Keynote Address
Future of Spatial Information and Society
K Kasturirangan
Chairman, Space Commission & Secretary, Department of Space, Bangalore - 560 094
Infrastructure for the availability of organised
spatial and non-spatial information with multi-level information
networking to contribute to local, regional and national needs of
decision-making for natural resources management and development
of Society
Since the beginning of civilisation, maps have
been the most effective means of describing events and
information. The term map has its genesis in the Latin word
"Mappa" which means a piece of table cloth or a napkin, used as
parchment roll by Greeks and Romans, for preparing their maps
during warfare. Historically, beginning with the clay tablet
inscription of the Babylonian era in 2500 BC, the value of
representing information in a spatial domain has been realised and
extensively practised by the ancient civilisations in Egypt, India
and China. Transition in mapping from the historical artistic
portrayal to the complex thematic cartography has been the natural
evolution which is as much due to the availability of better
information as due to the development of computerised cartography
techniques which have made it possible to represent data and
information in digital formats for processing in the computer
using specialised software packages. With the availability of
satellite-based remote sensing data and the organisation of
spatial databases around a Geographical Information Systems (GIS),
combined with the Global Positioning System (GPS) integrated into
the inertial platform and cameras, the process of systematic
spatial information has now became a reality. Over the past 10
years, the pre-ponderance and coming together of computer
technology, communication technology, database technology,
cartography and map-making etc, has seen the emergence of
Information Infrastructures.
Globally it is being realised that Information
infrastructures have become an essential element of the
development of any country. In the global sense, the concept of a
Global Information Infrastructure (GII) is being talked of based
upon the vision of open connectivity and information access.
The thrust of the GII is an open access,
universal service, flexible regulatory environment, competition
and private investment. The fundamental principle underlining a
National Information Infrastructure (NII), is the "Right to know"
and "Right to information" tenet. Right to information of public
domain data, consumer data, citizen's rights, universal access,
financial data, etc., drives the need for developing a NII. A
National Information Infrastructure (NII), in India, is not
something new, something separate from an across-the-board
integration of the entire nation and the world.
A National Spatial Information Infrastructure
(NSII)
Establishment of National Spatial
Information Infrastructure (NSII) is a prime activity in many
countries, as part of a NII. The core of a NSII consists of
Geographical Information System (GIS) based databases – containing
both spatial and non-spatial data, linked together through keys
and indexes. A hierarchy of such GIS databases forms the core of a
NSII with networking – both across hierarchy and within a level in
the hierarchy. The value of NSII would be to aid as a
decision-making tool and more in the context of assisting planning
for developmental activities.
Let us just look at the forces that might shape
the future of spatial data activities by the year 2010. I
visualise that the following will be the imperatives for a NSII
and the forces that will govern its emergence:
- Synergy of information, technology and
access.
In the near term, technology
development will continue to have profound effects on spatial
information activities, as we are seeing it today – the changing
demand of computing technology to understanding processes around
us and its representation as maps. In the longer term,
information needs will drive further technological developments
– creating stringent demands for technology solutions for
spatial data capture integration and representation. The
emergence of Spatial Business from the highly volatile and
dynamic synergy of information, technology and access will see a
truly Spatial Society.
- Expanding national and global
inter-dependence.
The nationalisation, and later
globalisation, of spatial information will be yet another
imperative. Markets will define and drive the need and use of
spatial information for individuals, society, nation and the
world as a whole.
- Increasing emphasis on sustainability.
The fundamental aspect of sustainable
development lies in the paradigm of scientific innovation and
economic determinism within the physical limits imposed by
ecological systems on economic activity. The need is for a full
integration of environmental and developmental information for
decision-making on economic, social, fiscal, exploitation and
regeneration of natural resources and other policies.
- Emergence of community based governance.
Greater people’s involvement in
developmental planning at local level and the emergence of
participatory planning will demand access to spatial information
– basically integrating information from disparate sources. To
an increasing degree, the use of spatial information will become
common for developmental alternatives and societal choices for
decision-making.
- The individual
Individuals demand for information – spatial and non-spatial
will force the establishment of infrastructures, encompassing
his immediate circle of family and society, the land that he
tills, the water that he uses, the environment around him and to
a larger extent the general awareness of the world.
In the above context, the establishment of National Spatial Information Infrastructure (NSII) would aim to:
-
promote and establish an infrastructure, at the
national and regional level, for the availability of organised
spatial and non-spatial data and multi-level information
networking to contribute to local, national and global needs of
sustained economic growth, environmental quality and stability
and social progress
- to help systemise, design and establish
sectoral and hierarchical spatial information systems at the
national level and regional level
- to design information transfer mechanisms for a systematic
networking of the sectoral and hierarchical information systems
- evolve information infrastructure for the
management and upkeep of the SII nodes in an operational
scenario.
