Suresh Kumar

• Ph. D. Soil Science
• Group Director at Indian Space Research Organization

Forest plays a crucial role in mitigating soil erosion and preserving organic carbon, especially in mountainous regions of Himalayas. However, limited information exists on soil erosion rate, soil organic carbon stock (SOCS), and associated carbon loss in these areas because of the rugged terrain, which poses challenges for reliable estimation usin...

Soil micronutrients are critical for plant growth and reproductive processes to complete their key functionality of the life cycle. The availability of micronutrients in hilly and mountainous regions is influenced by topography-controlled soil processes at various hillslope positions. However, the ruggedness of terrains makes it challenging to gath...

The study investigates the use of satellite-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) and remote sensing methods to analyse the influence of terrain on various environmental factors crucial for comprehending and understanding land degradation phenomena. It assesses erosion risk and runoff intensity by integrating the examination of topographic charac...

Digital soil mapping (DSM) has emerged as a powerful tool for predicting soil properties and classes across large geographical areas, aiding in sustainable land management and environmental planning. In this study, we explore the application of various machine learning (ML) models and compared their predictive ability for digital mapping of soil pr...

Land degradation is accelerating in the Himalayan ecosystem, resulting in the loss of soil nutrients due to severe erosion. Soil erosion presents a significant environmental challenge, resulting in both on-site and off-site consequences, such as reduced soil productivity and siltation in reservoirs. Soil erodibility (K factor), an inherent soil pro...

Land degradation is a global concern that affects social, economic, and environmental health. Exploitation of natural resources, climate change, and unsustainable natural resource management are the prime reasons behind it. It affects food security as well as goods and services provided by the ecosystem. The drivers (biophysical, policies, etc.) an...

Hilly and mountainous regions are significantly impacted by soil erosion, primarily due to rainfall-runoff processes occurring on the hillslope scale. Assessing soil erosion is crucial for quantifying the loss of soil carbon and nutrients, which diminishes the potential of soil ecosystem services and is critical for mitigating the impacts of climat...

Accurate evapotranspiration (ET) assessment is crucial for agricultural water management, encompassing crop water requirements, irrigation scheduling, water budgeting and drought monitoring. This study integrates remote sensing-based surface energy balance model with in-situ ET measurements to evaluate surface energy fluxes and ET in Pantnagar, Tar...

Soil erosion emerged as a significant land degradation concern, causing serious threat to soil ecosystem services in the Himalayan region. The complex topography of the region poses limitations to the measurement of soil redistribution (erosion, transport, and deposition) rate, necessitated for the effective soil conservation planning. The study in...

The Himalayan region is characterized by its heterogeneous topography and diverse land use/land cover types that significantly influence the weather and climatic patterns in the Indian sub-continent. Predicting future precipitation is crucial for understanding and mitigating the impacts of climate change on water resources, land degradation includi...

Soil erosion is a serious concern all over the globe, and it is more prevalent in tropical, steep sloping hilly and mountainous regions. The Himalayas are suffering from serious problem of soil erosion caused by water due to the complexity of the terrain and extreme climatic conditions. Reliable long-term soil erosion rates are required to implemen...

The topography and land use/land cover (LULC) of the hillslope play a significant influence on soil erosion because of water, which is considered as a principal factor for the reduction of soil organic carbon content. Reliable information on the impact of erosion mechanism on soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) is essential for effectively accounting...

The Himalayas possess a distinctive topography owe to the dynamic interplay of tectonic activity, geological erosion and sedimentation, glacial processes, and climatic influences over the millions of years. The rugged, steep terrain and poor land management make it more prone to water erosion, negatively impacts the soil, affecting the goods and se...

Soil erosion caused by water is a major concern for land degradation in the Himalayas, impacting the livelihoods of people dependent on subsistence agriculture. Implementing sustainable land use planning and management practices is essential for reducing soil loss. Accurate, long-term data on soil erosion rates are necessary for effective natural r...

