Chapter 1

Overview of Geospatial Technologies

for Land and Water Resources
Management

Ashish Pandey, Gagandeep Singh, V. M. Chowdary, Mukunda Dev Behera,

A. Jaya Prakash, and V. P. Singh

Abstract Land and water resources management are essential for the future sustain-
ability of the environment. The studies on land and water resources require basic
geo-referenced data, such as land use-land cover (LULC), soil maps, and digital
elevation models (DEMs) for capturing the spatio-temporal variations of thematic
layers. These data can be easily obtained from remote sensing images and limited
ground truth. Hydro-meteorological data, such as precipitation, air, land surface
temperature, solar radiation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, river and lakes water
levels, river discharge, and terrestrial water storage, can also be derived from remote
sensing as well as from point-based ground instruments. Then, studies can be carried
out at various spatio-temporal scales.

1.1 Introduction to Geospatial Technology

Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Global Positioning

System (GPS) form a revolutionary combination often referred to as Geospatial
Technologies. Geospatial Technologies is the most powerful and transformational
modern-day technologies used extensively to address real-time problems on the

A. Pandey (B) · G. Singh

Department of Water Resources Development and Management, Indian Institute of Technology
Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247 667, India
e-mail: ashish.pandey@wr.iitr.ac.in
V. M. Chowdary
Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC), Department of Agriculture,
Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of
India, New Delhi, India
M. D. Behera · A. J. Prakash
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India
V. P. Singh
Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering and Zachry Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2117, USA

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 1

A. Pandey et al. (eds.), Geospatial Technologies for Land and Water Resources
Management, Water Science and Technology Library 103,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90479-1_1
2 A. Pandey et al.

earth’s surface. The conjunctive use of remote sensing and GIS has proved to be
highly effective to analyze diverse phenomena on the earth’s surface (Davis et al.
1991; Lo et al. 1997; Huggel et al. 2003; Kaab et al. 2005; Pandey et al. 2007; Patel
and Srivastava, 2013; Calera et al. 2017; Chae et al. 2017; Borrelli et al. 2017). The
capability of satellites and sensors for earth observations through numerous spectral
bands has enhanced the umbrella of applications manifold. Analysis of land and water
resources using vast volumes of data demands a robust database management system.
GIS serves as a perfect platform for storing, managing, and analyzing voluminous
spatial and non-spatial data (Chang 2008). It provides a robust computing environ-
ment and platform for re-scaling models and supports handling complex data-method
relationships (Pandey et al. 2016b). Groot (1989) defined geospatial technology or
geoinformatics as “the science and technology dealing with the structure and char-
acter of spatial information, its capture, its classification and qualification, its storage,
processing, portrayal, and dissemination, including the infrastructure necessary to
secure optimal use of this information.” Various applications of this technology can
be broadly categorized into two significant domains, namely land resources and water
resources. These two domains cover many applications in natural resources manage-
ment, where geospatial technology serves as a very effective decision-making tool
in these applications. This technology is being extensively used for effective and
sustainable planning, management, and development of natural resources (Verbyla
1995).
Land resources form the core of sustainable existence and development in critical
challenges, like agriculture, food production, poverty, and climate change impacts
(Muller and Munroe 2014). Issues like improving agricultural production, soil
conservation, deforestation, land degradation, and climate change require repeated
observations of the nature, extent, and spatial variations of the earth surface with a
high spatial resolution (Buchanan et al. 2008; Pandey et al. 2011; Yang et al. 2013;
Calvao and Pessoa 2015; Huang et al. 2018; Pandey and Palmate 2018; Pandey
et al. 2021a). Rapid geospatial technology advancements have revolutionized land
resources mapping, monitoring, and management (Velmurugan and Carlos 2009).
This technology also facilitates the generation of time-series databases enabling the
scientists and researchers to derive meaningful results, recommendations, and action
plans for the decision-makers at various implementation levels.
Water, the most precious natural resource, experiences immense pressure due to
overexploitation to satisfy the ever-growing population’s needs (Wang et al. 2021).
Moreover, factors like urbanization, globalization, infrastructural developments, and
climate change have posed a massive threat to the limited freshwater resources avail-
able on earth (Chapagain and Hoekstra 2008; Giacomoni et al. 2013; Nair et al.
2013). Geospatial technology plays an instrumental role in analyzing, modeling,
and simulating water quality, water availability, water supply management, floods,
and droughts under various climate change scenarios. There are numerous appli-
cations of this technology addressing sustainable water resources management viz.
assessment of groundwater recharge potential; integrated watershed management
and development (Pandey et al. 2004); design flood estimation (Sharma et al. 2021);
1 Overview of Geospatial Technologies for Land and Water … 3

