Report on “The Second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UN-WGIC) Pre-Event”

Abstract

The United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM) organises the World Geospatial Information Congress (UN-WGIC) once every four years bringing together member states of the UN-GGIM, experts in the field of Geospatial Technologies and its various application domains, commercial geospatial sector, academia, researchers and practitioners from across the globe. India is the proud host of the Second UN-WGIC scheduled for 10–14 October 2022 in Hyderabad, India. The Second UN-WGIC is organised by the United Nations and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. Through a series of online virtual pre-events, DST intends to collect and collate various ideas and resource materials including applications and innovations in the field of Geospatial information generation to highlight the vibrant Indian Geospatial Ecosystem. One of the Pre events in India was held during 26th and 27th May, Co-ordinated by Prof. Biplab Biswas, Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, West Bengal, India. The whole UN-WGIC pre-event was structured into—Inauguration; five technical sessions with presentations from various stakeholders like Government, Industry, Youth, Academics, others; and Conclusion with a detailed discussion over the nature, development and future trend of geospatial ecosystem in India and other countries.

The inaugural address was given by Dr. P.S. Acharya, Head of National Geospatial Program, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. He mentioned the theme of UN-WGIC—‘Geo-enabling the Global Village’ meaning geo-enablement of everyone so that geographical data can be linked with Sustainable Development Goals and quantification of existing resources can be done. He stated that use of Geospatial Technologies for the betterment of the society, economy and environment was the main goal of the UN-WGIC.

It was followed by a welcome song and then the second speaker Dr. Shubha Pandey, NGP, DST, Government of India gave introduction on the Second UN-WGIC. She also talked about “Geospatial Atma-Nirbharta” in India and encouraged the participants to show tools and presentations which could be showcased in the main event.

Prof. Biplab Biswas gave a small presentation on behalf of Prof Nimai Chandra Saha, Hon'ble Vice-Chancellor of The University of Burdwan, Burdwan about the history of the institution and the recent geospatial advancements by the University in general and major contribution with special emphasis on the Department of Geography and Department of Geospatial Science, BU.

This session was chaired by Dr. Debapriya Dutta, Associate Head, National Geospatial Program, Department of Science and Technology and Head SEED, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. He talked about how India's geospatial ecosystem matured after launching of the Satellite IRS-11 in 1988 by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Govt. of India and the 73rd and 74th amendment of the Constitution of India. In addition, he stressed on how it changed the role of geospatial data from just decision making to bringing efficiency to the governance and other systems. He as well mentioned about the first UN-WGIC in China in 2018 and how the post-COVID world has changed and the essence of the second UN-WGIC is that ‘no one should left behind’ which is in accordance to the PM’s Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas2 which is also the main philosophy of Sustainable Development Goals. The second UN-WGIC is all about the involvement of youth and disadvantaged sections of the society.

The first presentation was by Dr. Gaurav Jain, Scientist SF, Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO on Geospatial Energy Map of India: Potential and Opportunities. The web application was designed and developed by ISRO and Niti Aayog in Association with Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Renewable Energy, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Department of Atomic Energy. The main objective was to provide access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy which is one of the goals of SDG 2030.3 He talked about the issues of Geospatial data in India and that very few integrated systems provided information on all energy assets at a particular place. ISRO's objective was to develop a web GIS system for visualisation of energy maps of India showing the whole energy infrastructure in India. He stated that data available with the government bodies wasn't enough and could not be used for planning or administration. The final energy map of India has conventional power plants, renewable energy power plants, coal reserves and petroleum and gas sector. It also has data on production of energy resources which is kept updated. This service would be very helpful in policy development and planning and would lead to less regional disparity and it would also give investment guidance for financial institutions.

The second presentation was by Dr. Shweta Mishra, Scientist SE, Space Applications Centre, (SAC), ISRO on Open Source WebGIS Technologies and its Applications using Earth Observation data. She talked about how ISRO had made solar calculator and the web GIS applications used at the back end for it. Solar calculator is a web GIS based application which is developed under VEDAS.4 It provides information on monthly and yearly solar potential along with monthly minimum and maximum temperature, annual Sun path and daily solar hours. She also mentioned the solar calculator android app and the solar calculator for Africa at the behest of USA. The wind energy calculator has also been developed. She talked about the PM's oration on the calculator for identifying solar power potential of any place in the world which will strengthen the concept of One Sun, One World, One Grid5 with the cooperation of ISA and the UK's green grid initiative.