Himalayas are recognized as a major soil erosion hotspot, resulting from both geological and accelerated erosion processes. The complex topography of the region intensifies the process of soil erosion. Scientific knowledge is normally more generalized whereas traditional knowledge typically originates indigenously and is site-specific. This traditi...

KEYWORDS natural disaster, remote sensing, hazard assessment, environmental management, disaster risk reduction Editorial on the Research Topic Geophysical, climatological and anthropogenic hazards and disaster: vulnerability, risk assessment, and sustainability In the contemporary era, the global community grapples with frequent natural and human-...

Agricultural lands are a major source of greenhouse gas emission that causes global warming. Carbon sequestration in agricultural sector can be achieved by assimilating atmospheric carbon dioxide in biomass and as soil organic carbon in soil through sustainable management practices. The concept of smart farming emerged to support sustainable agricu...

Global warming has emerged as a major global threat after industrialization and has become more prominent in recent years. The increase in temperature is a result of enhanced greenhouse gas emissions, which are generated from natural and anthropogenic sources. This can trigger a vigorous hydrological cycle, enhancing extreme weather events and caus...

Climate change is increasingly threatening the globe, and, currently, we are facing various weather extremities frequently. It may affect ecosystem health, extinction of species, and risk to people’s lives and livelihoods. Although there are numerous factors that contribute to land degradation, distinguishing between them can be challenging. The mu...

The growing population projected to be 9 billion by 2050 indicates an increased food demand and pressure on natural resources including soils, water, and biodiversity that are already stretched dangerously thin. To feed this population, there is a need to increase agricultural production by 70% and agriculture sustainability plays a key role in thi...

This book aims to contribute to the discourse on climate crisis by bringing together high-quality empirical research on adaptive approaches and sustainability case studies from across the world. The book is divided into six sections. The introductory section has two chapters which sets the ground of the book as it discusses the framing of climate c...

Soil erosion (SE) is a major concern for ecosystem services and food security for the global community. Climate change, unsustainable land management practices, abandoning cultivable agricultural land, deforestation, and steep slope are the prime factors that worsen the soil erosion status. Soil erosion and associated carbon (C) loss is one of the...

This study was aimed at knowing the impact of soil salinity on the spectral and backscattering properties of wheat as well as the feasibility of the combined use of optical and microwave data for soil salinity mapping in Mathura district, located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Wheat crops grown under different salinity levels showed a signif...

Land degradation due to soil erosion by water is a major environmental problem and socio-economic concern in tropical hilly and mountainous regions of Himalayas. It results serious adverse consequences, such as the removal of nutrient-rich topsoil, loss of soil productivity, and soil redistribution as well as release of soil stored carbon. It has s...

The Himalayan hills and mountains are very fragile and being threatened by land degradation due to soil erosion by water, poses serious challenges to the soil ecosystem services and sustainability of natural resources. Reliable estimate of long-term soil erosion rate in various land use/land cover types and slopes are necessitated to suggest suitab...

Creating a mathematical model that approximates the genuine relationship between soil characteristics or classes and environmental variables in order to make an accurate prediction is known as predictive modeling for digital soil mapping. To map the spatial patterns of soil attributes, digital soil mapping uses quantitative approaches in combinatio...

Hillslope elements and land cover types are primarily determining the spatial variability of soils in the hilly and mountainous landscape. Among the soil forming factors, topography strongly influences pedogenic process and governs the variability of soils in hilly and mountainous landscape. This study mainly focusses on characterizing soil quality...

Mountain soils have received significant attention due to their profound influence on ecological processes and environmental factors. However, mapping these soils in digital soil mapping technique encounters several challenges, including high local variability, non-linear relationships between environmental covariates and soil properties, limited a...

Slopy agricultural lands are more susceptible to soil erosion and hence are priority sites for the application of protective soil management practices. A conservation agriculture field experiment was established at a 6% field slope in 2011 at the ICAR-IISWC Research Farm, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, which is situated in the Northwestern Himalayan Region...

