Context:
The Union Finance Minister announced a Rs 100 crore National Geospatial Mission to develop foundational geospatial infrastructure and data, a move aimed at modernising land records, aid urban planning and promoting earth observation systems.
- The launch of the National Geospatial Mission marks a crucial step in modernizing India’s infrastructure and technology.
- India is leveraging geospatial technologies and the space sector to advance its development goals, addressing challenges such as resource management, climate change, national security, and public health.
- The National Geospatial Mission, supported by the PM Gati Shakti initiative, aims to create essential geospatial infrastructure and data, thereby boosting the use of satellite technology for public and national development.
- The government aims to create a robust geospatial database to make land reforms more efficient and transparent, benefiting both government agencies and private companies.
- Integrating geospatial data into planning will enhance decision-making and support sustainable urban development.
- The initiative aims to address land disputes and inefficient land use, which have hindered growth and are critical to improving the efficiency and accountability of public services.
- The National Geospatial Policy 2021 and the Draft Space Bill will further promote geospatial technology, fostering growth across various sectors of the economy.
About Geospatial Technology
- Geospatial refers to data associated with a specific location on the Earth’s surface, which is important for positioning systems and adding layers of information on a map.
- Geospatial technology allows us to collect geographically referenced data and use it for analysis.
- Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Global Positioning System (GPS) are all examples of geospatial technology.
- Some of the examples of multidimensional usage of geospatial technology in India are agriculture, disaster management, internal security, infrastructure and railways, etc.
Types of Geospatial Technologies
- Remote Sensing: It used to study objects or surfaces at faraway distances using the images and data collected from space or airborne camera and sensor platforms.
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS): It is a framework for gathering, managing, mapping, and analyzing the physical environment data of a specific location on the Earth’s surface.
- Global Positioning System (GPS): It is a navigation system using satellites, a receiver, and algorithms to synchronize location, velocity and time data for air, sea and land travel.GPS is made up of three different segments that work together:
- Satellites
- Ground control
- User equipment
Applications of Geospatial Technology
- Climate Change and Disaster Management: It plays a significant role in bringing together multi-disciplinary subjects to enhance situational awareness and provide actionable intelligence for decision support in mitigating, preparing, and responding to natural disasters.
- Earth Observation Capabilities: Earth observational studies are conducted using Remote sensing earth-observing satellites. It is used to monitor using Earth observation data like vegetation biomass, phenology, water quality, land and sea surface temperature, ocean salinity, and many more.
- Healthcare – Recently, the healthcare sector has extensively used geospatial tools and dashboards to deal with the pandemic.
- Land and Forest Resource Management – They are regularly used to create survey infrastructure of Indian villages, develop maps, and generate accurate land records for rural planning.
- Societal Problems – They are actively used to address complex societal problems, including education, livelihood, financial inclusion, environment, ecology, natural resource management, etc.
- Logistics – It helps to track goods and ensure their quality.
- Transportations -They are also used for identifying the location and time of arrival, route making, and navigation of the consignments.
- Meteorology – It helps in weather forecasts of particular territories.
- Agriculture -They are employed in the agriculture sector for assessing the vegetational state of a selected area.
Insurance – It is also helpful in managing risks for some specific areas (e.g., via historical georeferenced data analysis).