flood modeling (Patro et al. 2009); flood inundation and hazard mapping (Singh and
Pandey 2021); sediment dynamic modeling (Pandey et al. 2016b).
Remote sensing forms the most integral component of the geospatial technology
serving the purpose of a data source. Remote sensing has a unique capability of
observing the earth’s surface in numerous spectral bands covering different wave-
length ranges (Lillesand et al. 2015). Optical remote sensing uses visible, near-
infrared, and short-wave infrared sensors to form images of the earth’s surface by
detecting the solar radiation reflected from targets on the ground (Lillesand et al.
2015). Different materials reflect and absorb differently at different wavelengths.
Thus, the targets can be differentiated by their spectral reflectance signatures in
remotely sensed images.
There are few open source satellites that provide solutions to geospatial technolo-
gies with easier access to the user. Remote sensing satellite sensors gather information
from space and generate a large number of datasets that are difficult to manage and
analyze using software packages or applications that may require significant time
and labor. The cloud computing systems, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and
Google Earth Engine (GEE), have been developed to address this issue. Although
cloud computing platforms and other emerging technologies have demonstrated their
significant potential for monitoring land and water resources management, they have
not been appropriately examined and deployed for RS applications until recently.
Users can access various data sets on those platforms without having to download
anything. Both GEE and AWS offer similar features, such as automatic parallel
processing and a fast computational platform for successfully dealing with substantial
data processing or time-series analysis in a quick interval.

1.2 Cutting Edge—Techniques and Applications

of Geospatial Technologies in Land and Water
Resources Management

Various types of geospatial technologies have been made accessible to end users in
recent years for use in a variety of applications in land and water and other emerging
applications.
1. Remote Sensing—High-resolution satellite imagery is acquired from space
using a camera or sensor platforms mounted to the spacecraft. There were fewer
high-resolution satellite images with centimeter resolution accuracy needed for
monitoring in many applications, to meet human requirements and study the
earth’s climate.
2. Geographic Information Systems (GIS)—An application or software package
for analyzing or mapping satellite data and performing additional operations,
such as geo-referencing and geocoding, if the particular location of the earth’s
surface is known. The model can then be used to do various analyses through
the use of different techniques.
4 A. Pandey et al.

3. Global Positioning System (GPS)—The discipline of earth monitoring has

grown significantly in recent years. It has three basic components: the space
segment, the control segment, and the user segment. It is a cutting edge tech-
nology capable of providing greater accuracy, less than a millimeter or meter.
In the application to land and water resources, the most important requirement
is to gather the geographical coordinates of any object present on the earth’s
surface and gain information from the object features with geographical data,
which was acquired in real time and directly from the field at a reasonable cost.
4. Internet Mapping Technologies—Cloud computing platforms, such as Google
Earth Engine, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Amazon Web Services, as well as other
web features, are gradually improving how geographical data is analyzed and
disseminated. With the availability of many modern technologies to users and
other agencies, began analyzing data for satellite photos without prior experience
or any pre-processing processes. By comparison, traditional GIS procedures are
limited to highly skilled individuals for analyzing satellite data and mapping
data for a variety of applications. As a result, internet mapping offers more
opportunities to users who are willing to invest efforts in complex algorithms.
There are numerous uses for land and water resources, such as rainfall, land cover,
snow cover extent, surface water extent, soil moisture, and hydrological cycle. All of
these application parameters are quantified using various approaches including satel-
lite data. Surface water bodies can be identified using remote sensing techniques;
meteorological variables, such as temperature and precipitation can be estimated;
hydrological state variables, such as soil moisture and land surface features can be
estimated; and fluxes, such as evapotranspiration can be estimated. Availability of
different sensors which directly gather information from land water bodies provides
significant information in modeling algorithms. Moreover, it can be applied to crop
inventory and forecasts; drought and flood damage assessment; and land use moni-
toring and management. Today, India is one of the major providers of earth obser-
vation data in the world in a variety of spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions,
meeting the needs of many applications of relevance to national development.
Based on multiple spectral bands used in the imaging process, optical remote
sensing systems are categorized into three basic groups viz. panchromatic (single
band), multispectral and hyperspectral systems. Table 1.1 offers many Indian and
global panchromatic and multispectral satellite data products extensively utilized to
address land and water resources management challenges. Table 1.2 shows a list of
hyperspectral satellite data products.
Microwave remote sensing is very popular in the research community to map
and monitor water resources primarily because of the capability of microwaves
to accurately detect water (Ulaby 1977; Engman 1991) due to its all-weather
ability. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been one of the most prominently used
microwave remote sensing data products to address water-related applications. Table
1.3 presents a list of SAR and other satellite data products available in the microwave
region of the electromagnetic spectrum (Brisco et al. 2013; Singh and Pandey 2021).
1 Overview of Geospatial Technologies for Land and Water … 5

