Workshop on monitoring climate from space ends

CHANDIGARH: The international workshop on ‘Monitoring agriculture and climate from space’, which was organised by the Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, in collaboration with the University of Leicester, the UK, concluded here on Friday.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 21

The international workshop on ‘Monitoring agriculture and climate from space’, which was organised by the Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, in collaboration with the University of Leicester, the UK, concluded here on Friday.

Prof Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, Panjab University, was the chief guest. He said the UK-India partnership would generate a pathway for future inter-disciplinary research.

He said such kind of platform provided all stakeholders an opportunity to collectively deliberate on issue of societal cause.

Dharminder Sharma, Chief Conservator, Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Punjab, was the guest of honour. He said remote sensing and geographical information system techniques could be applied to effectively manage natural resources and land use. He stressed to focus on precision farming in agricultural sector to preserve soil and water resources.

While delivering a lecture on ‘Monitoring water quality from space’, Dr Suman Mor said satellite data was very useful for management of lakes and rivers. She highlighted that the recent pollution episode of the Beas river by sugar mills in Punjab could be easily detected using remote sensing techniques.

Highlighting the impact of agriculture fires on air quality, Dr Ravindra Khaiwal from the PGIMER said remote sensing technology offered cost-effective solution to better understand the linkage between air pollution and human health. He said satellite data was being used to control the burning of crop residues in agricultural fields of Punjab and Haryana.

Dr Harjinder Sembhi from the University of Leicester, the UK, said remote sensing data was very useful to understand temporal and spatial variation of crop water uses and offered potential for drought monitoring and management.

Dr Darren Ghent, also from the University of Leicester, UK, said their university, along with Panjab University and PGIMER, was installing a radiometer at Fatehgarh Sahib to monitor the impact of climate change. The radiometer would be used to generate novel new datasets on heat stress, climate variability, water availability and irrigation scheduling.