Two weeks short course on “Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Forestry and Ecology” was conducted by Forestry and Ecology Division (FED), NESAC during December 04 -15, 2023 at NESAC Outreach Facility. A total of 30 participants attended the course, which includes officials from Forest departments of NER, faculties from colleges and universities, research scholars and post graduate students. The inaugural programme started with the welcome address by Dr. Kasturi Chakraborty, Head, FED. An overview of course was briefed by Smt. H. Suchitra Devi, Course Director, Scientist/Engineer-‘SF’ followed by introduction of participants. Dr. K. K. Sarma, Group Head, Remote Sensing and Application Group welcomed and addressed the participants on the importance geospatial technology in various application of forest ecosystem such as forest management, forest working plan preparation etc. and utilization of the training in their professional carrier. Dr. S. P. Aggarwal, Director NESAC also interacted with the participants during the course and shared his insights and experience on use of RS and GIS in forestry and ecology applications.
The course curriculum includes fundamental concepts of remote sensing and GIS, GPS and hands-on training with remote sensing data and relevant software. The specific topics covered in the course are forest cover and density mapping, growing stock and biomass assessment, wildlife habitat evaluation, species distribution modelling, forest fire monitoring and burnt area assessment. A brief introduction to advance remote sensing applications such as UAV, hyperspectral and microwave remote sensing were imparted to the participants during the training. Dr. Sudhakar Reddy Chintala Head, Forest Biodiversity and Ecology Division, NRSC, ISRO was invited as resource person to deliver a talk on “Biodiversity Monitoring and Assessment Using Remote Sensing and GIS”.
To provide practical exposure on familiarization of the satellite images and their real world applications, a field visit to Sohra was conducted on December 9, 2023. Finally, five mini projects (group-wise) were carried out by participants and the themes of the projects were on Forest cover change analysis, conserving wildlife, forest fragmentation analysis and forest fire risk assessment. The results of the projects were presented by the lead member of each group. The valedictory program on December 15, 2023, marked the successful conclusion of the course, with certificates distributed to participants and acknowledging their completion of the training. The programme was concluded with vote of thanks offered by Dr. Dhruval Bhavsar, Course Officer, Scientist/Engineer-‘SC’.
