Maps

 Patterns of spatial and temporal urban changes have been analysed efficiently using spatial and temporal technologies such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) along with collateral data such as Survey of India (SOI) maps, etc.

We are beginning this effort with the conflicts that we have already documented by the Forum. You could also contribute to this effort by sending in abstracts of conflict cases that you know.

This document by the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre (MRSAC) presents the “Atlas on Watershed Prioritisation” using resources database on 1:2,50,000 scale adopting a

Organizer: Pipal Tree

Venue: Fireflies Inter-religious Ashram, Bangalore, India

Sri Lanka’s government stated that the death toll from flooding had risen to 13, and officials were arranging food drops to hardest-hit areas in the east.

India’s Groundwater Challenge and the Way Forward
P S Vijay Shankar , Himanshu Kulkarni , Sunderrajan Krishnan

The groundwater crisis is acquiring alarming proportions in many parts of the country. Strategies to respond to groundwater overuse and deteriorating water quality must be based on a new approach involving typologising the resource problems and redefining the institutional structure governing groundwater. This approach is based on the notion of groundwater as common property.

This report by Kalpavriksh, Aaranyak and ActionAid India deals with the large dams’ juggernaut, which happens to be the biggest ‘development’ intervention in this ecologically and geologically fragile, seismically active and culturally sensitive region in the coming days. With the Northeast identified as India’s ‘future powerhouse’ and at least 168 large hydroelectric projects set to majorly alter the riverscape, large dams are emerging as a major issue of conflict in the region.

Although the current scale of dam-related developments far outstrips anything which took place in the past, the region has been no stranger to dam-related conflicts. For example, the Kaptai dam, built in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the 1960s, submerged the traditional homelands of the Hajong and Chakma indigenous communities, and forced them to migrate into parts of Northeast India.

Guest Post by Shashank Srinivasan

High altitude wetlands in the Indian Himalayas are crucial to the water security of downstream communities. They buffer the flow of glacial meltwater to sustain river flow in the dry season, ensuring that human settlements have access to water when they need it most.

High altitude wetlands are also reservoirs of biodiversity and contribute local livelihood opportunities. Identifying these wetlands and demarcating areas for their protection is thus crucial to any wetland management plan.

In this poster, a method of using topographic data obtained by remote sensing techniques, to identify the catchment areas of these wetlands has been described.

The author suggests that the protection of these catchment areas will ensure the survival of these wetlands, as well as of the communities that depend on them.

Geospatial World Forum 2011

Theme: Dimensions and Directions of Geospatial Industry

Ecological Sanitation is a new approaching sanitation where there is minimal water use and where human waste can be used as fertilizer. It is a truly sustainable approach.