 Welcome to NPTEL course on remote sensing and GIS for rural development. This is week one, lecture five. Through this lecture, we will be wrapping up the first week and part of the introduction to course. I hope the introduction material was useful to also self learn some of the rural issues. And avenues for rural development. Today, we will be looking at a quick personal introduction that I gave during the first lecture. And most importantly, the takeaway messages. GIS and remote sensing were not part of my. Degree as in I didn't get a GIS or remote sensing which is also there in a lot of universities. More than that, this was added to my profile because for rural development, it was noted that there is more data needed. And historic data which you cannot go back and collect. So remote sensing data was handy in addressing those issues. Moving on. I also mentioned that students who are enrolled in this course should consult different reference materials and manuals. The links to these manuals and reports will be provided in my slides questions will be from my slides. However, to enhance your learning and interest in rural development. I strongly recommend going through these normal reports. Since this is an introduction course. And an undergraduate level. Only part of the need for rural development. And how it can be achieved using remote sensing and GIS will be taught. The week by week schedule will be based on that also. As I said, there will be many field notes and agency reports. That will be used together in this course. For you to understand. And think on rural development initiatives. Let's look at the course flow. So, in the first two weeks, we will be understanding rural issues and need for development and tools. We have already come to the end of the one. Where first we have defined what is rural development. And why we need it. We also mentioned about. What are the key areas where rural development. Is facing an impact food security water security infrastructures etc. Again, these are the avenues that have been also identified by the government agencies and ministries. So some of the material that I've used in the course is also linked to the ministry's reports. So this will come handy for people who are going to work for the ministry agencies or rural development colleges and higher education programs. Focusing on rural development. Very similar to the course and the center that I'm currently part of in IIT Bombay. In the week to also we will continue some more aspects of rural development. There is a need for rural development and the issues and concerns that are impacting rural development. Finally, we will lay the foundation stone for the tools that are needed for rural development. There are multiple tools to monitor and manage. However, this course will focus on remote sensing and GIS tools. So we have set the context in week one and week two week three four five will be a very basic introduction to remote sensing and GIS. We have divided it into three course lectures. So over these three course week lectures. Three four and five. You will be introduced to what is remote sensing. How is it different? Where can you get remote sensing data? And what is the difference between open source, proprietary data and data on demand? Open source is free and open to all to use. Whereas proprietary data is you have to pay and use. And data on demand is where you produce a request and data is taken for you and provided. For example, after a flood the government agencies do require high resolution data. So they ask a satellite agency to park the satellite and take images. So after that it has been processed in the GIS environment. So for that I will also give you an introduction to GIS, especially a GIS platform which is open source QGIS. There are multiple NPTEL courses for a full understanding of remote sensing and GIS. I will be sharing the NPTEL lectures link which you can use to get up to speed. Here we will not be explicitly using it for the same issue that is mentioned in the courses, but here it will be used for rural development and understanding of rural development. Then in six and seventh week, we'll be looking specifically on some remote sensing and GIS. Lectures, tutorials that will quickly allow you to assess the need for deeper analysis. Let's say identifying water bodies size and diminishing or is it losing water quality, those kind of aspects. You could also measure the farm area from which you can assess water demand, supply demand, and also the transportation demand. So these are the infrastructures I've already spoken about in week one. Then moving on to eight, nine, and 10, we'll be looking at some practical applications in using remote sensing and GIS. Again, some hands-on tutorials will be taught, guiding you how to download the data, where to download the data, how to create an account for downloading the data, followed by processing the downloaded data in a GIS environment. It will be time consuming for some people to download the data depending on the internet speed. So you can pause this video and then download it and then follow the steps. Since transcripts and steps will also be given to you, you can also do it when you have stable internet. Part of the homeworks would be to assess some boundaries and areas using these remote sensing and GIS tools, which are open source. We will also be doing some lectures on a remote sensing platform where you can readily do the analysis on your internet, for which you don't need a very high performing laptop. So all the exercise will be done using a basic computer accessory laptop or a desktop. And for those high-end analysis, we'll be using an online version of Google Earth Engine where you can give analysis request and it will be performed using a supercomputer remotely, so you don't need to have an access. It's just your normal laptop or a desktop with good internet and the data will be processed behind in an environment in Google and then you will bring the data back to your system. And then we'll follow it up and close the lectures 11 and 12 week by impact assessments and new data using remote sensing and GIS. Where we can look at some impact assessment studies from the government of India schemes. How you can do using remote sensing and GIS tools to assess the progress of a particular scheme. And