Table 1.1 List of optical remote sensing (panchromatic and multispectral) data products
S. Satellite mission Sensor Spatial Temporal Manufacturer Data available
No. resolution resolution from
(m)
1 Cartosat-3 Pan 0.28 5 days ISRO 15-Feb-2020
revisit
2 Cartosat-3 MX 1.12 4/5 days ISRO 15-Feb-2020
3 Cartosat-2 Pan 0.65 4/5 days ISRO 01-Aug-2016
series
4 Cartosat-2 MX 1.6 4/5 days ISRO 01-Aug-2016
series
5 Cartosat-2B PAN 1 4/5 days ISRO 13-Jul-2010
6 Cartosat-2A PAN 1 4/5 days ISRO 29-Apr-2008
7 Cartosat-2 PAN 1 4 days ISRO 14-Apr-2007
8 Cartosat-1 PAN-F 2.5 5 days ISRO 08-May-2005
to
31-Jan-2019
9 Cartosat-1 PAN-A 2.5 5 days ISRO 08-May-2005
to
31-Jan-2019
10 Cartosat-1 Stereo 2.5 5 days ISRO 08-May-2005
to
31-Jan-2019
11 Cartosat-1 Widemono 2.5 5 days ISRO 27-May-2005
to
31-Jan-2019
12 Resourcesat-2A AWIFS 56 2–3 days ISRO 06-Jan-2017
13 Resourcesat-2A Liss-3 23.5 12–13 days ISRO 06-Jan-2017
14 Resourcesat-2A Liss-4-FMX 5.8 25–26 days ISRO 06-Jan-2017
15 Resourcesat-2A Liss-4-SMX 5.8 2–3 days ISRO 15-Dec-2016
to
17-May-2017
16 Resourcesat-2 AWiFS 56 2–3 days ISRO 30-Sep-2011
17 Resourcesat-2 Liss-3 23.5 2–3 days ISRO 30-Sep-2011
18 Resourcesat-2 Liss-4-FMX 5.8 2–3 days ISRO 30-Sep-2011
19 Resourcesat-2 Liss-4-SMX 5.8 2–3 days ISRO 28-Sep-2017
20 Resourcesat-1 AWiFS 56 5 days ISRO 07-Dec-2003
21 Resourcesat-1 Liss-3 23.5 5 days ISRO 07-Dec-2003
22 Resourcesat-1 Liss4-SMX 5.8 5 days ISRO 11-Dec-2003
23 Oceansat-2 OCM 360 2 days ISRO 01-Jan-2010
24 Landsat 7 ETM+ 30 16-day NASA/USGS 1999 to
present
25 Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS 30 16-day NASA/USGS 2013 to
present
(continued)
6 A. Pandey et al.