Soil physico-chemical properties influence ecosystem services and subsequently human’s lives, therefore soil information is crucial for promoting sustainable land use and ensuring the long-term health and productivity of soils. In environmentally vulnerable regions like the Himalayas, where rapid socio-economic development is seen and expected to g...

Soil salinization is one of the most active land degradation processes, affecting predominantly arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid regions and leading to decreased agricultural yields. The Indo-Gangetic plain, which includes the irrigated command areas with arid and semi-arid climatic conditions are severely affected by secondary soil salinization....

The process-based model needs to be calibrated before its applications to derive a reliable estimate. A process-based agricultural policy/environmental eXtender (APEX) model was utilised to assess surface runoff and soil loss of a micro-watershed belongs to the Shivalik region of Himachal Pradesh, India. The model was performed exceptionally well f...

The soil organic matter is a crucial factor in determining soil characteristics and productivity; however various land management practices degrade or aggrade the soil health. The objective of this study was to look at the influence of land-use conversion on soil health by using the concept of stratification ratio (SR) of soil organic carbon (SOC)...

The natural resources available for human beings is either decreasing or degrading day by day, which may lead to the unavailability of the natural resources. The high demand and consumption of nonrenewable resources may affect the stability of the world economy and food security. Environmental pollution and degradation enhance the nonjudicial utili...

Rapid urbanization is a fallout of the urban growth that adversely impacts the urban ecosystem, which is a characteristic feature of all developing countries. India too is a developing nation with Kolkata being one of the major eastern metropolitan cities experiencing rapid urban growth. This chapter is an attempt for analyzing the trends of vegeta...

Human exploitation on the natural resources is continuing in an overwhelming rate. Nonrenewable natural resources are expected to deplete in the near future; in addition, humans are consuming the nonrenewable resources at a rate which is far above the time required for regeneration. The exponential growing population and global economic competency...

Watershed is considered as a natural unit for the resource management, planning and adoption of soil and water conservation practices. Hence, it plays a vital role in social, economic and ecological functioning of a system. The hydrological processes occurring in the watershed drive major vital services to various organisms and human beings. In rec...

Soil degradation declines the inherent soil quality, resistance and stability which leads to less productive and highly vulnerable soil. The world’s population is increasing in an exponential rate and through this pressure on land is increasing rapidly. Consequently, to meet the food requirement, cultivation is shifting towards hilly and mountainou...

Global warming is continuing to occur globally as result of fossil fuel burning and no signs of decreasing concentration of greenhouse gases. The environment is highly dependent on the climate of a particular region. Any variation may negatively impact the proper functioning and processes of the ecosystem. Every sector is severely under threat of g...

Agriculture is the key component to support the ever-increasing population across the globe. However, the natural resources supporting agriculture, most importantly land and water resources, are shrinking at a rapid rate. Land degradation is rampant across different parts of the world, and the vagaries of climate change threaten the agricultural pr...

Soils in hilly and mountainous landscapes face serious threats due to accelerated soil erosion. It will diminish the soil ecosystem benefits and services which are meant for delivery to us. The mishandling of various ecosystem goods and services is primarily due to the lack of knowledge regarding the value of ecosystem. The ecosystem valuation will...

Springer Climate Series (Now Indexed in Scopus) https://www.researchgate.net/project/Springer-Nature-Climate-Series-Scopus-Indexed-Invitation-for-Call-for-Book-Chapter-on-Ecological-footprints-of-climate-change-Adaptive-Approaches-and-Sustainability The Benefit of the authors or Contributors: It will be published in an edited book by It will be D...

Mountains and hills play a crucial function in controlling the hydrological cycle and water availability to meet requirement of all biological components of the ecosystem. Unsustainable land management practices, steep slopes and climate change deteriorate the hilly and mountainous ecosystems. Soil erosion in the hilly and mountainous region is a s...

