Geospatial Technology: Application and Challenges

Geospatial data is data about objects, events, or phenomena that have a location on the surface of the earth.

The location may be static in the short-term, like the location of a road, an earthquake event, malnutrition among children, or dynamic like a moving vehicle or pedestrian, the spread of an infectious disease.

• Geospatial Technology is an emerging field of study that includes Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Global Positioning System (GPS).

Issues/ Challenges

• The full benefits have yet to percolate to the public; and there is no major contribution to the nation’s GDP.
• Absence of Market: Among the most prominent hurdles is the absence of a sizable geospatial market in India.
• There is no demand for geospatial services and products on a scale linked to India’s potential and size. This is mainly due to the lack of awareness among potential users in the government and private sectors.
• Lack of skilled manpower across the entire pyramid is also a major issue.
• The unavailability of foundation data, especially at high-resolution, is also a constraint.
• The lack of clarity on data sharing and collaboration prevents co-creation and asset maximization.
• There are still no ready-to-use solutions especially built to solve the problems of India.
• Though India has many who are trained in geospatial technology, this is mostly either through a master’s level programme or on-job training.

Applications

• There has been immense progress over the years in technology for capture of geospatial data through ground-based survey techniques, photogrammetry using manned/unmanned aerial vehicles, etc.

Significance of this sector

• India has a robust ecosystem in geospatial technology, with the Survey of India (SoI), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), remote sensing application centres (RSAC)s, and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in particular, and all ministries and departments, in general, using geospatial technology.
• Geospatial technology enables us to acquire data that is referenced to the earth and use it for analysis, modelling, simulations and visualization.
• Geospatial technology allows us to make informed decisions based on the importance and priority of resources most of which are limited in nature.
• Geospatial technology may be used to create intelligent maps and models that may be interactively queried to get the desired results in a STEM application or may be used to advocate social investigations and policy-based research.