Table 1.1 (continued)

S. Satellite mission Sensor Spatial Temporal Manufacturer Data available
No. resolution resolution from
(m)
26 Sentinel-2A and MSI 10, 20, 60 10 and ESA 2015 to
2B 5 days present
Dataset source for downloading, Cartosat series: https://bhoonidhi.nrsc.gov.in/ Resourcesat series:
https://bhoonidhi.nrsc.gov.in/ and https://glovis.usgs.gov/ Landsat series: https://earthexplorer.
usgs.gov/ Sentinel Series: https://scihub.copernicus.eu/

Table 1.2 List of optical remote sensing (hyperspectral) data products

S. No. Satellite Sensor type Resolution Organization
Spectral (nm) Temporal (day)
1 EO-1 Hyperion 10 16–30 NASA
2 Shenzhou-8 Tiangong-1 10 (VNIR) – Chinese academy
hyperspectral 23 (SWIR) of science physics
imager (HSI)
3 PRISMA PRISMA 10 14–7 Agenzia Spaziale
Italiana
4 HISUI HISUI 30 2–60 Japanese ministry
of economy, trade,
and industry
5 EnMAP HSI EnMAP 30 27 (VZA ≥ 5°) GFZ-DLR
6 SHALOM Improved 10 4 (VZA ≥ 30°) ASI-ISA
multi-purpose
satellite-II
7 HyspIRI HyspIRI 30 (60) 5–16 JPL-NASA
Dataset source for downloading, S. No. 1—http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ 2—http://www.
msadc.cn/sy/ 3—http://prisma-i.it/index.php/en/ 4—https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/hico/
5—https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/catalog/proba-chris-level-1a 6—https://www.nrsc.gov.in/EOP_
irsdata_Products_Hyperspectral

1.3 Methodology Development in Land Resources

Management

Geospatial technologies play a pivotal role in monitoring and managing land

resources. One of the most widely exploited applications is Digital Terrain Modeling
(DTM), which characterizes the topography of any area using digital elevation models
(DEMs) (Zhou et al. 2007). DEM products of different spatial resolutions are exten-
sively used for topographic mapping, relief mapping, and terrain analysis (Yang
et al. 2011). They also serve as a preliminary input in various hydrological studies
(Nagaveni et al. 2019; Himanshu et al. 2015). A list of several DEM products available
for use is presented in Table 1.4.
1 Overview of Geospatial Technologies for Land and Water … 7

Table 1.3 List of microwave remote sensing data products

S. No. Satellite Sensor Resolution Data available Organization
from
1 Risat-1 FRS 1 3m 01-Jul-2012 to ISRO
C-band SAR 30-Sep-2016
2 Oscar Ku-band 50 km 09-Feb-2010 to AMSAT
25 km 01-Mar-2014
3 Scatsat-1 Ku-band 50 km 26-May-2017 ISRO
scatterometer 25 km onwards
Release of
SCATSAT-1
V1.1.4 data
products
4 SARAL Ka-band radar – 01-Nov-2014 CNES, ISRO
altimeter onwards
5 Sentinel-1 SAR 10 m ESA
C-band (center
frequency:
5.405 GHz)
6 TerraSAR-X X HR (5–20 m) 2007 onwards ISC Kosmotras
VHR (0–5 m)
7 Radarsat-2 C 3–300 m 2007 onwards MDA
8 ALOS-2 L 10 m 2014 onwards JAXA
Dataset source for downloading, S. No. 1–4 https://bhoonidhi.nrsc.gov.in/ 5—https://scihub.cop
ernicus.eu/ 6—https://earth.esa.int/ 7—https://tpm-ds.eo.esa.int/oads/access/collection/Radarsat-2
8—https://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/alos2/index_j.html

Table 1.4 List of DEM data products

S. No. Product Spatial resolution Developing agency Accuracy
(m)
1 SRTM (shuttle radar 30, 90 NASA RMSE ∼10 m
topographic mission)
2 CartoSAT 30 ISRO Approx. 8 m
3 ASTER GDEM 30 NASA, METI RMSE 2–3 m
4 ALOS PALSAR 12.5 and 30 JAXA and Japan RMSE of 4.6 m and
resources 4.9 m
observation system
organization
(JAROS)
5 ESA—ACE-2 90, 270, 1 and 10 ESA Extremely high
Dataset source for downloading, S. No. 1—https://dwtkns.com/srtm30m/ 2—https://search.earthd
ata.nasa.gov/search 3—https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search 4—https://search.asf.alaska.edu/#/
5—https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/dedc-ace-v2/data-download
8 A. Pandey et al.

