The Institute of Remote Sensing (IRS) was established in 1982

• To provide support to academic programmes of the University in the discipline of Remote Sensing and GIS
• To transfer Remote Sensing Technology and its applications to various user agencies
• To provide extension services to the user agencies in advisory capacity or by undertaking operational projects as service provider
• To undertake R & D projects andorganise Workshops and Seminars to promote the cause of Remote Sensing Technology. Institute of Remote Sensing has an objective to offeracademic support to undergraduate, postgraduate and research degree courses of the University in the discipline of Remote Sensing and GIS

At present, the Institute is rated as one of the best in the country in the areas of Remote Sensing, Geographical Information System and Large Scale Mapping. As an externally assisted project, The Federal Republic of Germany has provided assistance worth 7 million DM towards equipment, exchange of staff and for conducting a 4-year engineering Under-Graduate program, B.E. (Geoinformatics) which is the only program of its kind in this country. The Institute has about 2400 square metres of built-up space for various laboratories equipped with sophisticated instruments and machinery worth Rs.150 million. The main building and laboratories are centrally air-conditioned.

Prof. T. Natarajan Ph.D.

Brief Write up of Most Successful Research Projects:

1. Identification of potential zone for Groundwater Recharge

An unique project for identification of potential zone for Groundwater recharge using Remote Sensing and GIS was carried out. This project is first of its kind in the entire country and still no other state has taken up such a project. This is one of the major projects carried out for the entire state of Tamil Nadu to solve the drinking as well as Agricultural water problems. Recommendations have been made to improve the groundwater potential of the aquifer nearer to the existing power pump installed by TWAD Board for drinking water supply. Under this project to improve the ground water potential various water harvesting structures such as check dram, percolation pond, recharge pit, Recharge shaft, subsurface dyke etc. have been suggested. The maps generated under this project are extensively used by the officials of the government, NGO and common people & farmers to solve the water problem. If all the recommendations are implemented in the field, the state will be self sufficient in Water Resource.

2. National Natural Resources Information System

The Department of Space and Govt. of Tamil Nadu has fairly sponsored the project on NRIS. The objective of the project is to create digital data base on various National Resources as well as physical resources and integrate with Socio- economic data for planning. Under this project various 20 thematic layers of spatial information and 8 layer of non spatial information has been generated apart from the basic layer, 17nos of spatial derived layer also have been generated at village level in a scale of 1:50,000 scale. Using the information suitable site for locating the water harvesting structure, suitable location for handling groundwater potential and action plan for land and water resources have been generated and those information have been used by the officials of the various government departments. NGO’s and former these digital base is residing at Institute of Remote Sensing in sewers and it will be accrued by all the districts officials through intranet. This facility has been extensively used by the District Collector for efficient planning of both national and physical resources the district.

3. Evaluation of impacts of Western Ghats development programme

The Western Ghat position of Tamil Nadu lies in parts of eight districts of Tamil Nadu. Under the Western Ghats developmental program a huge resource is spent and the various development works are carried out by the various user departments. The Government wants to evaluate the impact of the various developmental works carried out by the various departments. In this context the various indicators were developed to asserting the impact of development such as the site in groundwater level, improvement in the land use / land cover and reduction in soil erosion. These information are given to the govt. for taking further action in sanctioning the amount for further development of this place by the Government.

4. Identification of damage caused to Tsunami

This project was sponsored by DST, Govt. of India to assess the damage due to the occurrence of Tsunami during December 2006 for the physical and National Resources using the Remote Sensing technology. In this project status of the coast in and around Chennai was mapped using IKONOS Satellite data and the Post Monsoon scenario was mapped using the aerial photographs. The damage to the physical and the National resources was mapped and the information has been transmitted to take relief question and further rehabilitation works. The disaster management options are also suggested in the case of emergency. The outcome will be highly useful for the Government.