Air, water and soil pollution management
using geospatial technologies
A concept note for the Pollution Control Board

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Contents
Significance of pollution management ..................................................................................... 3
Air pollution management ......................................................................................................... 4
Integrating with automatic weather station data ........................................................................ 4
Inventorying toxic releases ....................................................................................................... 5
Extrapolating data with satellite data processing ...................................................................... 5
Understanding air quality distribution using geostatistics .......................................................... 5
Water pollution management .................................................................................................... 6
Integrating the hydrological network with a toxic release inventory and creating spatial
databases ................................................................................................................................. 6Monitoring water quality using satellite-based water indexes and change detection ................. 7
Identifying thermal plumes in water bodies using satellite data ................................................. 8
Soil pollution management ....................................................................................................... 8
Creating zonation of solid waste dumping grounds and garbage dumps .................................. 8
Understanding impacts using land use zones and satellite imagery ......................................... 8Geotagging solid waste incinerators to understand the network coverage area ....................... 9Creating waste management plans with population distribution maps ...................................... 9NOC management .................................................................................................................... 10
Creating an inventory with NOC details for industries ............................................................. 10Generating NOC with the spatial database and land base inventory ...................................... 10Contact us ................................................................................................................................ 10About Hexagon......................................................................................................................... 112

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Significance of pollution management
India is a country whose states are undergoing rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, leading to naturalconsequences of air, water and soil pollution. This has created an urgent need for the state to effectively
monitor and manage the pollution and create a control mechanism. Unregulated pollution leads tobiomagnification and negatively affects human health.
Biomagnification is the accumulation of a chemical by an organism from water and food exposure that results
in a concentration that is greater than would have resulted from water exposure only and thus greater than
expected from equilibrium. A variety of processes could help improve the situation:

Air pollution
Integrate with automatic weather station data
Inventory toxic releases
Extrapolate data with satellite data processing
Understand air quality distribution using geostatistics

Water pollution
Integrate the hydrological network with a toxic release inventory
Create spatial databases
Monitor water quality using satellite-based water indexes and change detection
Identify thermal plumes in water bodies using satellite data

Soil pollution
Create zonation of solid waste dumping grounds and garbage dumps
Understand impacts with land use zones and satellite imagery
Geotag solid waste incinerators to understand the network coverage area
Create waste management plans with population distribution maps

No Objection Certificate management
Create an inventory with NOC details for industries
Generate NOC with the spatial database and land base inventory

Air pollution is especially severe in some of the world’s fastest-growing urban regions, where greater economic
activity is contributing to higher levels of emissions. But air pollution is also a problem outside cities. Air pollution
is not just a health risk, but also a drag on development. By causing illness and premature death, air pollution
reduces the quality of life.

3White paperPoint source water pollution is a major challenge, as sometimes industrial wastes are allowed to flow untreatedand unregulated into water channels or rivulets. The rise in the human population requires the use of morenatural resources, which leads to the growth of industries - specifically chemicals and petrochemicals - alongwith urbanisation, deforestation and intensive agricultural practices. The industries and urban sprawl discharge
waste into bodies of water, leading to major contamination and reduced water quality and adversely affecting
the ecosystem.
Soil pollution results primarily from the disposal of solid or liquid waste on land surface without treatment.
Liquid waste and leachates generated from solid waste percolate into the ground and cause problems likeground water contamination, degradation of vegetation and modification of soil properties. It can also cause
foundation failures in buildings by leading to land subsidence and landslides.
GIS and remote sensing techniques can help industries at several levels with managing pollution andNOC generation.

Air pollution management
Integrating with automatic weather station data
With GeoMedia Desktop, users can integrate GIS systems with tabular datasets from automatic weather
station data loggers to create historical archives. The created databases are converted into GIS formats andstored in relational databases to create an archive and repository accepted by GIS software. The historical
data can then be used by decision-makers to understand changes in the pollution pattern.

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Inventorying toxic releases
All NOC-provided industries are required to be geotagged; a repository must then be created based on thecategorisation of aerial discharges along with NOC expiry dates. This allows the government to keep trackof all the industries nearing their NOC expiry dates, and it allows departmental officials to track site visits.
Together, this information acts a spatial database that, when merged with other spatial layers, can provide
a clear picture of the environmental impacts a particular industry might cause or is already causing.

Extrapolating data with satellite data processing
Setting up a huge network of on-demand cloud computing platforms is not an economically viable solution
for most agencies. The best alternative currently available is satellite-based information. Remote sensing
technologies can help create extrapolated data at a minimal cost using ERDAS IMAGINE. Satellite imagery
is available from NASA and ESA, and it provides nearly real-time data for monitoring particulate matters andpollutants suspended in our planet's atmosphere using reflectance patterns from the electromagneticspectrum. Among the datasets available for download are Sentinel P5, MODIS and VIIRS.
These datasets can be used in concert with data loggers to create a complete picture and allow scientists
to perform analysis while also providing necessary information to decision-makers.

Understanding air quality distribution using geostatistics
Using the available point information and satellite reference, GeoMedia Desktop can create a distribution
pattern of particulate matters with geostatistical tools like kriging and interpolation techniques like IDW orspline. These surfaces can help department officials understand pollution patterns and take a note of new
hotspots that might indicate the growth of particular plants or industrial emissions. This can help officials
make plans, decide which areas need inspection and maintain scientific proofs.