Elements of A NSII
The NSII would be a set of
multi-tiered and networked natural resources GIS databases
catering to the national needs of spatial data and resource
management needs for locale-specific sustainable development
planning and implementation. The NSII would contain information
for effective planning and development, a variety of data on
physical and natural resources, human resources, social practices
and economic aspects etc. are required. The NSII will be an all
encompassing infrastructure consisting of the following:
- Databases
which could
be mainly GIS based natural resources, economic and development
oriented information systems- all integrated and linked to basic
spatial units.
- Network
Access to the
GIS databases will be yet another key issue. The basic issue in
the operation of the NSII is the backbone on which the
information travels from one point to another. Today, India has
a good telecommunication network and a space based satellite
communication network in the country. The backbone carrier will
be high-speed carrier capable of providing bandwidth on demand
to intermediate levels of the network and to users of the
network.
- Standards are an
important element of the NSII and would be of relevance to
database standardisation - formats, exchange and
interoperability; Networks- gateways and protocols;
communication equipment, software standards, etc. Standards
enable applications and technology to work together. Tools,
applications, and data affect each other, and processes for
developing standards must consider these interactions.
- User Interface
With
regard to design NSII, much depends upon the level of
penetration and upper-end level of applications and services
available on it. For a completely ubiquitous NSII, the
penetration will have to reach household level and the
capabilities will include online access of video applications.
- Analysis Shells
which
will be decision support tools as a front end to the GIS
databases and designed to cater to the questions of various
needs of decision making and supporting developmental
activities.
- Metadata
Metadata helps in the use of spatial data to find the data user’s need
and determine how best to locate it. As a part of NSII, one of
the critical steps would be the development of a metadata
standard and development metadata files.
Role of Earth Observation and GIS
Earth Observation (EO)
satellites provide the vantagepoint and coverage necessary to
study our planet as an integrated, interactive physical and
biological system. The key areas where EO data are of use is
Global environment change monitoring, management of renewable and
non-renewable resources, resources mapping, geo-positioning
applications and also for strategic applications of national
security. In India, users of IRS data have taken up national-level
remote sensing applications projects in different resource
management areas and the technology has matured to cover diverse
resource themes/areas such as forestry, wasteland mapping,
agricultural crop acreage and yield estimation, drought monitoring
and assessment, flood monitoring and damage assessment,
landuse/land cover mapping, wasteland mapping, water resources
management, groundwater targeting, marine resources survey, urban
planning, mineral targeting and environmental impact assessment
etc. Integration of thematic information on various natural
resources - land use/cover, types of wastelands, forest
cover/types, surface water resources, drainage pattern, potential
ground water zones, geomorphology (landforms), geology (rock
types, structural details, mineral occurrence), soil types, etc.,
derived from IRS data, with other ancillary information
-meteorological and socio-economic data, has helped arrive at
locale-specific prescriptions for development in many watershed
and blocks in 174 districts in the country.
The Geographical Information system (GIS) package
will be the work-horse as both spatial and non-spatial databases
have to be handled. The GIS package offers efficient utilities for
handling both these data sets and also allows for the spatial
database organisation; non-spatial data sets organisation - mainly
as attributes of the spatial elements; integrated analysis and
transformation for obtaining the required information; obtaining
information in specific format (cartographic quality outputs and
reports); organisation of queries etc. As part of the panning
Commission’s National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS),
a major effort is on-going towards establishing a National
(Natural) Resources Information Systems (NRIS) – a three-tiered
hierarchy of GIS databases pertaining to districts on 1:50000
scale; states on 1:250000 scale and the national on 1:1000000
scale. The NRIS is networked across the levels so that aggregated
information can be available at higher levels. The NRIS has
developed a GIS standard design and contains 21 layers of primary
spatial data sets and 8 types of non-spatial attributes. The NRIS
has application shells that allows information modelling and
access for decision-making on land management, water management,
facilities siting, services centre location, environmental
monitoring etc
Trends and Issues for A NSII
Society
Towards a NSII, what will be the changes
that will involve the collection, dissemination and use of spatial
information and the trends that will push society towards a
"Spatial Thinking Process":
-
Basic Computing and Communication
technologies
– a order of 10 improvements in
computing capacity, merger with video and cable technology,
miniaturisation and wireless technologies – making NSII amenable
to individual homes.
- Automation of Cartography
where map-making will be automated with the
use of digital satellite data and direct GIS ingest, precision
GPS and automated representation of terrain features.
- Analysis and visualisation
in key areas of multi-dimensional viewing,
virtual reality, spatial search engines and spatial
representation of all types of information – be they maps,
tables, records or symbols. This will lead to a totally newer
ways of understanding information relationships – leading to a
better understanding the processes impacting the Earth, its
people, fauna and flora.
