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Web based Geographic Information System for handicraft industry
Angshuman Dutta
Research Scholar, Center For Rural Development
and Technolgy, IIT, Delhi
A. K. Gosain
Professor, Civil Engineering Department, IIT, Delhi
Rajendra Prasad
Chief Scientific Officer, Center For Rural
Development and Technolgy, IIT, Delhi
Angshuman Dutta
Research Scholar, Center For Rural Development
and Technolgy, IIT, Delhi
A. K. Gosain
Professor, Civil Engineering Department, IIT, Delhi
Rajendra Prasad
Chief Scientific Officer, Center For Rural
Development and Technolgy, IIT, Delhi
Abstract
A web based information system has been developed to promote the handicraft industry in the country. The system has been developed using the latest GIS technologies. This information system facilitates the handicrafts industry in terms of providing online information on various craft production centers, distribution of artisans, exporter locations and on the participatory NGO's. It also facilitates in identifying the various civic amenities available at a location. The information is made available at three different levels i.e. Country level, where the information are aggregated State-wise; State level where the information is aggregated at district-wise; and at Tehsil level where the information is aggregated village-wise. The information system has been designed using different GIS and CAD tools. The vector data has been generated using CAD engines and then processed using GIS interfaces and finally been made net-compliant using various controls of spatial map servers. RDBMS engine is used for maintaining the non-spatial data and customization is done using GUI tools. Technologies like HTML, ASP's and JAVA scripts are made use of for designing the client end interfaces.
Analytical capabilities have been provided to monitor the progress of different players of the industry. Moreover, fund location for various schemes become simple using this system. Locating potential sites for expanding different crafts can also be done through the system. The information system has been designed under the sponsorship of Department of Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, taking UP as a pilot case. It is likely to be extended to the entire country in due course of time.
Introduction
In an attempt to computerize and thereby enhance the growth of the handicrafts industry of the country the ministry entrusted the responsibility to IIT, Delhi to conceptualise and develop a pilot application for Uttar Pradesh to begin with. During the course of development, realising the potential of the dissemination of the application, if put on the web, a conscious decision was taken to make the application web compliant and dynamic using Geographic Information System. The information system has been designed to address different players of the sector. It is also been envisaged to contain services for sustainability of the concept in terms of revenue generation. In its present form the system hosts a wide range of information as listed below:
Conceptualisation
The application comprises a data server, which holds the non-spatial data and links to the spatial objects, a map server consisting of various map controls to display, analyze and upload the spatial data and an user-friendly interface for navigating through the application and its various utilities. The client-end interfaces are designed using HTML and Active Server Pages (ASP's). Each request from the client is passed on to the application server, which fetches the desired non-spatial information from the data server and generates a resulting map display through the various map controls and subsequently uploads the same using the map server to the user. Figure below shows a schematic representation of the application.
Data Sources
The data for the information system has been collected from different sources. The National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has provided the artisan data at the village level. The Information of the various schemes and organizations associated with the industry has been provided by the Office of the Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, and was made available at the district level. Similarly, exporter data was also made available at the district level by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH). To show these informations spatially at different scales base maps at equivalent scales were required. Therefore, maps of different scales such as, state level maps having district boundaries, district level maps having tehsil boundaries and tehsil level map showing village boundaries have been used. These are census maps based on Survey of India maps. Information on various primary amenities was also extracted from all these maps at different levels.
Application Design
The entire exercise began with a requirement analysis involving the clients. Conceptual design followed the requirement analysis and the database was designed using RDBMS package. The non-spatial data came in different formats i.e., electronic, hardcopies etc., and required various levels of processing. Specialized interfaces had to be written for populating these hard-copied and ASCII data. The spatial data were also processed simultaneously. The spatial data, which came as hard-copied maps, were scanned, geo-referenced and finally vectorised using different vectorsing utilities running on CAD engines. These vector data were then processed using GIS tools for topology building and establishing links with the non-spatial data. Once the data was populated the application to analyze, extract and display the information was developed. This exercise was followed by development of the client end and backend interfaces.