The third presentation was by Dr. Shivani Shah, Scientist—SG, DWD/EPSA, Space Applications Centre (ISRO) on Use of Geospatial Technology for Weather and Ocean Information Services from MOSDAC. She gave a live demonstrated on the various services available on the MOSDAC website like weather forecast, current weather events and alerts. She furthermore showed the live weather map of India.

The fourth presentation was by Dr. Pulak Guhathakurta, India Meteorological Department, Pune on use of Geospatial Services in disseminating weather and climate information at India Meteorological Department. Weather monitoring and the impact based forecasts for all types of severe weather events need geospatial services to visualise. They also have interactive cyclone maps. The climate hazards and vulnerability atlas (“Climate hazard and vulnerability atlas”) of India made by IMD is real time data. He talked about the services offered by the IMD in various fields, for example- climate information, weather forecast, disaster risk reduction (DRR), tourism etc. He also showed how in recent times the IMD has been using GIS for the visualisation of the data. Historical significance of the institute was also talked about.

The fifth presentation was by Prof. Rabindra Nath Roy, Dept. of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of West Bengal on development of a framework for surveillance of leprosy using GIS in Purba Bardhaman district, West Bengal. He expressed how geospatial technologies can provide a graphical analysis of epidemiological indicators over time, the spatial distribution and severity of the disease, identify pockets of high endemicity and indicate where there is a need to target extra resources.

The theme of the 2nd session was “Geospatial Governance Innovations/Initiatives in the Industrial Sector”. The session commenced with the opening speech from Dr. Shashikant A. Sharma (Chair) and Dr. Anindya Bose (co-chair). They talked about how the government alone can’t work in this geospatial sector without the help of the private sector. How the various initiatives like “Make in India6” is helping the industries to grow in this sector and how those industries in turn are helping the government to make governance decisions based on the work done by the companies in the field of Geospatial Science was also discussed.

The first speaker was Sri Rajesh Mathur from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) India. He is the director- strategy ESRI—India, and Chair, FICCI Committee of Geospatial Technology and President of Association of Geospatial Industries. He talked about the Evolution of Geospatial Ecosystem in India in the last 3 decades. He discussed about how the geospatial in India evolved from a niche specialty, only being used by the early adopters like the DST, NATMO, ISRO and various mapping agencies around India to the adoption by the academic sectors and in recent times the boom in Geospatial technologies being used in Academia, Industry and in Government. He talked about the importance of the cooperation between the State and the Central Governments. Next he elaborated the work done by ESRI India. ESRI India has been working with the government and academic sectors for a very long time. He discussed how ESRI India is helping the government with various projects like Smart city,7National Hydrology Project,8 and training projects for students, especially during the lockdown period named “Learn ArcGIS”, “Young scholar programme9”. He also shed light on how ESRI India is working with almost 50 start-ups, IITs and NITs. Various societal issues and their mitigation was also discussed. For example, awareness campaigns for citizens about uses of geospatial data through various portals and applications (Geo- Hub, Living Atlas of India) was discussed. Project of training women in rural areas for increasing their employability was discussed as well.

He made his concluding remarks by making some suggestions about what needs to be done in this field by the government (in terms of policies), academia (building geospatial workforce) and industry.

The next speaker was Pillappan Karuppiah, Nascent Info Technologies Private Limited, on whose behalf Santosh Gaikwar presented their work, “City Layers: a highly integrated platform for Geo-enabling e-governance”. This is a platform made by Nascent Info Technologies which enables the design of smart cities. He discussed how near real time handling of cities needs proper planning can help us in making smart cities. First he pointed out the problems faced by authorities in the cities like urban sprawl, problems with utilities, and public grievances. As the solution he presented the platform of “City layers” which will enable urban planners and authorities to “Geoenable Decision Support System” (DSS). How the platform of “City Layers” works was explained by Mr. Gaikwar. This software is a cross platform, independent software, based on OGC compliant open source technology. It provides all the GIS functionalities. He also talked about how City Layers is being actively used in many municipal corporations.

