gamma rays:
● Shortest waves in the entire range.
● Generated from extremely hot objects that release huge amounts of energy.
● Neutron stars, pulsars, etc. create gamma rays.
● Wavelength - below 0.03 nanometres (nm); extremely high frequency.
X-rays:
● Produced from highly hot objects like the core of our Sun.
● Wavelength - 0.03 nm - 3 nm.
● These rays are used for detecting bone issues in medical and health care.
UV rays:
● Wavelength - 10 nm to 380 nm.
● They are classified as three types - UVA, UVB, UVC.
● UVC rays are the most harmful rays for humans but they get naturally absorbed by
the atmosphere and hence do not reach the Earth.
● It is the UVB rays which affect our skin causing tanning, skin burn, etc.
Visible spectrum:
● Wavelength - 400nm - 700 nm.
● This is the only region of EMR that can be perceived by the human eye.
● It is made of seven colours, that make the acronym VIBGYOR where,
▪ V - Violet (shortest of the visible range)
▪ I - Indigo
▪ B - Blue
▪ G - Green
▪ Y - Yellow
▪ O - Orange
▪ R - Red (longest wave)
Infrared spectrum:
▪ Wavelength - 700 nm to 1000 micrometre.
▪ They can be classified in the following ranges,
▪ Near-infrared
▪ Mid-infrared
▪ Far-infrared
Microwave spectrum:
▪ Wavelength - 1000 micrometre to 1 meter.
▪ These are long wavelength waves that are used for remote sensing
applications.
Radio waves region:
▪ Wavelength - longer than 1 meter.
▪ These were mostly used in the active remote sensing applications like
RADAR.
▪ Other uses - Telecommunication, astronomy.
Note :
Frequency Range
Type of Radiation Wavelength Range
(Hz)
Gamma-rays 1020 - 1024 < 10 - 12 m
x-rays 1017- 1020 1 nm - 1 pm
ultraviolet 1015 - 1017 400 nm - 1 nm
visible 4 × 1014 - 7.5 ×1014 750 nm - 400 nm
near-infrared 1 × 1014 - 4 × 1014 2.5 μm - 750 nm
infrared 1013 - 1014 25 μm - 2.5 μm
microwaves 3 × 1011- 1013 1 mm - 25 μm
radio waves < 3 × 1011 > 1 mm