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“India has a vision of transforming itself into a developed nation before 2020. There are number of missions which need inputs from cartography technologies that will certainly accelerate the process of development. The mission of INCA should be to assist the implementation of developed India vision using their core competence in cartography in partnership with ISRO, NRSA, Survey of India, State Remote Sensing centers, Thematic map making organizations, Indian Remote Sensing Industries, Academia, Research Institutions and other IT organizations. Let us now look at some typical requirements of rural and urban development programmes of the nation, where cartographers are major partners. PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) India is on the mission of establishing 7,000 PURAs in different parts of the country integrating six hundred thousand villages. As a part of physical connectivity, link roads emanating from PURA clusters joining the main roads have to be planned in such a way that they can meet the growing traffic resulting out of higher economic activity in the PURA Clusters. A combination of ground survey, satellite remote sensing data, and Arial pictures has to be used to derive relevant maps at larger scale better than 1:10,000 and even at the level of 1:2000 as appropriate in a time bound manner within the next two years. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) The JNNURM covers 63 of the largest cities in India. It is very important for the cartographers to provide cartographic data for each of the 63 cities and towns, using the satellite imagery coupled with GIS. They should first establish the existing road network with contours, green areas, location of original water bodies, existing sewage and drainage systems. New alignment has to be provided keeping a 50 years growth profile in mind updated at an interval of ten years. Based on this study, they must provide new connectivity contours, the new sewage system alignment, possible transportation of sewage system remains after treatment and above all a multi-layered road system to remove traffic congestion. Disaster Management Earthquake First the mapping of the earthquake prone areas with suitable details enables the detailed precautions in construction and emergency actions. Satellite images can provide updated views of how the landscape has been affected, while images before and after the event enable authoritative damage assessment as a basis for planning remedial action. Flood and water management I have observed certain unique features in the river system of Bihar. Though Ganga, the main river is flowing from West to East, there are two types of flows coming into the Ganga. Because of the flow from both the directions no water is saved and everything goes to the Sea. Also, the main flood bearing river the Kosi when it comes into Bihar is already in the plains and we have to find innovative flood management techniques. Cartographers should provide high resolution maps in partnership with agencies involved in satellite imagery and aerial photography for planning water harvesting and water management system leading to flood control even in the steep slopes of hilly areas. Mapping Geothermal potential May I suggest to the cartographers, to map the geothermal resources in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, of the total 300 islands I understand one or two islands are having active volcanoes. Also, Himalayan states may have tremendous geothermal potential. These are also required to be mapped in a time bound manner. Technology enabled cartography To address all the inputs needed for the above programmes, we need to use the latest scientific technologies and tools. In this context, the application of Information Technology in the form of GIS, Satellite Remote Sensing, Satellite photo-grammatry, satellite communication and Internet play a vital role. India has planned for a series of satellites specifically for cartographic applications. The first in the series, CARTOSAT-I launched in May 2005 is the first high resolution satellite that collects the details of terrain surface in stereo mode with the spatial resolution of 2.5 meters. As of today, I understand that more than 90% of the country is covered with stereo images. These images could also be used for better urban planning, cadastral level information of land and water resources. This satellite mission has enabled developing Digital Elevation Model (DEM). This elevation model is useful in GIS environment, providing a terrain model to facilitate drainage network analysis, watershed demarcation, erosion mapping, contour generation and quantitative analysis like location-distance-area-volume calculation. I am happy to note that Department of Space has launched a mission called CARTODEM for generating DEM of entire country using indigenously developed software package. The elevation accuracy of DEM will be better than eight meter. It is expected that in the middle of next year, major part of our country will be covered by DEM. Such an input should be made use of effectively by the Cartographers of the country for generating quality input data for PURA planning, design and development of state level waterways, urban planning and disaster management. CARTOSAT-II, capable of collecting the terrain features with better than one meter spatial resolution, is to be launched in January 2007. I am sure that the country will have satellites for acquiring details at sub meter level in the next five years. Geographical Information System is finding increasing use in almost every facet of our day to day life, be it as administrator or as planner or as executive monitoring a project or a tourist finding his way through navigation systems. These applications demand dynamic integration and visualization which in turn provide challenges to the cartographer as to how to integrate and process the data in real time and provide the visualization of out put as per user requirement. Yet another challenge to be addressed by the cartographic community is how do we ensure data integrity, interoperability and accuracy while fusing data from disparate data sources. Also advances in other technologies like GPS, mobile telephones, digital cartography, and photogrammatry will complement the cartographers in their endeavours for national development.  Hon’ble President, Dr. T Ramasami, Brig. M V Bhat at inaguration ceremony Vision 2020: Missions for Cartographers
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