DEMs are processed and analyzed in a GIS environment to derive numerous

indices, which enable understanding various environmental processes (Gajbhiye et al.
2015; Rao et al. 2019). Additionally, DEMs are also extensively used in morphome-
tric characterization of watersheds (Wang et al. 2010). Parameters like slope, aspect,
contours, curvature are effectively derived from the DEMs (Gajbhiye et al. 2014).
Soil resources mapping is another major application under the gamut of land
resources management powered by geospatial technologies. The satellite image
interpretation and image classification techniques are employed to identify and map
different land uses and vegetation types (Robertson and King 2011). Remote sensing
and GIS are effectively used for crop mapping, inventory, and management (Wardlow
et al. 2007). This domain features serve many purposes, such as crop acreage estima-
tion, condition assessment, yield forecasting, cropping system analysis, and precision
farming. Crop type mapping, acreage, and condition assessment are mainly carried
out using image interpretation and digital image processing, wherein the spectral
response of crop types is analyzed. The variations in the signatures of different
wavelength bands help with discrimination among additional features (Foerster et al.
2012).
Additionally, image classification supported with ground truth information helps
generate land use maps spatially. Medium and high-resolution time-series satellite
data are beneficial for discriminating and monitoring various crops periodically.
Assessment and monitoring of droughts are one of the most critical food security
issues of concern globally (Swain et al. 2021). Significantly, agrarian countries are
primarily dependent on their agricultural production, which is a significant economic
driver. Climate change and water availability pose a substantial threat to the world’s
agricultural sector (Tarquis et al. 2010).
Geospatial technology has extensive scope for drought monitoring and assess-
ment. Satellite remote sensing enables the monitoring of crops at various growth
stages. Additionally, remote sensing data is used to compute spectral indices such
as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water
index (NDWI), which provide essential inputs for drought assessment and monitoring
(Pandey et al. 2010).
Soil erosion is a serious problem that poses a threat to agricultural land and infras-
tructure globally. One of the most popular methods used for soil erosion assessment
and soil loss estimation is the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) (Pandey et al.
2009b). This method involves the computation of rainfall erosivity factor (R), soil
erodibility factor (K), topographic factor (LS), crop management factor (C), and
conservation supporting practice factor (P). GIS provides a platform to prepare and
analyze the spatial layers of each of these factors to estimate the average annual
soil loss rate (Dabral et al. 2008). Subsequently, researchers across the globe have
employed the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to assess the soil loss
status (Pandey et al. 2021b).
Land use/land cover data is a standard input used in sediment yield modeling
(Pandey et al. 2007, 2009a, b). Satellite data is being very efficiently used in reservoir
1 Overview of Geospatial Technologies for Land and Water … 9

sedimentation assessment studies (Pandey et al. 2016a). The change in water spread
area is assessed using satellite image processing at different times using indices like
NDVI and NDWI, and deposition of sediments is evaluated. Consequently, loss in
the live storage of reservoirs due to sedimentation is estimated (Jain et al. 2002).

