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Explore India using GIS – Overview

Anil B. Marali
Anil B. Marali
anilmarali@indiatimes.com

Prasad R. Pandit
Prasad R. Pandit
prp_pandit@yahoo.com


Introduction
GIS is an integrated product of information, manpower, software and hardware. It is a system to input, store, manipulate and to get the visual output of spatial information. It is a class and combination of different software to present information in digital format for Geographic and Spatial analysis. In other words, GIS is a science of mapping information to solve various kinds of real time problems. The system is also known as Spatial Information System (SIS).

‘Explore India’ is a project specially designed to explore the Indian territory, which includes details about Indian Transport Network, States & Union Territories, Population Trends, Annual Rainfall, Temperature Zones, Major Rivers, Forest, Major Earthquakes, Tourism, Languages, National Insignia and other information.

Objective
In today’s world, to get the information about any country and locating various places in the map is slightly difficult. It becomes more tedious and cumbersome in case of querying. To reduce this labour, we have planned and developed ‘Explore India’ GI System. Querying on the map can display an instant result and it exacts the track of particular location. The system is useful for any individual who wants to know more about India.

Methodology
The project has been designed and developed by using AutoDesk MAP 4.5 as front-end and MS Access 2000 as back-end. The Data and Maps have been collected from Books, Magazines, Internet and other sources. The maps have been scanned and converted from raster to vector format (R2V) using VP studio 6.73. The user is provided with a main Web page to view the web enabled archive maps. The interactive web page is linked with AutoDesk Map 4.5 to query the object about specific information sought, regarding Object and Trace (these queries are Path Trace, Flood Trace, Buffer Trace and Thematic Query). The web-enabled map supports real-time panning and zooming as well as control over the display of layers, named views and embedded hyperlinks. For user convenience, predefined views are created with each map to see a particular location on a mouse click. DWF files can be opened, viewed and plotted by anyone using Volo-View Express or an Internet browser and the AutoDesk WHIP! 4.0 plug-in. The maps can be downloaded in .bmp, .dwf and .dwg format for further analysis.

Design Stages
  • Project Concept and Analysis.
  • Data integration and Map collection.
  • Scanning and R2V Conversion.
  • Data source configuration and OLE.
  • Topology Creation, Analysis & Query.
  • System Integration and Testing.
  • Implementation.
Data source and OLE
Following are few questions that can be answered by ‘Explore India’.
  • Which is the highly populated state?
  • Where are Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai located?
  • Which state has the largest forest cover?
  • Which is the state that has male population > 15 lakhs and population density < 300 persons/sqkm?
  • Which is the least literate state?
  • Which state has a population < 20 lakhs and an area > 2000 sq km where sex ratio is the highest?
  • Which is the shortest route between two cities by air, road or rail and it’s alternatives?
A) India Map with Queried Objects:
 Applicable Query Attributes:
  • State Name
  • Area (sq km)
  • Capital
  • Languages
  • Districts
  • Total Literacy (%)
  • Male Literacy (%)
  • Female Literacy (%)
  • Urban Population (%)
  • Population· Male Population
  • Female Population
  • Growth Rate (%age)
  • Forest Cover (sq km)
  • Tourist Places etc.
  • Density (Persons/sq km)
B) State Map with Queried Objects
 Applicable Query Attributes:
  • District Name
  • District Area
  • Population (as on 2001)
  • District Head Quarter
C) Path Tracing for ROAD-NETWORK

Shortest route between two cities (with Alternative)		 D) Flood Tracing for ROAD-NETWORK

Flood tracing to find out the nearest places.
E) Path Tracing for RAIL-NETWORK

Shortest rail route between two cities		 F) Alternative Rail Route

Alternative rail route between two cities
G) Path Tracing for AIR-NETWORK

Shortest air route between two cities		 H) Alternative Air Route

Alternative air route between two cities
I) River Flood Analysis by BUFFER TRACE
J) Query for Earthquake in Different Categories
 K) Topology Thematic Query with Legend


Limitations of ‘Explore India’:
  1. Area and Population details covered are limited up to country, states and districts.
  2. Maps are not to scale.
  3. Query options are restricted up to country, state and district level.
  4. River depth & width, Road width, flow and Air traffic frequency are assumed.
Software Requirements:
  1. AutoDesk Map 4.5 or later software is necessary to achieve results.
  2. AutoCAD WHIP! 4 plug-in is essential to view web format maps.
  3. Internet Explorer 5 or later/ Netscape Navigator 4.6 or later.
  4. MS Office 2000.
  5. Adobe Acrobat reader 4 or later.
System Requirements:
  1. Intel Pentium 233MHz based PC
  2. MS Windows 98/ 2000/ Me/ NT or later
  3. 128MB RAM
  4. 1024x768x64K graphics card and color monitor
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