Vision of National GIS: In comparison with other policies & plans

Analysis of the vision points of National GIS India, in comparison with other plans and mandates
Harsha Vardhan Madiraju 10/19/2011

National GIS being proposed in India is a mammoth effort to build the National GIS Map. However, this when compared with the already existing policies and programs, there is a clear redundancy. This document is trying to bring out those aspects by referring to the draft document and the current policies & programs. Though this is not a thorough analysis, this brief study tries to bring out some relevant points.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents...................................................................................................2 The mandate problem...........................................................................................3 Whose mandate is data?....................................................................................3 Vision of National GIS - Unique / Positive Points....................................................4 Vision of National GIS vs. NSDI..............................................................................5 National GIS in comparison with International SDI/ mapping efforts...............6 Vision of National GIS Vs. Other projects...............................................................6 Other aspects........................................................................................................ 7

The mandate problem

Whose mandate is data?
Mapping Policy The responsibility for producing, maintaining and disseminating the topographic map database of the whole country, which is the foundation of all spatial data vests with the Survey of India (SOI). Recently, SOI has been mandated to take a leadership role in liberalizing access of spatial data to user groups without jeopardizing national security. National GIS vision document A well maintained collection of geospatial datasets to allow national use, published via standard web services so that government and private sector entities and citizens have the same national view of GIS data INGO must be mandated to get organised, develop, maintain and serve the National GIS Asset. INGO must pro-actively integrate/coordinate/orga nise the National GIS Asset and meet national needs in the process even driving the overall performance/ responsibility of traditional mapping agencies SOI is currently preparing City Maps. These City Maps will be on large scales in WGS-84 datum and in public domain. There are agencies that have maps (like SOI, GSI, FSI, NBSSLUP/ Census; some may even have some GIS data for some regions/areas but not for whole country and not updated). The maps, even if in digital format are not GIS-Ready and require considerable process and efforts to make them GIS-ready and ingestbale into the Remote Sensing Policy The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)/ DOS is vested with the authority to acquire and disseminate all satellite remote sensing data in India, The Government, through the nodal agency, shall be the sole and exclusive owner of all data collected/ received from IRS.

National GIS Asset National GIS asset is the only way by which the National GIS Asset would start to get organised National GIS Asset includes ~40+ GIS Features Administrative Boundaries Roads Railway lines Hydrology Settlement Cultural Details Relief/ Hypsography Vegetation Forest

Layers mandated by SOI Administrative Boundaries Roads Railway lines Hydrology Settlement Cultural Details Relief/ Hypsography Vegetation Forest

Vision of National GIS - Unique / Positive Points

This will have to bring in more effective coordination and cooperation amongst different government agencies to avoid any duplication of efforts and synergise their GIS requirements and solutions. This is an encouraging point that national GIS will be mandating for effective coordination among various agencies to avoid duplicity of efforts in terms of synergizing GIS data and application requirements. This can bring in the concept of build once. However, the National GIS has not presented a road map for the coordination & cooperation agenda. Promote "virtual geographic information" through crowd-sourcing transactional workflows that allow users to remotely update and add content to designated layers within the National GIS datasets; No policy currently speaks of crowdsourcing. National GIS has included one of this as the mandate. It should look in to current crowdsourcing efforts in place in India, and try to integrate them in to the National GIS, rather trying to build something from scratch. Ex: Open Street Map While policies of images/maps (government has the Remote Sensing Data Policy, 2001 and the National Map Policy, 2005) have been seen to be limiting the wideusage of GIS, a re-look at these policies would be most essential to position a more pragmatic and a more liberal-but-regulated GIS Policy regime. How is national GGIS contributing towards the improvement of policies / bringing of a single unified policy be it maps / satellite imagery?

