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Usage of Geospatial Technology

Some of the examples of multidimensional usage of geospatial technology in India are mentioned here:

1. AGRICULTURE

  1. Agri-business Solutions: Solving Tricky Problems of Over/Under Estimation: Skymet, one of India’s largest private sector weather stations uses weather forecasting geospatial tools to provide a wide range of services like crop estimation, agribusiness solutions, crop-loss estimation studies, crop cutting experiments and crop insurance.
  2. Better Nutrient Management on Standing Crop Using GPS Data Logger: GreenSeeker developed by Trimble has an optical hand-held sensor and GPS data logger attached to it. The product tries to find a solution to the rampant use of nitrogen by farmers that is causing soil degradation and underground water pollution.

 

2. DISASTER MANAGEMENT

  1. Countrywide Fire Hazard and Risk Analysis for Revamping the Fire and Emergency Services in India: RMSI (a global GIS consulting company) conducted a detailed Global Positioning System (GPS)-based field survey of India’s entire civil fire infrastructure and also conducted a detailed GIS-based fire hazard and risk analysis to develop a Web GIS-based Fire Decision Support System (FDSS). This tool is helping the Fire Cell of NDRF & CD (Civil Defense) as well as Fire and Emergency Directorates of all the States and UTs of the country in revamping fire and emergency services.
  2. Flood Inundation Modelling using UAVs at Guntur, Andhra Pradesh: ideaForge (the drone start-up) deployed its VTOL NETRAv2 drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV) for Andhra Pradesh to assess and simulate the damage that took place after the area experienced above average or heavy rainfall. It produces a high-resolution photographic simulation of the town’s surrounding geography and terrain at progressing levels of flooding and asses the area of land that could be affected or would be inundated.
  3. GIS- & GPS-Based Emergency Response System for Smart Cities: State-of-the-art Emergency Response System known as Rolta GeoCAD (also known as Computer-aided Dispatch or Dial 100 systems) is deployed in the modern police control rooms of smart cities. Geospatial Technologies constitute one of the important components of this system. Geospatial coordinates of an incident location, point of interest or surveillance area provide the field responders and the control room operators in attending to the emergencies/surveillance effectively and accurately.

 

3. INTERNAL SECURITY

  1. Integrated Web GIS-based Crime Investigation System for Railway Passenger Safety: M P Council of Science & Technology (MPCST) and the Government Railway Police (GRP) are developing Web GIS-based applications for quick and effective crime investigation. It includes several modules such as Call Detail Records analysis, Visitor Location Register analysis, geo-tagged mapping of temporary hiding places of criminals along with the photographs of these places and attributes, digitization of criminal records of notified criminals and geotagging of their known residences along with ground photographs, passenger reservation dump data analysis, mapping of railway tracks, stations etc. All these tools are integrated into a single platform known as Crime Investigation System.

 

4. INFRASTRUCTURE

  1. Geospatial Data Modelling for Creation of Web-Portal Services for Industrial and Infrastructure Development under GOiPLUS in Odisha: Geo-informatics, ICT and space technology have been used to create the Web-GIS-based Odisha Land Bank for industrial and infrastructure development. High-resolution ortho-images, georeferenced digital datasets, NIC Bhulekh data, satellite-derived spatial datasets and attribute datasets of the industry department were seamlessly put together to create the Web-GIS-based interactive portal for Odisha Industry information and Land Bank services.
  2. Integrating UAVs in Social Research: Village profiling was achieved spatially through transect walks, aerial mapping using UAVs, through a pilot study undertaken at Bhora Khurd, a village of Haryana, to explore the potential of geospatial data and t use of geospatial technology in social research. It allows access to inaccessible geographies which remain beyond the purview of door-to-door enumeration which can now be gauged, mapped, and produced on visual platforms to understand resource-oriented gaps and eventually lead to better governance.
  3. Innovative use of LiDAR Technology for Smart City Surveillance: Genesys International developed innovative solutions based on LIDAR technology for safety and security planning in Smart Cities with a CCTV-based surveillance system where Genesys provided the required feasibility tool with 3D models of the real-world objects.
  4. eLoc - India’s First National Digital Address System: eLoc is a standardized and precise pan-India digital address system. What Aadhaar has done for the identification of individuals, this system does it for the addresses. It is a 6-character-based code - a unique identifier that precisely locates any address.

