Geospatial technology encompasses a broad range of tools including remote sensing imagery, GIS software for data analysis and map making, GPS satellites for precise location and positioning, and Internet mapping applications such as Google Earth. An internet search can overwhelm us with information, yet a conversation with an expert yields the best knowledge. Prof. Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editor at Geospatial Media and Communications, is an eminent scientist in the field of Geospatial Technology. Earlier, he has also served as the Deputy Director, SATCOM and IT Applications Area, Space Applications Centre – ISRO, Ahmedabad. My discussion with Prof. Dasgupta (AD) encompassed not only his career, but also the broader impact of Geospatial Technology in our everyday lives.
AS: How has your professional journey panned out so far?
AD: I was born in Calcutta, began my schooling in Allahabad and continued that in Calcutta. In the later years, having completed my school education in Delhi, I graduated in Physics from Delhi University. My dream profession being engineering, I joined the BE program at the Indian Institute of Science where I further went on to complete my ME in Electrical Communications Engineering.
My one and only job was with the Space Applications Centre of Indian Space Research Organization at Ahmedabad which I joined in 1970 and superannuated from in 2005. I’m now settled in Ahmedabad. I began as a television engineer designing a rugged TV set for the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) and moved on to managing the rural TV network under SITE. My rural experience resulted in my traversing on to the area of Remote Sensing where I worked on promoting remote sensing applications. Later, I progressed on to Image Processing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) before retiring as an engineer in charge of satellite communications and information technology applications.
Although my work sometimes did take up a lot of my time, I never compromised upon relaxing myself every now and then. My hobbies are reading, listening to music and of late, creating working models using a 125-year-old construction set called Meccano.
AS: What is your current role in Geospatial Media and Communications?
AD: I joined Geospatial Media and Communications post-superannuation from ISRO. Currently I am the Managing Editor with the Media & Public Relations Department. I oversee print publication, conduct interviews with key people in governments and industries worldwide, speak at conferences organized by GMC, represent GMC at other conferences and meetings, and write articles and blogs on emerging topics.
AS: What is Geospatial Media and Communications?
AD: GMC is a media house that aims to inform all professional communities and in particular those communities working on earth relates subjects on the advances in geospatial technologies and applications. It provides geospatial industries a platform to showcase their products and services, network with academia, government and other industries to understand upcoming requirements and issues for improving their offerings. A major component is also policy advocacy which helps governments understand the difficulties faced by industry and user communities due to over-regulation of activities, like the controversial Geospatial Activities Regulation Bill. The company also provides academia a platform to understand industry, government and user requirements to enable them tailor their courses to emerging technologies and processes.
AS: How should a layman perceive geospatial technology and its importance?
AD: Let me quote a stanza from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Elephant’s Child’.
I Keep six honest serving-men:
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who.
Any description of an event or a situation has to include answers to these six questions. We live in a three-dimensional world in which a place is defined by three dimensions of a coordinate system. Therefore, the ‘where’ is an important member of the sextet of questions. For example:
Location: Where is …?
Inventory: Where are …?
Routing: What is the best way to go from … to …?
Analysis: What spatial pattern exists?
Modelling: What if …? When will…?
Trend: What has changed? How? Why? Who?
Humankind realized the importance of where which gave rise to science, some call it art, of cartography whose underpinning is the technology of surveying. Today, surveying technology has adopted and adapted the best of other technologies like laser ranging for distance measurement, remote sensing imagery for terrain mapping, Global Navigation Satellite Systems for surveying, routing and position location, computers for GIS, Internet for map publishing, Cloud, Big Data Analytics, Deep Learning, Blockchain and so on. The Internet of Things is heavily dependent on Geospatial information.
A typical example is routing. What happens when you call up Uber or Ola for a taxi ride? The app locates your location via the GPS built into your smartphone. Once you select your destination you can see the route traced out on a map – application of GIS. Once you are in the taxi, the routing directions are audible on the driver’s phone. It uses the current traffic information to avoid congestions en route. How do such apps obtain real-time congestion information? Google collects data on the number of cellphones in a particular route. More stationary phones on the road means congestion – an application of Deep Learning.
Another example is crop insurance. Remote Sensing helps to identify cropped areas and crops under stress. It is also used to determine losses due to episodic events like floods. Based on this the insurer can decide on the risk and fix the premium.
AS: How has your geomatics experience been in ISRO?
AD: My field experience in managing the SITE rural TV network convinced my then Director, Prof. Yash Pal, to offer me a position in the Remote Sensing area. My first position was to organize a utilization program for remote sensing. At that time, the major work was from aerial photography. The scientists were mapping and laboriously measuring the area under different categories in the map using a dot grid. A meeting with the Collector of Panch Mahals district shed light on his interest pertaining to different types of land cover rather than how much. This initial experience helped me to organize applications around mapping using the US Landsat and later Indian satellites like Bhaskara and IRS. I realized that maps made using remotely sensed imagery were only the beginning of a bigger analytical process which could yield actionable information.
Another aspect of my work was the development of data products for the IRS satellites as well as for airborne synthetic aperture radar and SAR from the ESA ERS satellites. Starting with the VAX, we moved to minis and clusters in a client-server architecture. The SAR processors were extremely data intensive and required faster computers which were denied to us under the MTCR regime after Pokhran -1 and Pokhran-2. We teamed up with CDAC and used a transputer based parallel processing machines to attack the problem – reducing processing time from 12 hours on VAX to 40 minutes on a 16 node PARAM from CDAC. We also developed digital
photogrammetry software for stereo data from Cartosat series of satellites.
My interest in natural resource information systems dates back to my earliest years in remote sensing. In 1978, I delivered two lectures at a UN/FAO Training Seminar on “Information Systems for Resources Management” and “Reports for Resource Managers”. My view is that remote sensing by itself cannot realize its full potential unless combined with other data in a structured, preferably computerized format. I was introduced to GIS through publications of the Harvard Laboratory of Computer Graphics. Getting one’s hand on a GIS package was made possible by a fortuitous offer from Colorado University under a conference being organized by the university with SAC at Ahmedabad, for a package called P-MAP which could run on our VAX11/780 and print out maps on a line printer. After cutting one’s teeth on this rather cumbersome software, and an extensive literature search and evaluation of available GIS packages resulted in the procurement of Arc/Info for ISRO. In parallel, we launched the development of an indigenous GIS package, ISROGIS, which was released in September 1991.
For using GIS to establish the Natural Resources Information Systems, we first proposed a National Natural Resources Information System, NRIS, in 1983 at a national seminar on the foundation of the National Natural Resources Management System, NNRMS, in India. After this, I was involved in pre-investment activities of the NRIS and was designated as Deputy Director Information Systems, NNRMS. I drew up an NRIS Program Plan and after consideration by an expert committee set up by the Department of Space, it has been taken up for implementation. I was the Project Director for that program. Initially, we worked on an interim plan to set up 30 demonstration databases all over the country in 17 states. Subsequently, we expanded this to cover 17 full states in a phased manner.
My work on spatial information systems led me to standards and interoperability issues. I participated in the discussions on setting up a National Spatial Data Infrastructure. I became familiar with issues relating to change management and realized the importance of people, processes and environment in the adoption of new technologies. I might have learned a lot and contributed technically, but could not succeed in making institutions accept geomatics as an essential element of their professional life. That made me realize the importance of integrating geomatics with other systems like ICT.
AS: Would you like to share your journey as a teacher? Any advice for current aspirants?
AD: I never desired to be a teacher. However, my friends from the teaching fraternity seemed to have other ideas. Maybe my association with IEEE and occasional lectures to Student Chapters paved the way for me, hence I was offered several teaching opportunities post-retirement from ISRO. The subjects I taught were Remote Sensing, GIS and Project Management. I realized that there is a need to bring students up to speed on new technologies. Therefore, I introduced new topics like Harvesting Social Media as a Geospatial Data Source, and Lidar Technology and Applications.
Since I didn’t plan to become a teacher, I feel that I am not qualified to offer advice to aspiring teachers. My limited experience showed me that students need to be challenged to think. Interactivity in a class livens things up.
AS: How should one prepare himself to face the current fluctuating job scenario?
AD: In Science and Technology, you must run very fast just to remain in one place. Therefore, your active life must be one of constant learning. Keep your mind open and don’t be afraid to make drastic changes. Above all, follow your heart. I began my career as a television engineer, moved to systems management, then to image and signal processing, and information systems. I explored the potential of the internet and synthesized IT with communication. Now, I am learning all about Blockchain technology and how it can be applied to geospatial systems.
About Prof. Arup Dasgupta:
Prof. Dasgupta is the Managing Editor at Geospatial Media and Communications (formerly Deputy Director, SATCOM and IT Applications Area, Space Applications Centre – ISRO, Ahmedabad). In this picture, Prof. Dasgupta can be seen creating a working model of an automative with his Meccano set.
About Abirami:
Abirami is a research fellow with a focus on cell and molecular biology research and research administration. She is interested in photography and freelancing.
Editor: Sayantan Chakraborty, PhD
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