IMPROVED WATER MANAGEMENT - THE IRS-1C CONTRIBUTION

Satellite remote sensing techniques are increasingly being employed to solve problems relating to water management both at national level an d at local level, The first two Indian Remote Sensing satellites, IRS- 1A & 1B, significantly contributed to improved water management in the country, The recently launched IRS-1C satellite with its suite of sen sors - WiFS, LISS-III and PAN - would further enhance our capabilities to generate appropriate information for sustainable water resources d evelopment, The dynamics of water resources, its availability and util ization, will be effectively captured by WiFS sensor and the details r equired for locale specific action plans would be generated from LISS- III and PAN sensors, In this article we evaluate IRS-1C potential in f our major areas of water resources management, namely, irrigation, flo od, snow and drought.