5White paperA representation surface showing
the distribution of ozone over anadministrative boundary using
geostatistical tools

Water pollution management
Integrating the hydrological network with a toxic release inventory and creating
spatial databases
GeoMedia Desktop can be used in conjunction with ERDAS IMAGINE to extract a hydrological network fromavailable digital elevation models. That network along other available river layers can be used to understandthe proximity of pollution point sources. When these layers are overlaid with point data regarding industries andplants, departments can assess and understand risks and plan effective mitigation measures. It also enables
decision-makers to build treatment plans for the discharges created by industry.
The layers can be stored in a relational database management system (RDBMS) for archival and update in
the future. Also, once the layers are in the RDBMS, a defined GIS database with defined schemas is createdfor use alongside other management information system (MIS) information sets that might be available within
the department.

Utilising DEM to extract hydrological network information, create a spatial database and overlay it with industry layers6White paper

Monitoring water quality using satellite-based water indexes and change detection
Remote sensing with wide coverage and multitemporal monitoring is the best solution for tracking surface
water quality. Chlorophyll a, dissolved oxygen, total suspended solids, Secchi disk depth, total dissolved
substance and pH were the parameters selected for surface water quality analysis in the example below.
High spectral resolution of L8 OLI/S2A images were used with a suite of data mining models to provide
more reliable images with both high spatial and temporal resolutions to extract important parameters.
ERDAS IMAGINE has several water quality indices built in as NDWI, WI and MNDWI that allow for water
quality extraction. Also, NDVI can be used to understand water quality and eutrophication parameters.

Machine learning-based change detection techniques can be used with multitemporal datasets, allowing users
to pinpoint areas where industries are violating the norms of effluent discharge into bodies of water.
Understanding this from a single image is very difficult, but comparing two different images taken by the samesensor on different dates can reveal very important datasets.

This dataset represents multiple-timeline LANDSAT 8 imagery being used to understand the effectsof urbanisation and industrialisation

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Identifying thermal plumes in water bodies using satellite data
The image chain functionalities in ERDAS IMAGINE can be used to identify thermal plumes originating in water
bodies and help officials determine the point sources. This can also act as proof of illegal activity.
It can be done with LANDSAT thermal bands that are freely available for download; drone-based datasets
can be used for analysis.

Soil pollution management
Creating zonation of solid waste dumping grounds and garbage dumps
GPS-based survey or polygon creation using satellite imagery should be performed to create zonation ofdumping grounds. This will allow officials to effectively monitor how much area is affected by waste dumping
activities and make action plans. During the process, a significant geospatial layer is created and stored in
the RDBMS. It can act as an important overlay for understanding the ecological effects of dumping.
GeoMedia Desktop can provide additional layers and facilitate the overlay.

Understanding impacts using land use zones and satellite imagery
Land use classification can be performed with ERDAS IMAGINE. Once land use zones are available andoverlaid with land parcel data, they can be used to understand the effects of soil pollution and contamination.
Identifying soil contamination zones is helpful in reducing groundwater contamination and can help personnel
understand chemical discharges and increases in soil salinity. ERDAS IMAGINE also displays polluted zones
that are in close proximity to aquifers and agricultural lands so that necessary actions can be taken.
In GeoMedia Professional, this information can also help with site suitability analysis for dumping zones basedon several parameters, like effective distance from bodies of water.

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Land use classification in ERDAS IMAGINE and aquifers mapped along with dumping zones

Geotagging solid waste incinerators to understand the network
coverage area
Another useful layer can be created using GeoMedia Desktop - the locations of solid
waste incinerators installed throughout cities. There is also a beautiful tool available
in GeoMedia Desktop called Thiessan Polygon.
Thiessan Polygon can be used to create a coverage area for incinerators to give
departmental personnel an effective idea of the available resources, which is usefulfor estimating how much area a department can handle.

Creating waste management plans withpopulation distribution maps
All solid waste management planning is dependent on theaccurate representation of population distribution overspatial layers.
GeoMedia Desktop can be used to create joins and extract
census layer information in boundary layers, which resultsin the creation of an important layer constituting population
distribution. This can give officials and decision-makers
a strong basis for policymaking.

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NOC management
Once all the above-mentioned different layers are available in a spatial database residing in an RDBMS,
departments can use GeoMedia Professional to create a scientific workflow backed by geospatial technologies
for providing No Objection Certificates to industries. It also facilitates monitoring over time.

Creating an inventory with NOC details for industries
GIS-based point layers should be available for all industries that are provided with NOC. GeoMedia Desktop
can be used to create an inventory containing GIS and MIS data related to the industries, and it allows
spatial analysis and pollution tracking via satellite imagery and provides up-to-date information regarding
NOC expiries.

Generating NOC with the spatial database and land base inventory
GeoMedia Desktop can be used to maintain land base information in GIS layers in an RDBMS. When it isoverlaid with land use classification, officials can understand the risks associated with providing a specific typeof industry with NOC. Also, if overlaid with population density maps, it can help officials understand theproximity of industry to human settlements and can be checked in coherence to hydrological networks tounderstand effects.

Land base information overlaid over satellite basemap created in GeoMedia Desktop

Contact us
https://go.hexagongeospatial.com/contact-us-today10White paper

About Hexagon
Hexagon is a global leader in sensor, software and autonomous solutions. We are putting data to work to boost efficiency,
productivity, and quality across industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, safety, and mobility applications.
Our technologies are shaping urban and production ecosystems to become increasingly connected and autonomous —ensuring a scalable, sustainable future.
Hexagon's Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division improves the performance, efficiency and resilience of vital services.
Its Safety & Infrastructure solutions enable smart and safe cities. Its Geospatial software leverages the power of location
intelligence.
Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 21,000 employees in 50 countries and net sales ofapproximately 3.8bn EUR. Learn more at hexagon.com and follow us @HexagonAB.

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