GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES

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• Recently, the Association of Geospatial Industries released a report titled “Potential of Geospatial Technologies for the Water Sector in India”. The report mentions opportunities in the Water sector that can benefit from the use of Geospatial technologies.
• As the severity of the water crisis in India increases every year, central and state government agencies are using a variety of resources to tackle the water crisis. One among them is the adoption of Geospatial technologies.

Important points:

• India has about 17% of the world population, but only about 4% of the world’s freshwater reserves, and is currently facing a severe water challenge.
• Further, total capacity of India’s reservoirs stands at 250 billion cubic meters (bcm), while its total water bearing capacity over the surface is around 320 bcm.
• India receives 3,000 billion cubic metres of water every year through rainfall or other sources such as glaciers; of this, only 8% is collected.
• India fills groundwater aquifers at the rate of 458 bcm per year, while it extracts around 650 bcm of water from the earth.
• 89% of India’s water resources are used for agriculture, out of which 65% is withdrawn from under the ground.
• Thus, one of India’s biggest challenges is to conserve groundwater.
• Water Stress: As per a NITI Aayog report, currently nearly 820 million people in 12 major river basins of India face extreme water stress.
• Adding to the issue of lack of water availability is the issue of water quality.
• Groundwater in one-third of India’s 600 districts is contaminated mainly through fluoride and arsenic.
• Further, there has been a 136% increase in the number of grossly polluting industries between 2011- 2018, according to the State of India’s Environment report, 2019.

Geospatial Technologies:

• Geospatial technologies is a term used to describe the range of modern tools contributing to the geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth and human societies.
• The term ‘geospatial’ refers not to one single technology, but a collection of technologies that help to collect, analyse, store, manage, distribute, integrate, and present geographic information.
• Geospatial technology enables better measurement, management, and maintenance of assets, monitoring of resources and even providing predictive and prescriptive analysis for forecasting and planned interventions.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT