ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Udhagamandalam and the National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Hyderabad have jointly organized a National Workshop on “Earth Observations for Climate Services” under the NICES Program on 20th February, 2023 at Ooty, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Climate change has been defined by the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as ‘a change of climate, which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The twin problems of climate change and associated extreme weather events are of grave concern under the present scenario of global warming. Realizing the gravity of the situation and to address the lack of an accurate climate-quality database from the Indian perspective, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has established ‘National Information System for Climate and Environment Studies (NICES)’ at National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad in 2012 to generate long term, consistent and accurate database using satellite data. NICES is a multi-institutional endeavour from which currently 12 ECVs and 64 bio/geo-physical parameters are being generated and freely disseminated to stakeholders through web enabled services.

The workshop was organized with a theme to sensitize the stakeholders on the latest developments in Earth observation-based science for the public good. The workshop was participated by more than 75 delegates including scientists from ICAR-IISWC; NRSC/ISRO-; IIST-Trivandrum; IITM/MoES, Pune; Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalapakkam; Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore; HRS, TNAU, Ooty; Regional Centres of ICAR-IARI, Wellington and ICAR-CPRI, Ooty; CWRDM, Calicut; KITS, Coimbatore and progressive farmers from the district Nilgiris. Prof Dr.V Geetha Lakshmi, Honourable Vice-Chancellor, TNAU, Coimbatore and Dr. Prakash Chauhan, Director, NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad were the Chief guests of the function. Dr. M.Madhu, Director ICAR-IISWC, Dehrandun presided the workshop and Dr.G.N. Hariharan, Executive Director, MS. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai was the guest of honour. The workshop convener was Dr. Rajashree V.Bothale, Dy.Director, NRSC/ISRO.The workshop started with an inaugural keynote lecture by Dr. Prakash Chauhan, Director, NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad on space observations for monitoring the changing climate in which he has discussed about the space inputs for climate change studies and also highlighted the research initiatives of NRSC on climate change research. Dr. M. Madhu, Director, ICAR-IISWC, Dehradun in his keynote address discussed about the key strategies to achieve the national commitments on land degradation neutrality and also accentuated the need for development of farmer friendly technologies using the remote sensing-based applications to conserve the natural resources and to ensure the food and nutritional security to the future generations.

Prof. Dr. V Geetha Lakshmi, Honourable Vice-Chancellor, TNAU, Coimbatore discussed about the various global and regional climate models for assessing the future impacts of climate change on crop productivity. Further, she has also dicsused about the various strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on agriculture and stressed the need for development of sound carbon credit policy for the Indian context. The inaugural session was followed by a Farmers-Scientists-Students interaction in which the progressive farmers from the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu and students shared their experiences and received expert suggestions on various applications of space science in agriculture.Two technical sessions were organized during this workshop in which latest advances on the topics viz., NICES Program & Products; Indian Space Economy; Geospatial applications for Climate change studies in agriculture; NRSC/ISRO’s Geospatial platforms for EO data (Bhuvan/Bhoonidhi/NICES); Existing capabilities for estimating GHGs emissions and uptake in India; National Hydrology Projects; Climate and Environment modelling studies using Remote Sensing data; Ocean Observations; Monitoring of GHGs over the Indian region were discussed by the invited speakers from various reputed organizations working in space science and technology. There were active deliberations and panel discussions on the theme area of “Earth observation-based science for the public good”. The panel experts had shared their experiences on latest advances in climate change and natural resources management studies and also gave the road map for the development more user-friendly applications for agriculture. The programme was coordinated by Dr. P Raja Principal Scientist & Organizing Secretary, Mr Mahesh, Scientist-SE, NRSC, ISRO and Dr. Sudheer Kumar Annepu, Scientist and Organizing Secretary. The workshop ended with a plenary session and concluding remarks by the Convenor Dr. Rajashree V. Bothale, Deputy Director, ECSA/NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad and a formal vote of thanks by the organizers followed by a National Anthem.