AUTONOMOUS STATE OF ENVIRONMENT REPORTING (ASTER)

Autonomous State of Environment Reporting - ASTER

 

State of environment reporting is indispensable for scientific administration. It constitutes the base of development planning and includes analysis of temporal changes in the environment of a particular place. Environment reporting encompasses elements such as ambient air and water quality, ecosystem health and function, along with social and cultural matters. 

In India, the state of environment reporting is coordinated by the Ministry of Environment, forest and Climate Change. The national effort aggregates state-wise reports and publishes them online. This mechanism is cumbersome, slow and results in a history document.  

http://www.moef.nic.in/public-information/state-environmentsoe-report-india displays the state of environment report of 2007 for Kerala! The time lag (in years) for conventional state of environment reporting leads to a document that has little practicable use. 

Progression in sensor, communication and computation technologies makes available smarter options to generate real-time state of environment reports. ASTER is a prototype sensor network designed to autonomously collect geo-tagged, real-time biophysical parameters. Apart from contributing to state of environment reporting, ASTER will be invaluable for a host of sectors like agriculture, disaster management, public health, soil and water conservation, water quality monitoring, etc. The central concept of ASTER is a non-negotiable requisite of smart cities. ASTER implements the idea proposed in Kerala e Resource repository And Location-specific Advisory (KeRALA) [http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXVI/part4/]. 

ASTER was conceptualized and implemented jointly by Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management- Kerala and IET, College of Engineering, Trivandrum. The prototype, if scaled across one district will inevitably attract attention of the Government of India. Scaled across geography, ASTER has the potential to be the hub of research in data analytics. It is highly likely that Government of India will come forward to sustain ASTER.