Application Layout and Functionalities
The application opens with its homepage containing linkages to the following utilities:
About us
This contains information on the intent and scope of the site
Panorama
This utility showcases the Indian handicrafts. Information on different crafts, the tradition and history associated with them, the location of their origin, the raw materials used and process followed constitutes this segment
Information System
This utility is the heart of the application and provides the user the insight of the Indian handicraft industry through a user-friendly GIS based dynamic information system. The page opens up with the State map showing the district boundaries and hyperlinks to different utilities as mentioned above. Moreover a craft hyperlink is also provided. The craft hyperlink leads to an interactive window where one can pick a craft and subcraft and further select a level of his choice in terms of a district, tehsil or entire state and submit a query. The query returns the locations conforming to the request. The query can be further filtered through conditions. Once the craft dispositions are located, hyperlinks to artisan information system, NGO's involved and concerned exporters on the selected craft are made available. The artisan hyperlink lists various categories of information on the artisans such as, their income, education, raw material and design used, the facilities available to them etc. Each of these categories has filters on different fields so that the choices can be narrowed down. Similarly the NGO and Exporter hyperlink takes to the section which displays the information on these players in details. For changing the level of maps (i.e, district level or tehsil level) one can either click on the map or can select a location from the location selection box as mentioned earlier. The same rationale is followed for the other levels. At the district and tehsil level information on the various primary amenities such as road and rail networks, education centers, health centers, markets, police stations, post and telegraph offices, streams, canal and water bodies are also provided as series of check boxes and it returns the query as different themes on the map upon submission.
Yellow Pages
This utility contains yellow pages for three categories of sellers namely artisans, exporters and other small and big traders. Once a user selects a product it lists the yellow pages available in each of the three categories mentioned above. Upon further selection it navigates to the individual pages. The pages contain contact information of the person or organisation, the various products, their codes, images and prices.
Market surveys
This segment contains the name of different products and crafts. The buyers or followers of Indian handicrafts can browse to this page, select their product or craft or both and give their opinion by checking on the rating boxes provided. These rating are processed and a report can be obtained on the prospects of different products and crafts.
Registration
Since there is ample value addition to the basic information, the registration facility has been formulated enabling the service providers to generate adequate revenue to support the upkeep of the site. Moreover the yellow page services and reports of the market surveys will also serve as a step in this direction.
A web based information system has been developed to promote the handicraft industry in the country. The system has been developed using the latest GIS technologies. This information system facilitates the handicrafts industry in terms of providing online information on various craft production centers, distribution of artisans, exporter locations and on the participatory NGO's. It also facilitates in identifying the various civic amenities available at a location. The information is made available at three different levels i.e. Country level, where the information are aggregated State-wise; State level where the information is aggregated at district-wise; and at Tehsil level where the information is aggregated village-wise. The information system has been designed using different GIS and CAD tools. The vector data has been generated using CAD engines and then processed using GIS interfaces and finally been made net-compliant using various controls of spatial map servers. RDBMS engine is used for maintaining the non-spatial data and customization is done using GUI tools. Technologies like HTML, ASP's and JAVA scripts are made use of for designing the client end interfaces.
Analytical capabilities have been provided to monitor the progress of different players of the industry. Moreover, fund location for various schemes become simple using this system. Locating potential sites for expanding different crafts can also be done through the system. The information system has been designed under the sponsorship of Department of Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, taking UP as a pilot case. It is likely to be extended to the entire country in due course of time.
Introduction
In an attempt to computerize and thereby enhance the growth of the handicrafts industry of the country the ministry entrusted the responsibility to IIT, Delhi to conceptualise and develop a pilot application for Uttar Pradesh to begin with. During the course of development, realising the potential of the dissemination of the application, if put on the web, a conscious decision was taken to make the application web compliant and dynamic using Geographic Information System. The information system has been designed to address different players of the sector. It is also been envisaged to contain services for sustainability of the concept in terms of revenue generation. In its present form the system hosts a wide range of information as listed below:
- Spatial information on various craft dispositions across the state
- Entire artisan information comprising details of their income, education, raw materials, basic facilities available to them etc
- Spatial information on the various primary facilities available such as road and railway networks, education centers, health centers, markets etc
- Information on the NGO's, their activities and various schemes associated with the sector
- Information on exporters
Conceptualisation
The application comprises a data server, which holds the non-spatial data and links to the spatial objects, a map server consisting of various map controls to display, analyze and upload the spatial data and an user-friendly interface for navigating through the application and its various utilities. The client-end interfaces are designed using HTML and Active Server Pages (ASP's). Each request from the client is passed on to the application server, which fetches the desired non-spatial information from the data server and generates a resulting map display through the various map controls and subsequently uploads the same using the map server to the user. Figure below shows a schematic representation of the application.
