geo spatial technology, a revolution in the offing

7/27/2019 Geo Spatial Technology, A Revolution in the Offing.

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GENERAL ARTICLE

GEO SPATIAL TECHNOLOGY, A REVOLUTIONIN THE OFFING

A POWERFUL TOOL TO TRANSFORM MANAGEMENT OF FORESTS,

ECOLOGY & ENVIRONMEENT WITH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Geo Spatial Information Technology thrives upon convergence and amalgamation ofGeographical Topo-Sheets, Digital Satellite Imageries, Global Positioning System & GeographicalInformation Services. This GeoSpatial Intelligence not only facilitates accessing, analysing largechunk of digital spatial data, mixing of tremendous amount of attributes but also empowersinterpretation of satellite imageries, monitoring of forest wealth in a routine, utilizing sustainedyield on periodic basis, administering Indias 40% natural capital which help and assist triggerintegrated natural resource development in the sector of Forest, Ecology and Environment asseen never before. Monitoring Forest, Ecology and Wild Life Resources is essential in present dayglobal scenario as economic development of any country depends on sustainable management of

its renewable natural resources. This sector tangibly and intangibly contributes significantly ingrowth in term of GDP providing food, fibre, forest produce, medicines apart from supplyingtimber, fuel wood and multitude of genetic resources which could not be measured and quantifiedto such a greater precision as ever before. Sustainable management of ecology, environment, floraand fauna helps in conservation of bio diversity, maintenance of soil fertility and control offloods, droughts, landslide and climatic disasters-thus maintaining equilibrium in ecosystem andenvironment. National Forest Policy encompasses sustained yield and regulation of ever growingdemand of forest resources ensuring conservation of natural forest wealth and its protection. GeoSpatial Technology assists us in analysis, assessment and management of natural resourcesthrough application of combination of remote sensing, GPS, GIS tools and techniques, in

addition to skilful interpretation of exhaustive satellite earth imageries comprehensively. TheGeoSpatial Cyber-Ecosystem work flow allows comprehensively a forester for inventorymapping, forest composition assessment and to raise early warning for degradation together withmonitoring of surrounding water resources, wild fires and illegal encroachments as well asregulating felling activities to prevent uncontrolled deforestation. It will not only help information of Standard Protocols but will also assist in growth and development of naturalresources ensuring greater rate of returns, higher productivty in a transparent and responsive

system of g-Governance..A K Singh

GeoSpatial

Technologynot onlytriggersgrowth butalsoenhancescapacitybuilding and skill up-gradation. It increasesper capita income, helps generation of

employment and alleviation of poverty.Geo Spatial Platform development requiresintuitive analytical approach usingintegrated raster images and vectorgeometric-graphic-representation of shapes

and positions which are interoperable with external Management

of Information System. A numberof cheap, economic and easy to use


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Softwares like ENVI, Rolta Geomatica,DigitalGlobe QuickBird, WorldVeiw,

ArcGIS and ERDAS, GeoFUSE,GeoStereo-3 D, GeoEye, EyeQ,GeoElevation, SOCET GXP, GXP-

Xplorer have of late emerged in themarket. We have good numbers of

variouscompaniesandindustrieslike Rolta,

Hexagon,INTERGRAPH,Leica,DigitalGlobe,Bentley,

Trimble, GeoSpatial Media, RapidEye,Optech, Pitney Bowes Map Info,

MapmyIndia, Infotech, IIC Tech,ImageMaps, GeoEye, ESRI, ASTRIUM,AMTRON, AGI, Alberta, ADCC, andAmigo Optima etc working towardscreation of Geospatial Word. We haveenormous number of Softwaresavailable in the market for ImageProcessing, Photogrammatry, AttributeIntegration, Geospatial Analysis andDesktop Automation but we so far could

not achieve the desired outcome in terms ofcreation of thematic maps of all beats andcompartments. Dynamic integrated multi-layered geo spatial Technology can be usedto generate Reserve Forest Maps,Regeneration Series Maps, Replanting Series

Maps in our working plans, identifyingfelling areas, deciphering potentialregenerating growing stock areas.Thematic maps of forest cover, maps of

forest blocks, maps of patch plantations,maps of degraded lands, maps of waste

lands, maps of pastures and meadowslands, maps of adjoining forest landswhich can depict spatio-temporal changeassessment are yet to be created. Wehave to design Geo spatial multi-layeredintegrated dynamic model of InfoTech

with exhaustive attribute features formultiple use & analyses. We need toidentify corridors on Geo spatial model

so as to

empowerinter-

exchangeof rare andendangeredgene pool

ofdiversified

genetic

resourcesto and fro. We need geo spatial maps toestimate impact of hazardous industrialactivities in the vicinity of forest, wild lifeand tiger reserves. There is a need of

mapping Eco Sensitive Zones, habitatsuitability, characterization of bio-diversity,

demarcation of impact areas ofencroachment, forest degradation and wildfires on Geo Spatial modelling.73 rd & 74th Amendment to the Constitution

of India also emphasized the need forgeospatial data integration fordevelopmental planning at grass root level


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of Gram Sabhas and village. Karnataka ispioneer in geospatial developmentalplanning thriving all sectors of economylike public health, education, transportation,

water, water sheds, environmental planning,disaster

management,infrastructuredevelopment,rural planningand urbandevelopment

where valueadded geo spatialinformation

which is yet in a

nascent andbudding stageneed to befurtherintegrated andinstitutionalized throughNaturalResource

