Advance Mineral Resources Information System (M.R.I.S v 2.0) Using Remote sensing and GIS Inputs  Abhishek Kumar Ayachi A/C 213 (Asha deep), Aghaya Nagar, Bilaspur, Chattisgarh, India Email: bharatayachi@yahoo.com Introduction The need for natural resources management has widely been recognized as the ever-increasing population leads to pressure on the available resources that exceed the bearing capacity of resources, and leads to their depletion and degradation. Resources degradation through erosion of valuable layer of the earth surface, changes in flow regimes of rivers and other phenomena are frequently worst events faced by the present day world. To date, however, the management of natural resources seems to have had only a limited impact in abating these adverse processes. The lack of adequate information, databases and proper documentation are few of the reasons for its limited impact. It is in relation to this that discussions on information systems to support resource management were initiated. The role of information system in mineral resources from the perspective of the user is an ardent needs. This approach is thought to be essential, as the use of the information can bring about a sea change in accessing demand and need complex equations of environment around us. In the present era of information age, new tools and technologies have emerged to collect, store, retrieve and analyze various types of information related to mineral deposits. Commercial GIS packages offer tremendous opportunity in this regard. However, very few attempts have been made so far to utilize their potential to the fullest. Primarily due to the fact that the relevant data is mostly considered as proprietary and lies with different organizations (in public sector and private sector -organized and unorganized) and therefore, considered as responsibility of respective organizations to prepare and maintain such databases. Secondly developing a GIS based mineral resource information system requires a lot of investment in developing GIS infrastructure within the organization. It is also a well-known fact in mining industry that a lot of information is generated at a huge exploration cost and therefore, cannot be shared with other competitors. However, some of the information that exists or being generated can be shared with others without sacrificing the commercial benefits. Present work is a step in an attempt to develop a Mineral Resources Information System based on generic principal of database management system supported by build-in Digital Image Processing and Geographical Information System capabilities. Mineral Resource Information System is a database of any mineral deposits. As a case study, iron and manganese ore deposits of Keonjhar and Singhbhum region, Orissa and Jharkhand, and non-metallic deposits of Limestone of Raipur Chhattisgarh, India. MRIS contains all the relevant information on mining activities of the region. Although it is developed based on the concept of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems, it runs independent of any commercial GIS, RS and allows data updating, querying and report generation with Digital Image Processing and Geographical Information System capabilities. Concept The MRIS concept is derived from basic GIS concept and concept of MERIGOLD (a database on gold deposits of Australia). It aims to provide spatial and non-spatial information on mineral deposits and geological set up of the region. MRIS is designed such a way that all basic information related to a mineral deposits is accessible on click of a mouse vis-à-vis spatial information layers such as satellite data products and thematic information layers. It is independent of any expensive GIS packages. Most importantly, the non-spatial and spatial data can be edited and saved with latest information and thereby provides opportunity for continuous data updating. M.R.I.S 2.0 provides spatial analysis together with non-spatial database easily in one platform. |