Atlas

Land Transformation Atlas

The 25th year of the launch of first Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellite IRS-1A, we have attempted to put together a set of images that visualize the changes in land cover that have occurred in our country as observed from Indian Earth Observation sensors. The changes - which are due to both natural processes and human interventions - have been organized under seven land cover themes: Agriculture, Forests, Water resources and Wetlands, Coasts and Oceans, Urban and Disasters. Attempts have been made on local and continent level to visualize the changes. These changes are both long term, transient and episodic. In general, the time epochs chosen for the atlas are spaced at about a decade interval.

A wide range of Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) sensors have been employed for viewing these changes - from high resolution ones that can detect infrastructure changes and glacial lakes, to moderate resolution and wide swath sensors that can map large-scale changes like those in forests and water bodies.

On the right hand side pages are multiple images with corresponding brief note on the geographical coverage, satellite/sensor, and date of image acquisition, while on the left hand side, a single image offering a perspective view of the same area have been depicted.