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Spatial Information Systems for Sustainable Development
K. Kasturirangan
Introduction
Since the
beginning of human civilisation, mankind, has lived in a competitive
relationship with nature. While man’s interdependence on environment is greater
than that of any other organisms, his relentless pursuit of progress, comfort
and security has resulted in constantly increasing emphasis on proper
decision-making and the need for more and more information. From the earliest
time, each age has overtaken mankind more rapidly than the one before. The Stone
Age lasted for millions of years when Man had very rudimentary forms of
information at hand and was in a process of evolving a “knowledge base”; the
metal age that followed only lasted for about 5000 years when Man had lots of
information at hand and had also developed concepts for storing it with scripts
and symbols, in texts and records, to drawing pictures and shapes. The
industrial revolution, which occurred in the early 18th century, saw information
and communication technology develop through capture of texts, photographs and
books to a good literature base. This age culminated into the Electric Age, in
the early 20th century, when man invented newer modes of gathering and
generating information and recording it on magnetic and tape media and also when
photography as an information recording medium developed further. It was in the
early parts of the 20th century that radio emerged as a medium of communication
and information transmission. Later, in the 1940s, televisions and transmission
of pictures changed the scope of communication and entertainment. With the
emergence of the Satellites, communication and information gathering took giant
leap forward and enabled the reach of information to remote corners. The
Electronic Age, which has seen the emergence of newer electronics technology,
has lasted a scant 25 years but has been the harbinger for the more recent
Information Age, brought about by the preponderance of computer technology,
communication technology, database technology etc, over the past 10 years.
However, now we see the emergence of a new trend-the convergence of
communications technology, database, Information highway and multimedia, which
are powerful and pervasive technologies of our times, into the Maga-media
age.
Sustainable development – the needs
Man’s dependence on
environment is reflected in the pursuit of progress, comforts and security which
causes mores stress on the environment. As a result, the life-sustaining
mechanisms are stretched to limits and this poses a challenge to the society as
a whole. The rapid increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, large-scale
deforestation and its impact on boidiversity, land degradation and pollution
have become local as well as global concerns. Locally, the impact is felt in the
changes in climate, agricultural productivity and loss of biodiversity, social
patterns and culture etc. These problems are compounded in the developing
countries – mainly because of the rapidly growing population and serious
shortage of resources.
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. At the
root of this concept is the fact that the environment does pose a limit for
development and economic activity and a balance must be struck between
environmental constraints and developmental activity. The economics of
development must expand within ecosystems, which have limited regenerative
capacities. The need is for a full integration of environmental and
developmental issues for decision-making on economic, social, and fiscal,
exploitation and regeneration of natural resources and other
policies.
The science of sustainable development requires strategies
based on an accurate assessment of the Earth’s carrying capacity, as outlined in
Agenda 21. In practical terms, the carrying Capacity (CC) of a region determines
the increasing competition among the populace for resources present in the
region. Ecosystem carrying capacity provides the physical limits to economic
development and may be defined as the maximum rate of resources consumption and
waste discharge that can be sustained indefinitely in a defined planning region
without progressively impairing bio-productivity and Eco-integrity. This concept
involves an integration of social expectations and ecological capabilities and
minimising the differentials between resource demand/requirement and
supply/availability.
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