Inclusive access to National GIS and its GIS-DSS by private enterprise and citizens The policies might restrict such use of GIS data by public currently the list of National GIS Asset and their details of content, updations required (as most of these are of old vintage and none are updated). Subsequent cycles of updations of the National GIS Asset would be organized by using satellite images and surveying/mapping by involving private agencies as per a standardized periodicity that keep the National GIS Asset uptodate No policy/ program has talked of unified National GIS asset which is a unique point

Vision of National GIS vs. NSDI

It should be seen that investment for a National GIS must be a core responsibility of the government as it will help bring Technology and People together on an open and transparent GIS Platform. Other mandates such as NSDI backed by policies and public funding are not able to bring technology and people together. This statement is shows this is another redundant effort with the current efforts being undertaken. These important GIS Applications often grapple with a combination of varied technologies, varying standards for data quality (which are many times unknown) and developing different and fragmented applications. Data Standards (NSDI, ISO) and application interfacing standards (OGC) are already facilitating in addressing the aspects related to the above aspects. This is already the part of the NSDI and other State SDI mandates. that GIS Information must be available in real time to share, manage & collaborate; the GIS information must be accurate, reliable, timely & usable even as Government control of strategic information is critical maintained. This is also the mandate of NSDI. A well maintained collection of geospatial datasets to allow national use, published via standard web services so that government and private sector entities and citizens have the same national view of GIS data The mandated organizations such as SOI etc. are already running the NSDI nodes, to serve the data. Rather than again duplicating such efforts, we should look at strengthening such efforts. Standards for National geospatial datasets, Standards for geospatial web services, Standards for geospatial data exchange, Standards for quality, Standards for metadata

This is also the mandate of NSDI. powerful GIS DSS engine on the web that allows on-line integration and application of GIS layers This is already part of the state SDIs and other user applications. National GIS in comparison with International SDI/ mapping efforts US has also started discussion on a National GIS and are still considering this concept. It would be necessary for us to understand why the US is still considering this concept. What advantages/ disadvantages they see in comparison to Geospatial OneStop? What are the challenges they foresee; what learning we can take from it?

China has initiated steps for organizing a nation-wide GIS layers and access system under Chinas Development and Reforms Commission This sounds like National SDI effort : With GIS layers and access system

UAE (Abu- Dhabi) - The AD-SDI Geospatial Portal, under the E-Governance initiative, provides a single point of access for geospatial information across the entire UAE community This clearly states that through the SDI effort access to data is being provided

Singapore - Singapore has made a full-scale GIS of Singapore and is available on web access Singapore OneMap was out of the SDI efforts

UK - UK has established a nation-wide MasterMap GIS This is being done by Ordnance Survey itself, not any new agency. So should be in case of India?

Vision of National GIS Vs. Other projects

enable citizens access GIS services Citizens it too broader term with respect to GIS services. NRSCs Bhuvan was one of such applications. Various other such applications do exist in public domain, but their usability and acceptance remains challenging. However, apps from the private domain such as Google, Yahoo etc. have gained popularity - Such aspects need to be understood.

The National GIS could also enable the accelerated development of a number of Enterprise-GIS solutions that power and support many enterprise activities and which can draw heavily from the National GIS and be a part of it for GIS Applications in power, telecom, infrastructure, aviation, port management and many other areas. This is too broad mandate, and one application cannot work for all the purposes are it power, telecom, and infrastructure. National GIS cannot mandate on how applications should be developed and managed. Various projects at the national level such as R-APDR, NLRMP etc. fall under this. National GIS must also be able to serve the basic needs of citizens by providing access to map and image information. Applications like routing, tourism, citizen services of e-governance. To address the above underlined point there are already substantial efforts from the private industry and such applications are already in place. National GIs must look into how such applications can be readily utilized They are list of applications are: 1. Yahoo Maps India - http://in.maps.yahoo.com 2. Google Maps India - http://maps.google.co.in 3. Bing Maps for India - http://www.bing.com/mapindia 4. Map My India Maps - http://maps.mapmyindia.com 5. SatNav Roads of India Map portal - http://www.roadsofindia.com 6. Rediff Maps Beta- http://maps.rediff.com 7. Open Street Maps India - http://openstreetmap.in 8. Wikimapia - http://www.wikimapia.org

Other aspects
also make the society, at large, to become spatially aware and knowledgeable Providing GIS services does not necessarily mean the society becomes spatially aware and knowledgeable. Also this is one of the mandates of National mapping policy. India needs to enable mechanisms by which GIS can bring in full-scale support to GOVERNANCE (in general) and embed GIS in all aspects of Planning at national level This does not talk of the vice-versa; how Governance will support enabling GIS and the role of National GIS in it.