Introduction
NRIS, the programme launched by the Department of Space (DOS) jointly with the State Remote Sensing Centres, is visualised as a network of GIS based nodes covering resource information in the spatial domain. System encompasses information on natural resources related to land, water, forests, minerals, soils etc. and socio-economic information such as demographic data, amenities, infrastructure etc. The integration of these sets of data would aid the decision making process for systematic resources utilisation and also aid sustainable development goals of the country. During Interim Phase of NRIS, 30 selected Districts from 17 States have been covered at 1:50,000 scale as follows:

• A.P: Anantpur
• Assam: Kamrup
• Bihar : Palamau, Jamui
• Gujarat : Panchmahals, Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar
• Haryana : Bhiwani, Gurgaon
• HP: Chamba
• Karnataka: Bijapur
• Kerala : Palghat, Thrisur
• MP : Datia, Jhabua, Sidhi
• Maharashtra : Ahmednagar, Chandrapur
• Mizoram: Aizwal
• Orissa : Kalahandi
• Punjab: Bhatinda
• Rajasthan : Dausa, Bharatpur, Nagaur
• Tamilnadu : Dharampuri, Nilgiris
• Uttar Pradesh : Lalitpur, Bulandshahar
• West Bengal : Midnapur, Purulia

The ultimate end users of the NRIS system are expected to be the planners and decision makers, experts in their respective areas/ disciplines, who need not be the experts in the technologies like GIS and Remote Sensing. The mechanisms for access of the database elements are therefor made easy and explicit. The inputs for NRIS are from different sources in a variety of formats including spatial as well as non-spatial form at various levels of details vis-à-vis the scales and the spatial units of observance. All these are brought to a common framework in order to realise the seamless and integrated database. The diversity and the complexity of the various data elements, the decentralised and distributed implementation/ usage of the databases and the need for easy and explicit database access mechanisms called for a systematic study for arriving at baseline design standards, which incorporate:

• The node database contents along with the associated coding schemes, level of details and the update cycles for each of the element at different levels of node hierarchy and ultimately the structure of data base organisation.
• The spatial database design standards including the spatial framework addressing the issues related to the co-ordinate system and the spatial and thematic accuracy levels to be enforced at the time of data input.
• The standards for easily usable Database Query and Decision Support shells for enabling the usage of the NRIS system by the planners and decision-makers themselves directly.

On the one hand NRIS facilitates standards/ protocols/ procedures for database creation/ organisation, updating and database access using appropriate GIS and other software packages, but also includes customised shells for decision support. These shells focus on providing the user a transparent access to the database and software package environments and address the user specific planning problems. The shells are customised based on the analysis models specified by the users and the customisation tools provided within the GIS.

The design concepts and standards formulated as a part of NRIS are now being harmonised with data exchange standards like Survey of India DVD to evolve National Spatial Data Exchange formats which will facilitate for data interoperability across various systems likely to be implemented at different Resource Domain agencies concerned with various National Resources Survey, Inventory and Development. The database design approach followed under NRIS could also be gainfully used for evolving the design of databases at various domain servers envisaged under National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).

NRIS Elements

The Databases
The NRIS node databases consists of integrated spatial/ non-spatial data elements comprising of the map inputs from remote sensing as well as conventional sources and village-wise non-spatial data on socio-economic and infrastructure aspects. The database is designed and organised in a manner such that it minimises the data redundancy and maximises the multiplicity of usage of each data element. A summary list of the data elements is as follows:

• Landuse / cover
• Geomorphology
• Lithology & Geological Structures
• Soils Taxonomic Classification & Profile
• Drainage/ canals
• Elevation Contours/ Spot Heights
• Watersheds
• Taluk/ Block Boundaries
• Village Boundaries/ Settlements
• Forest Management Boundaries
• Well Locations/ Well log data
• Road / Rail Network
• Meteorological Observations
• Demography/Occupation
• Village Amenity availability (Education, Medical, Communication, Power and Others)
• Land Utilisation Statistics
• Slope Classes
• Ground Water Prospects
• Land Resources Development Plan
• Water Resources Development Plan
• Land Capability for Agricultural Use
• Soil/ Land Irrigability

Table 1: NRIS Database Design Specifications

SN		District Node	State Node	Centre Node
A.	Input Specifications at Analogue stage
1	Scale	1:50,000	1:250,000	1:1,000,000
2	Thematic Accuracy
2.1	MSU (2mm)	10000 sq. mtrs	250000 sq. mtrs	4000000 sq. mtrs
2.2	Mapping	90/90	90/90	90/90
3	Control Accuracy
3.1	Planimetric (RMS)	50 mtrs	250 mtrs	1000 mtrs
B.	Digital Database Specifications
1	Spatial Framework
1.1	Registration points	Lat-long intersections/road intersections
1.2	Projection/Co-ordinate system	Polyconic (local to district)	Polyconic (local to State)	Polyconic (local to Centre)
1.3	Co-ordinate units	Meters	Meters	meters
2	Accuracy/Error Limits
2.1	Registration (RMS)	12.5 meters	62.5 meters	250 meters
2.2	Area	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%
2.3	Weed tolerance	12.5 meters	62.5 meters	250 meters
2.4	Co-ordinate Movement	12.5 meters	62.5 meters	250 meters
2.5	Sliver Polygon	2500 sq. m	62500 sq. m	1000000 sq. m