Fig:1 Schematic Diagram of the application |
Data Sources
The data for the information system has been collected from different sources. The National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has provided the artisan data at the village level. The Information of the various schemes and organizations associated with the industry has been provided by the Office of the Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, and was made available at the district level. Similarly, exporter data was also made available at the district level by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH). To show these informations spatially at different scales base maps at equivalent scales were required. Therefore, maps of different scales such as, state level maps having district boundaries, district level maps having tehsil boundaries and tehsil level map showing village boundaries have been used. These are census maps based on Survey of India maps. Information on various primary amenities was also extracted from all these maps at different levels.
Application Design
The entire exercise began with a requirement analysis involving the clients. Conceptual design followed the requirement analysis and the database was designed using RDBMS package. The non-spatial data came in different formats i.e., electronic, hardcopies etc., and required various levels of processing. Specialized interfaces had to be written for populating these hard-copied and ASCII data. The spatial data were also processed simultaneously. The spatial data, which came as hard-copied maps, were scanned, geo-referenced and finally vectorised using different vectorsing utilities running on CAD engines. These vector data were then processed using GIS tools for topology building and establishing links with the non-spatial data. Once the data was populated the application to analyze, extract and display the information was developed. This exercise was followed by development of the client end and backend interfaces.
Application Layout and Functionalities
The application opens with its homepage containing linkages to the following utilities:
- About Us
- Panorama
- Information System
- Yellow Pages
- Market Surveys
- Registration
About us
This contains information on the intent and scope of the site
Panorama
This utility showcases the Indian handicrafts. Information on different crafts, the tradition and history associated with them, the location of their origin, the raw materials used and process followed constitutes this segment
Information System
This utility is the heart of the application and provides the user the insight of the Indian handicraft industry through a user-friendly GIS based dynamic information system. The page opens up with the State map showing the district boundaries and hyperlinks to different utilities as mentioned above. Moreover a craft hyperlink is also provided. The craft hyperlink leads to an interactive window where one can pick a craft and subcraft and further select a level of his choice in terms of a district, tehsil or entire state and submit a query. The query returns the locations conforming to the request. The query can be further filtered through conditions. Once the craft dispositions are located, hyperlinks to artisan information system, NGO's involved and concerned exporters on the selected craft are made available. The artisan hyperlink lists various categories of information on the artisans such as, their income, education, raw material and design used, the facilities available to them etc. Each of these categories has filters on different fields so that the choices can be narrowed down. Similarly the NGO and Exporter hyperlink takes to the section which displays the information on these players in details. For changing the level of maps (i.e, district level or tehsil level) one can either click on the map or can select a location from the location selection box as mentioned earlier. The same rationale is followed for the other levels. At the district and tehsil level information on the various primary amenities such as road and rail networks, education centers, health centers, markets, police stations, post and telegraph offices, streams, canal and water bodies are also provided as series of check boxes and it returns the query as different themes on the map upon submission.
Yellow Pages
This utility contains yellow pages for three categories of sellers namely artisans, exporters and other small and big traders. Once a user selects a product it lists the yellow pages available in each of the three categories mentioned above. Upon further selection it navigates to the individual pages. The pages contain contact information of the person or organisation, the various products, their codes, images and prices.
Market surveys
This segment contains the name of different products and crafts. The buyers or followers of Indian handicrafts can browse to this page, select their product or craft or both and give their opinion by checking on the rating boxes provided. These rating are processed and a report can be obtained on the prospects of different products and crafts.
Registration
Since there is ample value addition to the basic information, the registration facility has been formulated enabling the service providers to generate adequate revenue to support the upkeep of the site. Moreover the yellow page services and reports of the market surveys will also serve as a step in this direction.