Vs Ramamurthy

National spatial data infrastructure - coming together of GIS and EO in India

Abstract A new wave of technological innovation is allowing us to capture, store, process and display an unprecedented amount of geographical and spatial information about Society and a wide variety of environmental and cultural phenomena. Much of this information is “spatial” - that is, it refers to a coordinate system and is representable in map form. Current and accurate spatial data must be readily available to contribute to local, state and national development and contribute to economic growth, environmental quality and stability, and social progress. India has, over the past years, produced a rich “base” of map information through systematic topographic surveys, geological surveys, soil surveys, cadastral surveys, various natural resources inventory programmes and the use of the remote sensing images. Further, with the availability of precision, high-resolution satellite images, data enabling the organisation of GIS, combined with the Global Positioning System (GPS), the accuracy and information content of these spatial datasets or maps is extremely high. Encapsulating these maps and images into a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is the need of the hour and the emphasis has to be on information transparency and sharing, with the recognition that spatial information is a national resource and citizens, society, private enterprise and government have a right to access it, appropriately. Only through common conventions and technical agreements, standards, metadata definitions, network and access protocols will it be easily possible for the NSDI to come into existence. India has now a NSDI strategy and the “NSDI Strategy and Action Plan” report has been prepared and is being opened up to a national debate. The first steps have been taken but the end-goal is farther away but in sight now. While Government must provide the lead, private enterprise, NGOs and academia have a major role to play in making the NSDI a reality. NSDI will require for coming together of various “groups” and harmonizing their efforts in making this national endeavor a success. The paper discusses how the convergence of technologies is being strategised in NSDI - specifically of EO images and GIS technologies and how the nation would benefit from access to these datasets. The paper also discusses and illustrates with specific examples the techniques being developed and how the NSDI would support development efforts on the country.

Energizing Sustainable Development

In the foothills of the Himalayas, there is a region with a large number of springs, some of which are perennial. For hundreds of years, people have been using the running water to turn small mills used for dehusking and grinding wheat. One organization, Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO), realized that there is not only a significant scope for efficiency improvement of the mill itself, but that restricting its use to grinding wheat alone was actually limiting its use for a few hours in a day while the stream was flowing all the time. HESCO carried out a technology up-gradation exercise wherein ball bearings were introduced, the wooden paddles were replaced with metal paddles, and the mills were coupled to a generator so that when they are not used to grind wheat, they produced electricity for the village. For the first time, a village far away from the main national electricity network had access to electricity to light their homes, to power small machines, and a host of other uses. The cost for a 10-kW system was an unbelievable Rs. 50,000 (approximately US In the foothills of the Himalayas, there is a region with a large number of springs, some of which are perennial. For hundreds of years, people have been using the running water to turn small mills used for dehusking and grinding wheat. One organization, Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO), realized that there is not only a significant scope for efficiency improvement of the mill itself, but that restricting its use to grinding wheat alone was actually limiting its use for a few hours in a day while the stream was flowing all the time. HESCO carried out a technology up-gradation exercise wherein ball bearings were introduced, the wooden paddles were replaced with metal paddles, and the mills were coupled to a generator so that when they are not used to grind wheat, they produced electricity for the village. For the first time, a village far away from the main national electricity network had access to electricity to light their homes, to power small machines, and a host of other uses. The cost for a 10-kW system was an unbelievable Rs. 50,000 (approximately US

Experimental signature of entrance channel effect in heavy mass region via evaporation residue cross section and spin distribution measurements

1,000). Over a period of time, HESCO was able to bring into their fold several thousand watermills for up-gradation.,000). Over a period of time, HESCO was able to bring into their fold several thousand watermills for up-gradation.