Frontiers in Environmental Science (Journal ) (Electronic ISSN : 2296-665X), Impact Factor: 5.4 Indexed in: Scopus, Web of Science, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Google Scholar, DOAJ, CrossRef, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), AGRICOLA, ProQuest Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) Call for Paper on Special Issue: Geophysical,...

Crop phenology monitoring is a necessary action for precision agriculture. Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites provide us with the opportunity to monitor crop phenology at a high spatial resolution with high accuracy. The main objective of this study was to examine the potential of the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data and their combination for monit...

Understanding the impact of climate change on soil erosion is required to plan effective soil conservation and management practices in hilly and mountainous landscape. Though, few studies have been executed in Indian Himalayas, much less in Shiwalik Himalayas. Thus, keeping this in view, the aim of the study is to estimate the possible impact of pr...

Soil information, including their spatial variability is vital for devising various soil and land management policies and strategies as well as assessing the environmental impact of different land use changes. Among the various soil forming factors, terrain plays a vital role in determining the spatial distribution of soil properties especially in...

The rate of soil degradation is increasing in the Himalayan ecosystem and inducing soil nutrient loss due to numerous environmental effects. The site-specific soil management zones (MZs) are necessary for such terrain with variability in spatial soil nutrient distribution. The present study investigates the spatial variability of soil nutrients and...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the soil health indicators. Forest soils are negatively impacted by biotic interference, and we can infer impact from forest canopy cover, amenable to Earth Observation data. We mapped forest cover types and canopy density using remote sensing data. Sample design and size were based on the stratification and homo...

The conservation and sustainability of natural resources , particularly soil and water, are crucial for agricultural yield and livelihood. Soil erosion models simulate the influence of existing farm management patterns as well as soil conservation interventions affecting soil erosion rates and accordingly recommend appropriate management techniques...

Among the various land degradation processes that are operating globally and adversely affecting agricultural production as well as environmental quality, soil erosion, more precisely, erosion by water, stands out prominently. Understanding the various processes involved and factors affecting erosion is a prime prerequisite with respect to soil ero...

The fragile and immature soils in the sloping terrain of the Himalayan landscape is susceptible to soil erosion. Besides this, climate change may significantly enhance the soil erosion. Policymaking needs reliable estimation of the soil erosion to suggest suitable conservation measures. Hence, keeping this in view, the study was carried out to simu...

Estimation of spatial variability of soil organic carbon (SOC) content is important for agricultural management and environmental studies. In this study, geospatial prediction of SOC content was conducted to evaluate and compare geostatistical techniques of ordinary kriging (OK) and cokriging (CK) with hyperspectral satellite data (Hyperion) as an...

Estimation of spatial variability of soil organic carbon (SOC) content is important for agricultural management and environmental studies. In this study, geo-spatial prediction of SOC content was conducted to evaluate and compare geostatistical techniques of ordinary kriging (OK) and cokriging (CK) with hyperspectral satellite data (Hyperion) as an...

Development of salt-affected soils is one of the major land degradation processes occurring in the arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid climatic regions across the world. They are characterized by abundance of neutral soluble salts (saline) and sodium salts (sodic or alkali) in the root zone adversely affecting crop growth and sustainability of soils....

Abstract Estimation of runoff and sediment yield are primarily required for watershed development planning involving soil and water conservation measures. Runoff is primarily responsible for sediment detachment and their transport during the erosion processes. In the study, GeoWEPP model was used to estimate the daily runoff and sediment yield from...

The present study was carried out to evaluate performance of Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) integrated with GIS as ArcAPEX model in simulating surface runoff, sediment and nutrients loss from a watershed located in lesser Himalayan region in Uttarakhand state, India. Daily surface runoff, sediment and nutrient loss data measured...

Dual-pol Shannon Entropy captures the dynamic crop growth parameters. It was used to evaluate biophysical parameters of important crops using Sentinel-1 data. Improved phenology information is vital input to crop-growth models. Mustard experienced increase as it advanced in phenology but for wheat, decreased due to absorption. A significant relatio...