also you can assess the important other indicators that are benefiting because of these schemes. For example, as I said, if you rejuvenate water resources, then children can go to school. They don't have to spend hours waiting for water and or fetching water. I shared examples from my own story in villages we used to go and fetch water long distances. And that didn't change when I came to Chennai because even in Chennai when I was going to school, I remember waking up early early morning and standing in a pipeline to get water. This is three o'clock four o'clock in the night because that is when they will turn on the taps for public water distribution and the tap would be on the road corner. So all people would have to go stand in line fetch water for drinking and then bring it up. This is tremendously impacting students because school going students because they lose asleep and get tired and they're not active in class. It may be once a week or twice a week but still that whole day is gone. So we will focus mostly on the rural environment which is more and more impacted compared to other settings. So you would think that the courses end in week 12 but I keep the cyclic loop as you can see the arrow still valid. Why? Because once you know the impact assessments, once you know more remote sensing and GIS tools, you can redo the loop by go and understand or probe for new rural development issues, new rural development concerns. I start with the basics but with now all these tools and understanding, you can go back and then redo the analysis, redo some process, redo some practical applications. The course will stop on week 12 for sure but you can still continue the same process and the tools that you learn in this class to do more analysis. So at the end of this course, I hope to give you a toolbox. I hope to equip and empower you with a toolbox, an open source toolbox that you can carry and assess the impacts of rural development and or propose new areas for rural development. Also we said that rural development is a very complex issue because it is not just water, it's not just food, it's not just social, it is not just economic, but it is a cross cutting theme where you have agriculture which is dependent on natural resources such as water, soil, nutrients, sunlight, but also dependent on ecosystem and livelihoods, domestic use and sanitation and climate change. All these are themes by itself so agriculture is one theme, ecosystem livelihood is one theme, domestic is one thing and climate change is a separate theme, but for rural development all have to come together. We call this a holistic approach or a cross cutting theme approach where the theme has to cross cut and then rural development occurs. For example, if you just focus on rural development using agriculture and you say that all the productivity has increased. So maybe the social issues are gone, no it won't be, maybe the economic issues are gone, no it won't be. As I clearly mentioned, through green revolution we have quadrupled four times the wheat, six times the rice in some regions, but does that mean the farmer has become six time richer? No. So there are issues and it needs a cross cutting theme approach. So it is a very, very important subject to keep yourself grounded and work on it. So my aim through this course is to enlighten you on the aspects of rural development so that you could look at different aspects in focused lens and then work more independently and focus on these schemes. I have mentioned that since I am a hydrologist, I do put more emphasis on water, but water does cut across all these things. So for example, as I said, water is needed for agriculture, water is needed for the ecosystem which is plants, trees, aquatic features, soil formation, water is needed. Livelihoods such as aqua, culture, mushroom cultivation and others, domestic use for drinking and sanitation and climate change is mostly impacted by water. So it is of utmost importance to consider water. I have also mentioned that rural development is key in India for India's GDP growth because India is still a gradient nation with approximately 69% of the population in rural areas. Maybe 10% of them are very rich. You would have seen very rich farmers, but most of the others are not. In fact, a lot of farmers are still below the poverty line. So this course when we speak about rural development focuses on these populations of farmers that are mostly below the poverty line and or just above the poverty line. And we would like to find avenues which can help them for rural development. And most importantly, rural development is key to national growth, not just because of more population residing in the rural areas, but because this is the areas that produce food security for the remaining population. The remaining 31 population, 31% population in urban centers. However, as indicated, a lot of people have identified that water stress is very, very high and the projections of water stress is very high for the next 10, 20 years. So this report by WRI clearly indicates that the water stress forecast is concerning for India. And more importantly, you see the red color which is high or extremely high water stress is concentrated on the rural regions. The urban centers will always get water from rural. So how do you understand this, distill this into the rural areas and provide rural development. So these are the key factors that we will be addressing through this course. It's not only climate change is impacting the water security, but also the unsustainable water use patterns, both in agriculture and urban is leading to high water stress. Because of this, there is a very devoted focused ministry working on rural development. So this course is actually targeted towards understanding and focusing on the schemes that a ministry is being set up for the ministry of rural development. So you won't see a ministry of civil engineering or a ministry of aerospace, just for aerospace engineering, right. They are important, but it comes under science or it comes under multiple ministries, but this course as a rural development comes under a ministry. So that is how important it is. And under the ministry, there are multiple missions. Amit Sarovar Mission is one where it is looking at to rejuvenate the water bodies, map the water bodies, etc. And