|
|
“We
encourage fishermen to use GPS” |
Says
Dr
Shailesh Nayak, Director, Indian National
Centre for Ocean Information Services while sharing
his views on mandate, activities and future plans
of INCOIS |
|
| What is the Mandate of INCOIS? |
The
mandate of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information
Services (INCOIS) is to conduct research in the field
of Ocean Observation (in-situ and satellite), generation
of data products and to provide information and advisory
services related to living resources, sea state and
early warning for coastal and ocean hazards. This information
is disseminated for the societal, governmental and research
needs. |
| What are the main activities
of INCOIS? |
The current activities of INCOIS
are to provide
i. Potential Fishing Zone Advisories thrice in a week
ii. Ocean State Forecast
iii. Early Warning for Tsunamis and Storm Surges
iv. Ocean Information Bank and web-based dissemination
v. To support ocean modeling and data assimilation
research
vi. Satellite oceanography research
vii. Ocean Observation.
|
What
about Fishing Zone Advisories? |
The Fishing Zone
Advisories is one of the most important activities of
the centre. You probably know that about 7 million people
living along the Indian coastline and are dependent
on fishing for their livelihood. The reliable and timely
forecast on the potential zones of fish aggregation,
based on satellite data provided by ISRO, helps fisherman
to reduce time and effort spent in searching the fishing
grounds. This service has helped to improve their socioeconomic
status. The searching time for the fishing grounds has
been reduced up to 30% to 70%. |
Are
they used by fishing community? |
Certainly.
Our estimate is that about 20,000 fishermen have been
actively using these advisories. |
How
do you communicate your information to them? |
The information
is communicated through Electronic Display Boards located
at 22 major fishing harbours, 200 Fax and Telephone
nodes 70 email users and print media as well as through
INCOIS website. We provide these advisories in local
languages and in local measurements, units for their
effective use. The research institutions and fishing
associations all make Web GIS. |
What
is the role of geomatics? |
Remote Sensing is playing very crucial role in Ocean
Observations. We derive Chlorophyll maps based on
our own Oceansat-1 OCM data, Sea Surface Temperature
for PFZ Advisories. Sea Surface height, sea surface
wind from international missions are also used for
Ocean State Forecast and Ocean Modeling activities.
In fact, we receive directly NOAA, MODIS data at INCOIS.
The large amount of data in organized in GIS and information
systems are designed for their effective use.
|
| Any role of GPS? |
GPS has very
important role to play. We are encouraging fishermen
to use GPS for reaching fish aggregate sites based on
PFZ Advisories. |
| INCOIS role in ocean related
disasters? |
INCOIS is the
lead agency to issue early warning for tsunamis and
storm surges. We have already set up a 24x7 Tsunami
Warning Centre at INCOIS. This system encompasses: |
• Near-real
time determination of earthquake parameters in two known
tsunamigenic zones using network of
seismic stations.
• Establishing a comprehensive real time ocean
observational network comprising Bottom
Pressure Recorders, Tide Gauges and
Coastal Radars
• Numerical models for tsunami and storm
surges
• Generating coastal inundation and vulnerability
maps
• Capacity building and training. |
| Do you tie up with international
organizations? |
Yes. We have
very intense interaction with many international organizations.
They are |
• Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission (IOC), UNESCO, Paris
• Indian
Ocean Global Ocean Observing System (IO-GOOS) of IOC
• ARGO Profiling floats Regional Data Centre
• Partnership for observation of Global Ocean
(POGO)
• International Ocean Colour Coordinating
Group (IOCCG) |
| Any plan to share the information
with NSDI? |
The information
generated by INCOIS is available on its website. We
share our information with everybody. As far as NSDI
is concerned,, issues related to framework, format,
standards, etc. would need to be worked out. |
| What are the future Plans? |
Our future plans
include development of coastal ocean state forecasting
system for providing daily sea state bulletins, 3-5
days short-term forecast, monthly/medium range forecast
and decadal long-term forecast. Apart from this, we
would also like to initiate new services such as monitoring
of toxic blooms, assessment of fi sh stock, primary
production, fl uvial fl uxes, coral and mangrove ecosystem
health, etc. |
 |
Dr
Shailesh Nayak has been recently appointed
as a Director, Indian National Centre for Ocean
Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous institution
under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Hyderabad.
At INCOIS, he has been providing leadership for
realizing the project on “Establishment
of National Early Warning System for Tsunami and
Storm Surges in the Indian Ocean and conceptualization
and development of Marine GIS. |
He
has obtained PhD degree in Geology from the M.S
University of Baroda in 1980. Earlier, he worked
as a Group Director, Marine and Water Resources,
at the Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad
from 1978 to 2006. He has been member of many
national committees related to coastal protection,
mangrove and coral reef, coastal zone management
formulated by the Ministry of Water Resources
and Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt.
of India, respectively. He is member of the Research
Advisory Committee of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan
Geology, Dehradun and Centre for Earth Science
Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. He was awarded the
Indian National Remote Sensing Award for the year
1994 by the Indian Society of Remote Sensing,
Dehradun. He is recognized as Ph. D. Guide by
six universities. He was Member of the editorial
board of the Indian Journal of Marine Science
and currently one of the editors of Geospatial
Today.
He is President, ISPRS, Technical Commission (TC)
IV on ‘Geodatabases
and Digital Mapping’ for the term 2004-08.
He has represented ISRO at the International Ocean
Colour Coordinating Group and International Global
Observation Strategy- Coastal theme. He has published
about 70 papers in International and National
journals and atlases. |
|
| September
2006 |
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