 

5. NATURAL RESOURCES

  1. Mapping Technologies help Indigenous Communities Preserve access to Water Resources and Biodiversity: Keystone (a Non-Government Organization) uses GIS-based data and mapping to gather and analyse a library of information and build action plans to preserve water resources and biodiversity. It has used mapping technologies to support initiatives that protect springs and wetlands; promote sustainable livelihoods; help indigenous people gain title to traditional lands, and improve access to water for 4,000 families.
  2. Sujal - NRW Management for Jalgaon Municipal Council: Maharashtra Sujal Nirmal Abhiyan (MSNA) is a reform-led programme which aims to achieve 24x7 water supplies as per the central government guidelines with a focus on water conservation. It includes a scope of accountability mechanisms like theft, and leakages, and promotes the judicious and equitable distribution of available water to all consumers while extending access to water to all residents. GIS development and mapping tools are used for the project.

 

6. RAILWAYS

  1. Drones, Data and the Indian Railways: Indian Railways, with an aim to introduce technological solutions for project management and monitoring, employed AIRPIX to avail UAV solutions for their 25-km-long Seawoods-Belapur-Uran project. The solution included data capturing using UAVs and data analytics to derive insights about the project status.
  2. LiDAR Scanning for Railway Infrastructure: The research project was initiated at IIT Roorkee for providing the Ministry of Railways with insights into India’s current railway infrastructure and recommendations for improvements on the tracks, signalling, stations and terminals. Laser scanning technology (FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D X Series) is used for this purpose.

 

7. ROADS & HIGHWAYS

  1. Road Asset Management System for National Highways: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has taken up the Road Asset Management System (RAMS) project with the World Bank's assistance. Under this project, the software is being developed to collect location-based data for more than 200 attributes of the road.
  2. Integrating Disruptive Solutions with Traditional Survey Tools for efficient Project and Stakeholder Management: Karnataka is a blessed state of the Indian subcontinent that is endowed with a variety of natural resources ranging from a long useable coastline to dense evergreen forests. In order to ensure the maximum utilization of these resources for economic growth, the state has undertaken a comprehensive development drive to improve the road network, especially in its less urbanized areas. Differential GPS and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles tools were employed for the study.
  3. Tamil Nadu Highway Department (TNHD) e-Pathai Project: TNHD envisioned e-Pathai as a web-based GIS to assist them to rationalize decision-making in planning, programming, funding, procurement and in the allocation of resources in the road sector in order to make the best use of public funds in preserving the road networks.  

 

8. TRANSPORTATION

  1. Ground-up Approach for Solving Local Transportation Issues: The transportation application Ola was developed as a way to aggregate the highly scattered personal transportation offerings into a single system that was efficient, reliable, scalable and affordable; through the use of geospatial technologies.
  2. GIS-Based School Bus Tracking: Consciousness and concern for the safety of their children among parents is increasing in urban India. A smart Bus is a tool that employed the application of Mobile and location-based technologies to monitor and track school buses from anywhere anytime. Information Alerts about the arrival and departure of a school bus and exact geo-location and ETA used to be shared with the parents.
  3. Indian oil corporation Limited (IOCL) uses the technology to transport large quantities of petroleum products between its supply depots and retail outlets. The process of identifying the shortest transport routes on all-weather motorable roads for delivering its products is automated using geospatial technology. The solution also provides digital tools for managers to verify and approve the selected routes. Early assessment of the implemented solution indicates cost and time savings, better management and increased convenience to the Company.

 

9. UTILITIES

  1. Mapping technologies utilised for urban planning to improve sanitation for India’s urban poor: Many of the urban poor lack access to a basic sanitary resource: a toilet. One Home One Toilet was implemented by Shelter Associates to solve this problem. The project combines data and GIS to map slums’ infrastructure, showing the homes which do not have individual toilets or access to communal ones and then facilitating the installation of household toilets, improving sanitation, health, and quality of life.
  2. Modernization of Utility Mapping using High-end GNSS: Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is using the Mumbai Base Map digitized by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) with ArcGIS systems to manage their utilities. MCGM departments employed the GNSS system to update the maps from time to time.

 

Source: http://ficci.in/spdocument/20873/Geospatial%20Technologies%20in%20India%20-%20Success%20Stories.pdf