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  • Feb 19, 2023
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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.

 

Various source options and methods of geospatial technologies have been employed to generate images using the satellites revolving around our planet.

These include

●      Filmed or digital aerial images from aeroplanes and drones

●      Electromagnetic impulses (including visible, infrared, and microwave channels)

●     Radio detection and Ranging (Radar) and Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) to calculate the distance using radio or light signals.

 

Practice Question

 

  1. Explain the geospatial technology? What are its uses and how India plans to use it in the coming future?