1.4 Methodology Development in Water Resources

Management

Water resources can be undoubtedly argued to be the most benefitted domain from
the advent of geospatial technologies. These advanced technologies play a key role
in conducting hydrological studies for rainfall estimation, soil moisture estima-
tion and modeling, streamflow estimation, rainfall-runoff modeling, rainfall fore-
casting, water balance modeling, hydrological modeling, hydraulic and hydrody-
namic modeling (Milewski et al. 2009; Singh et al. 2015, 2019; Himanshu et al.
2017, 2021; Jaiswal et al. 2020). Application of remote sensing and GIS in water
resources also extends in identifying suitable sites for soil and water conservation
structures, sediment yield modeling, reservoir sedimentation, watershed characteri-
zation, and management plan (Pandey et al. 2011; Pandey et al. 2016b; Dayal et al.
2021).
Satellite data for rainfall estimation has been one of the most popular applications,
especially in the data-scarce regions or lack of adequate ground-based instrumen-
tation for measuring rainfall. Numerous operational satellite-based rainfall products
provide rainfall estimates at various spatial and temporal resolutions (Table 1.5).
Numerous studies have been carried out to evaluate the performance of these data
products before and after bias correction and were used in many hydrological studies
(Behrangi et al. 2011; Himanshu et al. 2018).
Soil moisture estimation using remote sensing data is another rapidly evolving
application in the water resources domain (Srivastava et al. 2009; Singh et al. 2015).
Soil moisture is a crucial parameter used in various hydrological, land surface
modeling, and meteorological studies (Albergel et al. 2013; Wanders et al. 2014).
Interestingly, satellite-derived soil moisture products are also used to monitor and
predict natural disaster events (Abelen et al. 2015). Additionally, these products also
find application in climate variability studies (Loew et al. 2013).
The microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum is exclusively used for soil
moisture estimation. Table 1.6 presents a list of remote sensing-based soil moisture
products available for use. Apart from the advantages of all-weather and day-night
coverage, passive microwave sensors provide soil moisture estimation capability with
good temporal resolution. In contrast, active microwave sensors provide finer, more
satisfactory spatial resolutions (Singh et al. 2015).
The majority of the water resources management projects or research, especially
at small and medium scales, are carried out at the watershed level (Sivapalan 2003).
At this level, the analysis demands operational tools for simulating various processes
10 A. Pandey et al.

Table 1.5 List of satellite-based rainfall data products

S. No. Product Spatial Temporal Data available Developing agency
resolution resolution from
1 IMERG (early run, 0.1 30 min, 2000– NASA
late run, and final 1 day
run)
2 GSMaP 0.1 1 h, 1 day, 2000– JAXA
1 month
3 CHIRPS 0.05, 0.25 1 day, 1981– USAID, NASA,
5 day, and NOAA
1 month
4 CMORPH 0.05, 0.25 30 min, 1998– National weather
1 h, 1 day service climate
prediction center
(CPC)
5 PERSIANN 0.25 1 h, 1 day, 1983– Center for
1 month, hydrometeorology
1 year and remote sensing
(CHRS)
6 MSWEP 0.1 3h 1979–2016 CMWF, NASA,
and NOAA
7 SM2RAIN-ASCAT 0.1 1 day 2007–2020 –
8 SM2RAIN-CCI 0.25 1 day 1998–2015 –
9 GPM + SM2RAIN 0.25 1 day 2007–2018 –
Dataset source for downloading, S. No. 1—https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/dtasets/GPM_3IMERG
HHE_06/summary?keywords=%22IMERG%20Early%22 2—ftp://hokusai.eorc.jaxa.jp/ 3—
https://data.chc.ucsb.edu/products/CHIRPS-2.0/ 4—https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/cmorph-
high-resolution-global-precipitation-estimates/access/ 5—https://chrsdata.eng.uci.edu/ 6—https://
gwadi.org/multi-source-weighted-ensemble-precipitation-mswep 7–9 https://zenodo.org/record/
3854817#.YC3BV3Uza5w

and interactions associated with water resources (Hingray et al. 2014). Therefore,
watershed modeling becomes essential to understand and analyze the interactions
between nature, climate, and human interventions. The distributed models employed
for watershed modeling are data-intensive, and in data-scarce areas, geospatial tech-
nology plays a prominent role in addressing data gaps (Stisen et al. 2008). The
topography data is one of the essential datasets in any watershed modeling assign-
ment. The most widely available source of topographic data is open source DEMs.
Advanced data capture techniques, such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR),
are being deployed to gather higher-accuracy terrain information. Table 1.7 lists a
few LiDAR datasets exclusively available for the USA.
Climate data specifically, temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and wind
speed, are the primary inputs required to analyze the hydrology of any watershed.
All these parameters are being monitored repeatedly using various satellite sensors.
Additionally, the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) provides
1 Overview of Geospatial Technologies for Land and Water … 11