there are multiple schemes that I have explained in the week and missions that I've explained in this current week. Most important of them is your Manta Ega, the guaranteed employment scheme. In the engine Ega, there are multiple sub schemes that are also looked upon like IWMP, which is Integrated Water Management Plan for rural development. So it is not only to provide labour for rural enterprises, it is not only for providing guaranteed income for farmers, but also to use their labour time and efforts for rural development. Building roads, removing encroachments by trees and plants, removing them, eradicating weeds, invasive species, creating new water resource structures. All these come under this IWMP, which is part of your Manta Ega schemes. So not just wasting the labour time, but also keeping it more productive on rural development schemes. We will be addressing most of them in this course. Not only that, this course can also be related to multiple ministries. Let's look at some of them which are very directly related to the rural development ministry. However, it is itself by its own ministry. So Minister of Rural Development is what the first key ministry that this course will focus on. How do you create remote sensing and GIS tools for rural development? But also we will be looking at Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, where we do have a vertical that we'll be looking at. How do you map health infrastructures? So that data, the remote sensing GIS data can be used by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, housing is also needed in rural entities. As I clearly mentioned in the previous slides or previous weeks, the housing is not up to mark in some villages. And how do you improve that is through this ministry's activities. And what you learn in this course can be used for that. Ministry of Women and Child Development is an integral part of rural development. This ministry does look across rural and urban spaces, even peri-urban rural spaces. But most of the need, the demand, high demand or vulnerable population is still in the rural areas. Because women are needing the support in rural regions more than urban centers, I would say. You don't see girl children dedicated to go and fetch water in urban centers. But you do see some of them in focused villages where water resources are very limited. Ministry of Home Affairs is also linked to Ministry of Rural Development. Same as Ministry of Personal and Public Reviews, where social impact that we create in rural development schemes can help Ministry of Personal and Public Reviews. There's also Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which again is very much related to Ministry of Rural Development. You could see food security, the environment, the forest and climate change impacts being discussed in the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change. Those are the sub-themes that come under rural development also. And last but not the least, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare is also part of rural development. Because agriculture by rural, it does happen in rural development scenarios. You do see some agriculture happening in urban spaces, but that is not subsistence farming, which means it is not able to cater to all urban settings. You still need your vegetables, rice coming from rural entities meet. So this Ministry is also very much linked to rural development. What percentage, how they interact to each other is the Ministry's mandate. But we will be focusing on the first Ministry of Rural Development. But the tools you understand and develop skills on can be applied to all these ministries. So this course is also important for future financing. For example, I have told that there's a lot of funds kept for rural development. So you as a person can create more understanding and potential using remote sensing GIS tools. That can be helping the financing available for rural welfare and agriculture. And mostly rural development. So yes, we will be catering to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, but it does and is part of the rural development. More of these infrastructure financing schemes can be found from the National Agriculture Infrafinancing Facility, which is part of the Department of Agriculture and Farmer's Welfare. Through this course, there's also an increased potential to identify participation and improve the efficiency of schemes. So some of the schemes are not done purely by the government. It also requires some participation from local partners and farmers. And this mapping exercise can become a tool to identify where such synergies can happen and public participation can be improved. So for this, there's a need of better data and mapping, which remote sensing and GIS can help. And that is the core of this course. So to conclude, rural development is important for India's growth, but there are issues and concerns that exist. To better understand data can help. These issues can be brought to limelight and debated in depth if there is better data. However, data concerns exist. Better special and temporal data is needed. We don't have such data. Not only here, most of the developing and even developed nations. Data is a key issue for which the remote sensing and GIS can aid. So next week we will still continue with some introduction in material and remote sensing and GIS tools, how they have been used. You could see multiple bilateral agencies working on rural people's interest and rural development. And there has been a lot of books like this mapping rural development, how to use GIS to monitor and evaluate projects. So this is a key takeaway from this whole course. How you could contribute to India's growth. How can you contribute to India's ministry schemes and also these kind of big projects that are occurring in India. And don't please don't forget that future financing also requires a good understanding of rural development issues. For which remote sensing and GIS can be an integral part. For now, it has not been an integral part for preparing the schemes or through the scheme analysis or even monitoring and evaluation. We will discuss scenarios in this course and how to use remote sensing and GIS for rural development. With this, I conclude today's lecture. I will see you in week two lectures. Thank you.