Soil erosion is the major cause of land degradation, which has become a worldwide environmental problem that degrades soil productivity and water quality. Assessing soil erosion in hilly and mountainous terrain always pose a great challenge to researchers and policy makers due to the inaccessible terrain as well as the scarcity of detailed informat...

Daily surface runoff, sediment and nutrient loss data collected from a watershed located in Uttarakhand state of Indian Himalayan region, in year 2010-2011 and of which half of the events data were used for calibration and remaining for validation. Model was calibrated for surface runoff, sediment loss and nutrient loss to optimize the input given...

Monitoring and measurement of urban growth pattern with the help of urban-rural gradient and spatial metrics are gaining significant importance in recent times. Rapid and unplanned urban growth has a great impact on natural resources, local ecology, forestry and infrastructure. Temporal satellite data, gradient analysis and landscape metrics of urb...

Unsustainable use of land resources leads to degradation of soil resulting decline in soil functions such as crop productivity, regulation of the hydrological cycle, water quality, and soil quality. Soil quality is influenced by inherent and anthropogenic factors. It is used to evaluate soil resource functions as how well soil performs for all its...

Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is an efficient tool to bridge the gap between high expensive satellite remote sensing, manned aerial surveys, and labors time consuming conventional fieldwork techniques of data collection. UAS can provide spatial data at very fine (up to a few mm) and desirable temporal resolution. Several studies have used vegetation...

Soil erosion by water is one of the major threats to the society and the economy in different parts of the world affecting agriculture. It is major land degradation process occurring throughout the world that adversely affects ecosystem services, crop production, and water quality and carbon emission to the atmosphere. The hydrological processes as...

Visible–near infrared (VNIR) spectroscopy is a relatively fast and cost-effective analytical technique for estimating soil organic carbon (SOC). The present study was undertaken for predicting SOC using VNIR reflectance spectroscopy employing artificial neural network (ANN). Surface soil samples (0–15 cm) were collected from 75 georeferenced locati...

Soil erosion (SE) is the primary reason of land degradation and responsible in declining soil quality and crop yield in the Himalayan region. Spatial SE risk assessment and sediment loss are necessitated to prioritize sub-watershed and implementing soil and water conservation planning of the watershed. In this study, revised universal soil loss equ...

The study was conducted using existing soil data from Nawagaon and Maskara Rao watershed boundary in Shaharanpur district, India to assess land capability classes using Remote Sensing and GIS approach. Land sat image was integrated with SRTM DEM for delineation of landforms and analysis of land use/land cover data. The filled SRTM DEM of the study...

Satellite remote sensing offers a unique opportunity in deriving various components of land information by integrating with ground based observation. Currently several remote sensing satellites are providing multispectral, hyperspectral and microwave data to cater the need of various land applications. Several old age remote sensing satellites have...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important parameter to study the carbon cycle as soil carbon stock inventory as well as to serve as prime indicator in assessing soil health and soil quality. The present study was attempted to investigate C-equivalent correction factor for SOC by Walkley–Black (wet oxidation) and loss on ignition (LOI) methods in re...

Soil aggregate stability is considered as an important indicator of soil quality in the landscapes witnessing land degradation due to soil erosion by water. An increase in anthropogenic activities over the period of time has accelerated soil erosion that necessitated need to assess soil aggregate stability in various land use/land cover in the hill...

Hyperspectral remote sensing is widely used for analyzing and estimating the severity of soil salinity in arid and semi-arid regions, throughout the world. Narrow-band spectral derived from hyperspectral remote sensing data provide better discrimination of salt-affected soils and information on degree of soil salinity. Several researchers have test...

Potential of Sentinel-1A SAR data were assessed for the time series analysis of orchard biophysical parameters and crop system. The study revealed characteristics variations in the backscatter coefficient w.r.t time and polarization for age in VH polarization than in VV and ratio of VV/VH polarization showing discrimination of young orchard particu...

