Context: The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is planning to conduct airline mapping of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep to get a better picture of the ocean floor.
About the recent Initiative

• The INCOIS is planning to take the help of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) to conduct ‘bathymetric’ study of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
• NRSC: It is one of the primary centres of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space (DOS).

Bathymetry

• It is the study of the "beds" or "floors" of water bodies, including the ocean, rivers, streams, and lakes.
• The term "bathymetry" originally referred to the ocean's depth relative to sea level, although it has come to mean “submarine topography,” or the depths and shapes of underwater terrain.
• NRSC has already done a similar high resolution topographic Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping (ALTM) for entire coastal areas of the country.
• ALTM is an active remote sensing technology that employs Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) to measure topography at high spatial resolution over large areas.
• ALTM pulses a laser to measure the range between an airborne platform and the Earth’s surface at many thousands of times per second.
• Using a rotating mirror or other scanning mechanism inside the laser transmitter, the laser pulses can be made to sweep through an angle, tracing out a line or other patterns on the reflecting surface.
• The scientists are in the process of integrating the data for a 3D multi-hazard mapping of both the east and west coastline for a more precise picture of the ocean floor.

Other Initiatives

• It had also identified ‘gaps’ across the coast of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha for installing more tide gauges for better monitoring of the sea and more accurate prediction of impending disasters like cyclones.
• The INCOIS scientists in association with their counterparts in the Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) and an United States independent scientific agency, Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), have been mining the data recorded by a unique ‘Flux Buoy’ retrieved from the Bay of Bengal off the Kolkota coast.
• The buoy was dropped off into the sea to monitor the temperatures, pressures, salinity, radiation and geo-chemical changes at various depths in a high resolution scale, compared to other buoys in the seas.

Similar Global Initiative

Seabed 2030 Project 

• Seabed 2030 is a collaborative project between the Nippon Foundation of Japan and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO).
• It was launched at the United Nations Ocean Conference in June 2017 and is aligned with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.
• The United Nations Ocean Conference intended to be a game-changer in reversing the decline in the health of the ocean for people, planet and prosperity.
• The project aims to bring together all available bathymetric data to produce the definitive map of the world ocean floor by 2030 and make it available to all.
• In the past, satellites and planes carrying altimeter instruments have been able to provide large swathes of data about the ocean floor
• However, the Seabed 2030 Project aims to obtain higher quality information that has a minimum resolution of 100 metres at all spots, using equipment such as deepwater hull-mounted sonar systems, and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). 

Prominence  of the Study of the Ocean Floor.

• Helps in understanding several natural phenomena, including ocean circulation, tides and biological hotspots. 
• Provides key inputs for navigation, forecasting disasters, exploration for oil and gas projects, building offshore wind turbines, fishing resources, and for laying cables and pipelines. 
• Ensure a better understanding of climate change. 
• Climate change has impacted the flow of ocean currents and has led to sea-level rise. 

About Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS)

• INCOIS is an autonomous body.
• It was set up under the Department of Ocean Development in February 1999.
• It had been registered as a Society under the Andhra Pradesh (Telangana Area) Public Societies Registration Act 1350.
• Its mission is to provide ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and scientific community through sustained ocean observations and constant improvements through systematic and focussed research.
• INCOIS is the Secretariat for the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS), Basin level Coordinator and Regional Data Centre for International Argo project in Indian Ocean.
• INCOIS was designated as the national Oceanographic Data Centre under the international oceanographic data exchange programme of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.
• Its campus in Hyderabad is known as “Ocean Valley”.