DataManagementNRDMS anoffshoot ofRDPR

workingalready in allthe districts.This geo spatial portal hosting on world

wide webs like Bhuvan will be of no useuntil we include, addand incorporateattributes exhaustivelyon the base maps of

Topo Sheets of Surveyof India at all three mostpopular scales of1:50,000, 1:25,000 and1:10,000 thereby super

imposing satelliteimageries at these threescales by processing ofimages, by makingatmospheric correction,by making image classification, by doingautomatic change detection, by

computation of vegetation indeces, by re-sampling and filtering together withincorporating features in terms of variousthemes, vast array of statistical graphs,boundaries of villages, border lines of each

survey

numbers, byadding namesof places andpositions, by

doingnomenclature

of various sitesand situations

which may notbe possible

withoutconducting

exhaustive exercise of acquisition of largeamount of data, which is not possible

without merger, assimilation, and

integration of demographic and naturalresource datamixing multiplelayers, which is notpossible withoutadapting open

Geo-spatialConsortium

pouringtremendous

amount of data.In this regard

much of work ofimage processing,

task of photogrammetry has already beendone by NRSA Hyderabad and IIRS


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Dehradun. Readymade, handy and digitizedsatellite imageries in good resolution at 23mx 23 m meter and panchromatic multi-spectral quick bird imageries at 3m x 3mare available on very economic cost basis.But these Raster Maps of Topo sheets of

Survey of India andSatellite Imageries insuch an excellentresolutions will be ofno use if we dont putmulti-layers and add,

various attributes likeforest boundaries, landborder lines, surveylines, if we dont

incorporate pointfeatures, including

polylinepolygons,geometricalshapes,if wedontinputthenamesof various villages, number surveynumbers. It will be an exercise infutility if we dont name theplaces, for viewing, for editing, forquerying, for statistical analyses

and for charting in an inter-operable frame work in a mostconvenient shape, size and figures

which the ender user requires on aroutine basis. Raster Imagestogether with Vector-geometric-graphic-representation of spaces,positions, and polygonic shapesare needed to be integrated byputting various layers of foresttypes, by adding drainagenetworks, by including slope maps, bydefining crown density which can be donein any above mentioned softwares available

with us. This will generate Geo-SpatialInfoTech-Platform which will help

computation of proximity, design over lay,do spatial interpretation, deciphercomposition of maps which will furtherassist in Desktop Automation by creating

work flow modelling and command linescripting all time ready to make estimates,

charts, pie diagram,bar charts, histogramand frequencypolygon to beincorporated in ourroutine Annual Planof Operations , for

working plans andmicro plans etc.These digitally

analysed geo-spatialdata can be

connected to variousexternal forest relateddata base systems andcan be shared amongallied communities

through web-enablement as acomprehensive solutionaiding to promptdecision making in anintegrated approach likeBhuvan, Google Earth,

Wikimapia etc. But theRaster ImageInterpretation together

with GeometricalVector Inclusion, defining vast array ofattributes is an exhaustive and meticulouslycomprehensive work which requires district

wise teams of computer cyber whiz kidskept on working months together in various


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forest divisions who will be busy generatinga dynamic, multi dimensional Geo SpatialPlatform.This geo spatial platform whichis a newlyevolved form ofGIS will help

define theboundaries ofthe reserveforests, assist pinpointing groundlocation pointson any borderline and help in

locating GPS co ordinates on any forestboundary or plot. It will help not onlyidentification of site specific plan lay outsbut will also define the areas suitable forsoil and moisture conservation. It will locate

various blocks and strips of forest in thegorges and valleys of mountains of forests

which are in need of watersheddevelopment, locate the areas which needregeneration and carbon accounting underREDD+. The Geo Spatial Dynamic Model

will help identification of forest species,delineation of plantations, mapping forestencroachments, quantifying carbonfootprints, measuring volumes of growingstocks of forests, of trees outside the forestsand site selection of new compensatory

afforestation areas. End user Forester canzoom in and zoom out the sample areas oftheir interest and make the design and plan.This task will need to organize our youngforce of Foresters and Forest Guards whounder the leadership of Range Forest

Officers can in no time make groundtruthing and take digital co ordinates oflongitudes and latitudes of all the natural

resources attheir commandin various

thematic modes.For exampleacquisition of coordinates of all

forestboundaries,

natural landborder lines,

beats and compartments so that toposheetsand satellite imageries may further becomplemented. Readymade GeoSpatialInfoTech models will prompt economicgrowth by 35% of GDP. In true sense it isa revolution in the offing.

Acknowledgement:Write up is the outcome of visitto International Conference on Geo Spatial InfoTech

Enabled Economy organized by India Geo SpatialForum at Hyderabad International Convention Centre 22-24 Jan 2013 which highlighted growing economic powerof India in line with 12 th Five year plan with focus onupcoming technological advancements demonstrating thepotential of Geospatial Technology to achieve progressiveand sustained economic growth by larger stakeholders,contributors to the economy, decision makers, policyframe-workers, technocrats and administrators in jointpartnership and long term collaboration with multipleGeoSpatial InfoTech Companies and Industrial houses.For which I extend my heartfelt thanks to Sh R K

Shrivastava IFS Chief Conservator of Forests ICT, GIS &Remote Sensing Wing of the Forest Dept who gave me an

awesome opportunity to participate.

A K Singh is the member of Indian Forest Servicepresently associated in Survey, demarcation and WorkingPlan wing of Ministry of Forest, Ecology andEnvironment of Govt of Karnataka. Contact:[email protected], 9481180956.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

geo spatial technology, a revolution in the offing

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