Table 1.6 List of satellite-based soil moisture data products

S. No. Product Spatial Temporal Data available Agency
resolution resolution from
1 ESA CCI soil 0.25 1 day 1978–2020 European space
moisture agency’s (ESA)
2 ASCAT soil 12.5 km, 1–2 day 2007– EUMETSAT
moisture 25 km H-SAF
3 SMAP L3 9 km, 36 km 1 day 2015– NASA (NSIDC
DAAC)
4 SMOS L2 15 km 1–3 days 2010– ESA
5 SMOS CATDS 25 km 1 day 2010– ESA
soil moisture
6 SMOS BEC soil 25 km 1 day 2010– ESA
moisture
7 AMSR-2 50 km 1–3 days 2012– Japan
Aerospace
Exploration
Agency
(JAXA)
Dataset source for downloading, S. No. 1—https://esa-soilmoisture-cci.org/data 2—https://
hsaf.meteoam.it/Products/ProductsList?type=soil_moisture 3—https://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/data/
4—http://www.catds.fr/Products/Available-products-from-CPDC 5—https://smos-diss.eo.esa.int/
oads/access/ 6—http://bec.icm.csic.es/land-datasets/ 7—https://suzaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/GCOM_W/
data/data_w_product-2.html

Table 1.7 List of LiDAR data products

S. No. Product Region Accuracy
1 Open topography USA –
2 U.S. Interagency elevation inventory USA –
3 NOAA digital coast USA –
4 NEON open data portal USA –
Dataset source for downloading, S. No. 1–https://portal.opentopography.org/dataCatalog
2—https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/inventory.html 3—https://www.coast.noaa.gov/datavi
ewer/#/lidar/search/ 4—https://data.neonscience.org/data-products/explore

the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) data in a gridded format to be

conveniently used for watershed modeling applications (Fadil and Bouchti 2020).
Satellite altimetry is a unique application of geospatial technology in water
resources management. Altimetry provides a means to monitor the water level of
rivers and reservoirs using satellite observations. Moreover, repeated observations
allow evaluation of change in water storage in reservoirs and overcome the limita-
tion of the spare in-situ network of gauge stations. The water levels from altimetry
can also be used to calibrate and validate hydrological and hydrodynamic models
(Thakur et al. 2021). Table 1.8 presents a list of some radar altimetry data products.
12 A. Pandey et al.

Table 1.8 List of basic characteristics of radar altimetry data products

S. no. Mission Equator track Band Frequency (GHz)
distance (km)
1 GEOSAT 163 Ku 13.5
2 ERS-1/2 80 Ku 13.8
3 TOPEX/POSEIDON 315 Ku/C 13.6/5.3
Jason-1/2/3 Sentinel-6
4 GFO 163 Ku 13.5
5 ENVISAT 163 Ku/S 13.6/3.2
6 CryoSat-2 7 Ku 13.6
7 HY-2A/2B 90 Ku/C 13.6/5.3
8 SARAL/ALTIKA 90 Ka 35
9 Sentinel -3A 104 Ku-band and C-bands 23.8
10 Sentinel- 3B 52 S band, X band 36.5
Dataset source for downloading, S. No. 1—https://science.nasa.gov/missions/geosat 2—https://
aviso-data-center.cnes.fr/ 3—https://earth.esa.int/eogateway 4—https://aviso-data-center.cnes.fr/
5—https://earth.esa.int/eogateway 6–8 https://aviso-data-center.cnes.fr/ 9,10—https://scihub.cop
ernicus.eu

1.5 Conclusions

The application of geospatial technologies for land use-land cover analysis and
mapping, digital terrain modeling, soil resource inventory, crop monitoring, and
mapping, estimation of evapotranspiration, soil moisture measurement, morpho-
metric parameter analysis, drought monitoring, soil erosion modeling, watershed
management, agricultural land use planning, water quality assessment, reservoir sedi-
mentation, flood mapping, monitoring reservoir/lake water levels, river discharge,
and spatial modeling have revolutionized the assessment, mapping, and monitoring
of land and water resources. The case studies provided in this book will serve as a
valuable resource for scientists and researchers involved in planning and managing
land and water resources sustainably.
This book offers an overview of geospatial technologies in land and water
resources management. It consists of four main sections: land use land cover
dynamics, agricultural water management, water resources assessment and modeling,
and natural disasters. From leading institutions, such as the IITs and ISRO, the authors
have shared their experiences and offered case studies to provide insights into the
application of geospatial technologies for land and water resources management.
1 Overview of Geospatial Technologies for Land and Water … 13

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