Exploring Renewable Energy Resources Using Remote Sensing and GIS—A Review

Abstract

Renewable energy has received noteworthy attention during the last few decades. This is partly due to the fact that fossil fuels are depleting and the need for energy is soaring because of the growing population of the world. This paper attempts to provide an idea of what is being done by researchers in remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) field for exploring the renewable energy resources in order to get to a more sustainable future. Several studies related to renewable energy resources viz. geothermal energy, wind energy, hydropower, biomass, and solar energy, have been considered in this paper. The focus of this review paper is on exploring how remote sensing and GIS-based techniques have been beneficial in exploring optimal locations for renewable energy resources. Several case studies from different parts of the world which use such techniques in exploring renewable energy resource sites of different kinds have also been included in this paper. Though each of the remote sensing and GIS techniques used for exploration of renewable energy resources seems to efficiently sell itself in being the most effective among others, it is important to keep in mind that in actuality, a combination of different techniques is more efficient for the task. Throughout the paper, many issues relating to the use of remote sensing and GIS for renewable energy are examined from both current and future perspectives and potential solutions are suggested. The authors believe that the conclusions and recommendations drawn from the case studies and the literature reviewed in the present study will be valuable to renewable energy scientists and policymakers.

COVID-19 and its impact on environment: Improved pollution levels during the lockdown period – A case from Ahmedabad, India

“…This manual process is not only time consuming and expensive, but also not suitable for analysis over a regional scale ( Duan et al, 2013 ; Ritchie et al, 2003 ). Recently, remote sensing techniques have been widely used to undertake these studies with accuracy, and advantageous of having both cost and time over the manual approaches ( Yunus et al, 2019 ; Avtar et al, 2019 ). The use of remotely sensed data helps not only to monitor and identify the water quality over large regions, but temporal changes can also be assessed regularly.…”

Urban Green Spaces and Their Need in Cities of Rapidly Urbanizing India: A Review

“…As Asia and Africa currently house 90% of the world's rural population, they are urbanizing faster than any other region and are predicted to achieve urbanization rates of 56% and 64%, respectively, by 2050 [4]. The rise in urban population is expected to be high in India, China, and Nigeria, where 35% of the world urban population growth is predicted to occur during 2018-2050 [5,6]. Urbanization brings a number of benefits to the Asian countries [7,8].…”

Understanding the Hydropower and Potential Climate Change Impact on the Himalayan River Regimes—A Study of Local Perceptions and Responses from Himachal Pradesh, India

“…The possible impact of dams on the river flow regimes across the world varies based on the terrain, topography, ecology, and socioeconomic conditions of the region. In the climate change scenarios and impact of global warming, estimated runoff contributions to the total runoff from snow and glacier melt in the Beas at 35%, the Chenab 49%, and the Satluj 60% at present are going to increase with the increase in snow and glaciers melting [46][47][48]. Ali et al [8] suggested the wetter 17.04 ± 20.76% and 15.30 ± 20.16% increase in the annual mean precipitation in the Nathpa Jhakri (1500 MW) and Bhakra Nangal (1300 MW) big storage dams of the Satluj basin, respectively, in the near future was owing to snow and glaciers melting.…”