Soil erosion due to water is one of the most important land degradation processes and considered as major land degradation type in the world (UNEP 1994; Jain et al. 2010). The entire Himalayan region is facing serious problem of land degradation due to soil erosion. Deforestation and inappropriate land utilization coupled with steep sloping terrain...

A study was conducted in Saharanpur District of Uttar Pradesh to asses the potential of Sentinel-1A SAR Data in orchard crop classification. The objective of the study was to evaluate three different classifiers that are maximum likelihood classifier, decision tree algorithm and random forest algorithm in Sentinel-1A SAR Data. An attempt is made to...

LS factor plays a key role in soil erosion risk assessment using widely adopted empirical models such as RUSLE (Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation). The study was carried out to estimate the impact of varying DEM resolutions on LS factor values in a small hilly watershed near Dehradun, India. The impact of various computational algorithms as well...

Remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) have emerged as the most effective tools in generating up-to-date, reliable information on soil and land resources of large regions in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. Advances in spatial, spectral, and radiometric resolutions of the remote sensing sensors are providing a wide opport...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key component in maintaining soil quality. Mapping the local scale variations in the distribution and stratification of SOC and other soil quality parameters across different layers has always been a challenging task, in the current global scenario of changing climates. The study was aimed to investigate the spatial d...

Digital soil mapping relies on field observations, laboratory measurements and remote sensing data, integrated with quantita-tive methods to map spatial patterns of soil properties. The study was undertaken in a hilly watershed in the Indian Himalayan region of Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh for mapping soil nutrients by employing artificial neural...

Soil degradation induced by erosion represents a major threat to food production and ecosystem service globally, and in India more than 80 Mha have been impacted. In the light of the serious threat, there is a pressing need for a systematic nationwide assessment of land degradation due to erosion. We discuss the potential for using caesium-137 and...

Kharif crops inventory using Dual -Polarized RISAT 1 satellite data

Land surface temperature (LST) is the key parameter which in land surface processes, energy balance, crop evapotranspiration, water allocation and planning from small to larger extant on globe. Now a day, LST retrieval algorithms become a research interest globally using various satellite data at different spatial resolution. In the present study,...

SAR remote sensing has been widely used for agricultural mapping and monitoring. All weather capability of SAR data makes it advantageous to acquire information of agricultural crops during monsoon season. Several studies have been carried to show the potential of SAR data for retrieval of structural and biophysical parameters to estimate crop phen...

Upper most layer of soil and underground water is endowed of nature for India. India is an agriculture based country and land degradation is a critical issue which generally occurring for sustainable development. There are so many factors that affect land on various points of view with different purposes. Increasing population, over exploitation of...

Climate change, particularly due to the changed precipitation trend, can have a severe impact on soil erosion. The effect is more pronounced on the higher slopes of the Himalayan region. The goal of this study was to estimate the impact of climate change on soil erosion in a watershed of the Himalayan region using RUSLE model. The GCM (general circ...

Soils play significant roles in global carbon cycle. The increase in atmospheric CO2 due to climate change may have a significant impact on both soil organic carbon storage and management practices to sequester organic carbon in agricultural areas. The aim of the study was to simulate climate change impact on soil carbon sequestration using CENTURY...

Soil erosion is one of the major cause of land degradation and is a serious threat to food security and agricultural sustainability. Revised Universal Soil Loss equation (RUSLE) model using remote sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) inputs was employed to estimate soil erosion risk in a watershed of mid-Himalaya in Uttarakhand s...

Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool-Variable Source Area (SWAT-VSA) models were employed to predict surface runoff generation in a watershed of the Himalayan landscape in GIS environment. Both the models differed in term of defining hydrological response units (HRUs) that serves as basis in assigning curve numbe...

Soil erodibility is one of the most important factors used in spatial soil erosion risk assessment. Soil information derived from soil map is used to generate soil erodibility factor map. Soil maps are not available at appropriate scale. In general, soil maps at small scale are used in deriving soil erodibility map that largely generalized spatial...