- Spatial literacy,
with
the ability of people in schools and in society understanding to
use spatial data increasing phenomenally.
- Partnerships
of
various stake-holders in government, private and NGOs and
academia. Data utilities will emerge from such partnerships as
suppliers of spatial information catering to these utilisation
demands.
-
Spatial data as a commodity
of commerce. Per-unit costs of spatial information
will decline and technology will make it possible to put large
quantity of information in the hands of public. Consumer
application growth will fuel the market of spatial information.
-
Control of Spatial information
will continue to be impacted by conflicting
forces to policy changes. Advocates of public information access
will be challenged – not only by national security concerns, but
also by rights to privacy, intellectual property rights,
copyright and profit objectives.
In the coming days, it is the collective efforts
of government, private sector and society that can enforce
solutions for addressing the issues and pave the way for a NSII
Society.
NSII – Policy Issues
The scenario
around us is changing. With the liberalisation of the economy,
free-trade, right-to-information and the recent IT Policy, there
is a need to have a collective position on a liberal Spatial
policy. We need to recognise that:
-
With the changing scenario in the country (and
world over), developmental activities are no longer the
prerogative of Government. NGOs and Private sector are also
equal partners in development - specially Roads/Highways; Power
projects; Industries; Telecom etc.
- For any developmental activity Satellite data
(for thematic maps), topographic and census data are primary
elements. Out of these, the satellite data and maps are in
digital spatial format and are essential elements for planning
and developmental activities. With the advent and proliferation
of GIS, the trend is to organise and utilise digital databases
of satellite data, maps and census data in an integrated manner.
These three datasets, when modeled and integrated, provide
tremendous capabilities for providing decision-support
information for developmental activities
- India, through its many government and private
agencies, has invested in a large infrastructure of:
-
Computers - which are being used for
preparing maps/RS data analysis/GIS and other applications
-
GIS packages - almost all agencies now have
GIS and talk of spatial databases
- GPS Receivers - a large number of private
agencies are offering GPS services. GPS receivers have also
been of low-cost and thus are available to a large number of
users for location information
- Service Providers in GIS/GPS/RS - where a large number of private agencies have set up facilities for
digitisation, GIS databases, GPS data collection, RS data
analysis and application services
- India, presently has 5.8 m PAN from IRS-1C/1D,
and will also have a 2.5 m PAN in the next 2 years – providing
about 1:4000/8000 images for thematic applications. Later,
towards 2002 even better resolutions imaging – providing
1:2000/1000 images for theme applications would be available.
These images would have high position accuracy and would call
for a totally different approach to data analysis and GIS
integration. The availability of digital map base is crucial for
users to be able to use these data sets.
With the availability of high resolution
satellite information from commercial satellites, which will be
available from mid-1999 onwards, images at 1m resolution would
be available commercially.
- National Security is paramount and no action is
valid which compromises national security concerns. However, a
pragmatic look at the security issues, with the changing
technology and a liberalised world, is called for and a more
"soft" approach for information for development is essential.
-
With the above issues in mind, the Government
has been addressing the issue of maps policy – not that the
"ideal" is to be achieved and we need to constantly "focus" our
needs and requirements and ensure a pragmatic policy is
developed. The first beginnings towards liberalisation" of the
map policy has been taken with the concept of "digitally
stripped base maps" and permission to a few agencies to digitise
the paper maps and share them for developmental purposes with
associated NGOs/private sector. We have yet a long way to go.
-
I also feel that a good spatial information
policy is not just the responsibility of MOD or SOI – but of all
of us who are involved in using map information. We must be as
concerned about security issues and address solutions for
adhering to some norms. We also need to develop these norms.
- Let us all contribute our best in developing
the spatial information policy for a NSII and help the nation –
both from development point of view without impinging on
security. With the best people around here, we will find
solutions.
-
In this Conference, let us come to a common
understanding of the policy needs; identify issues that require
clarifications/details; address how we need to get it to be
implemented; identify gaps that need to be plugged and also
issues that need to be pursued further with various agencies. I
am happy that CSDMS is continuing its role of providing a forum
for evolving a good policy and its implementation – after all we
want that all data collected by government agencies, including
space images, are put to best use for developmental purposes.
Conclusions
The Information age has set in. Old
paradigms are giving way to new ones and is earmarking possibly
the most significant era of change in human civilisation. It has
refined the concept of information and the communication methods
and thus applies to everyday aspects of life. As we move towards
establishing the NSII, we find that it will impact the way we do
things and calls for many policy initiatives. This not only
applies to trade and commerce activities but also applies to
issues of health, environment, education, natural resources
management, social issues, developmental issues, government
decision-making etc. The establishment of the NSII is an
imperative for the future of the society, calling upon us to
address associated issues of networks, communications, databases,
spatial information systems, advanced applications
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