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India’s geospatial technology industry

Context: India’s geospatial technology industry was expected to cross ₹63,100 crore by 2025 at a growth rate of 12.8%.

About Geospatial Technology

• “Geo” is a Greek word meaning Earth and “Spatial” means relating to space. It can be defined as a technology used to collect, analyse, and store geographic information. It uses specially designed software to collect geographical locations while analyzing the impact of human activity.
• The data generated using geospatial technology is called geospatial data.

Some of the most common geospatial technologies include

1. Remote Sensing

• Geospatial technology is used to study objects or surfaces at faraway distances using the images and data collected from space or airborne camera and sensor platforms.

2.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.
• GIS uses layers of geographic data to produce spatial analysis and derivative maps or 3D scenes. With this unique capability, GIS reveals more in-depth insights into data, such as patterns, relationships, and situations—helping users make smarter decisions.

3. Global Positioning System (GPS)

• It is a navigation system using satellites, a receiver, and algorithms to synchronise location, velocity and time data for air, sea and land travel.
• The working of GPS is based on a mathematical technique called Trilateration. The technique suggests that GPS devices require three satellites for an accurate calculation of a position.

Application

• Climate Change and Disaster Management
  • Enhance situational awareness and provide actionable intelligence for decision support in mitigating, preparing, and responding to natural disasters.

• Earth Observation Capabilities
  • There is a wide range of processes that can be monitored using Earth observation data like vegetation biomass, phenology, water quality, land and sea surface temperature, ocean salinity, and many more.

• Healthcare
  • During COVID-19 it helped the healthcare professionals in monitoring contact tracing, containment zones, disinfections, migrant support, and so on.

• Land and Forest Resource Management
  • Create survey infrastructure of Indian villages
  • Developing maps, and generating accurate land records for rural planning.
  • Similarly, forest departments also use remote sensing and GIS technologies to map the forest cover and in carbon stock assessment.
  • It also helps in detecting forest fires and deforestation.

• Transportation and logistics
  • Identifying location and time of arrival, route making, and navigation of the consignments.

• Meteorology
  • Geospatial technologies and tools help in weather forecasts of particular territories.