Conference Proceedings: Map India 1999

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.