GIS mainstay of development planning: Lt Governor

Jammu, Nov 16: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Wednesday addressed a convention of GIS professionals, Government officials, entrepreneurs and young students, organized to mark the World GIS Day, here at the Convention Centre.
Highlighting the significance of the emerging GIS technology to address new challenges and explore new horizon of opportunities, the Lt Governor said the encouragement to spatial thinking, development of new Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, real-world applications are accelerating the growth in business, government and society.
GIS technology ecosystem is offering new communication tools to different sectors and making greater impact in areas like Weather Forecast, Urban & Transport Planning, Security, Biodiversity Protection, Telecom, Agriculture, Environment, Asset Management and Navigation Services, he added.
Speaking on the reforms introduced in the past 8 years to revolutionize the GIS technology across the country, the Lt Governor said, “Under the guidance of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, GIS has now become the mainstay of development planning and being widely used in the planning and monitoring of development works”.
About 1000 GIS applications every day are being used by professionals, researchers, common citizens in more than 50 sectors to address various challenges and opportunities, he noted.
The Lt Governor also shared the efforts of the government for introducing GIS to address the efficiency of urban & industrial planning, better decision-making for new reforms in agriculture, modernization of land records, road safety, smart city projects, connecting producers & markets, preserving biodiversity and ensuring equity in the society.
GIS is playing a crucial role in the identification of forest boundaries, GI tagging, J&K green drive, conservation of wetlands, and census of water bodies, he added.
Observing that Geographic approach is the only way to integrate all the information available for sectoral growth, the Lt Governor stressed the need to prepare a report on the encroachment of water bodies through comparative analysis of latest and earlier data.
The latest census of 2815 water bodies in J&K by Remote Sensing department can be used for mapping flood risk areas and sharing information with all concerned departments in an integrated manner. With the help of GIS, traffic accidents can be tackled through identification of accident locations, hotspots, the Lt Governor observed.
The Lt Governor advised all the concerned departments to collaborate to use GIS in network design, network optimization and data enhancement in remote areas. GIS can help in better planning of schemes and asset allocation according to the population and their needs, he added.
All stakeholders, GIS professionals, Research Scholars, Administrative Officers need to prepare scientific framework based on GIS for data capturing & optimum utilization of Remote Sensing, GIS technology applications for better decision making, the Lt Governor further added.
The Lt Governor also called for spreading awareness among the people about benefits of the GIS and its various applications in the development of society.
Sanjeev Verma, Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, Forest, Ecology and Environment department shared the achievements and the future action plans of the department.
Dr. Mohit Gera, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests extended his greetings on World GIS Day and briefed the gathering on the new initiatives of the forest department using GIS technology.
On the occasion, the Lt Governor launched Jammu & Kashmir Remote Sensing Information System – JKRIS, a Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative and g-SAM (Gram Panchayat Spatial Assets Mapper) Mobile app.
The Lt Governor released reports of Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing on the “Assessment of Inherent Vulnerability of Climate Change” & “Internal Monitoring of Wular Lake & its Immediate Catchment – a geospatial approach”. He also inaugurated the second edition of the Green life Contest and felicitated the winners of the Green Life Contest-1 from Jammu Region.
A postal cover on “Chinar Tree” was also released on the occasion.
Col. Vinod Kumar, Postmaster General, Jammu Region; Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, Administrative Secretary, Revenue Department, Amit Sharma, Administrative Secretary, Mining Department; Avny Lavasa, Deputy Commissioner Jammu; Rakesh Kumar, Director Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing; Senior Scientists; Professors; Research Scholars, officials, various public & private stakeholders and scores of students were present on the occasion.