Dr. Shashikant A. Sharma (chair) and Dr. Anindya Bose (co-chair) gave closing remarks on the importance of the innovative technologies being developed in the industrial sectors in the field of Geospatial science. They concluded the 2nd session by thanking all the participants and organisers.

The youth are the main focus of this UN-WGIC event. The whole world is eagerly looking forward to their innovations. This very session was chaired by Prof. Shamita Kumar, Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune and co-chaired by Dr. Shubha Pandey, NGP, DST, Government of India.

The first presentation of this Youth session “POST—Plus-Code Offering Spatial Tags”, was jointly presented by Ms. Samriddha Saha, Ms.Sneha Kour, and Mr. Arpan Dawn, Department of Geography and Department of Geospatial Science, The University of Burdwan. The main objective of their research is to convert areal address to point information for quick and effective services. The demand for delivery services is increasing day by day, whether it can be medicine, food, grocery, electronics equipment, household things or any emergency services. The facilitators always think how this service can be facilitated in the fastest and most effective way. Addresses are one of the fundamental concepts by which people perceive locations in the modern world. But unfortunately the address problem in India is a unique scenario. This arises mainly due to the diversity in geographies, languages and user behaviour across different regions in India. To make the delivery services quick & effective it is necessary to use accurate shipment address by facilitates. ‘Plus codes’ are free, open-sourced, digital addresses that provide accurate addresses for locations, including places that don't have accurate formal addresses. It is a geocoded system for identifying any geographical point/area on Earth, even when a street address does not exist. Plus Codes are based on latitude and longitude, and displayed as numbers and letters. In India 30% of deaths are caused due to delayed ambulances and 50% of heart attack cases reach the hospital late. Using the Plus Code, people can easily access the proper location.

The next presentation entitled “Achieving Urban Sustainability using Geospatial Science” was presented by Ms. Binay Krishna Pal, Department of Geography, The University of Calcutta. A sustainable city or eco-city is a city designed with consideration of environmental impact, inhabited by people dedicated to minimization of required inputs of energy, water and food, and waste output of heat, air pollution—CO₂, methane, and water pollution. Richard Register first coined the term “ecocity” in his 1987 book, Ecocity Berkeley: building cities for a healthy future. Other leading figures who envisioned the sustainable city are architect Paul F Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd, and authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject. The field of industrial ecology is sometimes used in planning these cities. Ecocity, being one of the prominent ideas in urban studies, got immense importance in contemporary research. Enabling modern technologies and tools are very much conducive to achieve the goals of ecocity or sustainable urban development. The Geospatial Science, being one of the emerging important disciplines, can contribute through the focus on Urban Infrastructure Assessment and Planning, Public Space Quality Assessment, & Mapping the ‘15 Minutes City’. The concept gained attraction during the COVID-19 crisis, when the necessity for “personal travel space” became critical, and walking and cycling emerged as essential modes of transportation for safe and efficient travel. Geospatial techniques can be a very useful tool to evaluate the lags behind achieving 15 minutes city.

The next presentation entitled “Site selection for establishment of a rice mill in Bardhaman, West Bengal” was presented by Mr. Soumyadip Samanta, Department of Geospatial Science, The University of Burdwan. The main objective of this research work is to identify the suitable site for establishment of a rice mill. The factors he had considered for establishment of rice mill are: Location, Rice production, Water source, Transport accessibility, Good drainage area. Suitable location plays a key role for establishment of a commercial rice mill. This affects both environmental and financial aspects. This research aims to determine optimal sites for setting automatic rice mills in Bardhaman District of West Bengal, India considering above factors, prerequisites for running rice mills and paddy production volume in the locality.

The next presentation entitled “Delineation of Potential Zones for Indigeneous Rice Varieties Using Geospatial Technology” was presented by Mr. Sanjib Chakraborty, Department of Geography, Raiganj University, Uttar Dinajpur, WB, India. The objectives of his studies were: to identify the potential zones of the selected indigenous rice varieties and to restore the rice diversity as well as the soil health of the study area by promoting the cultivation of the traditional rice varieties. Intensive field survey was conducted on those cultivated sites where indigenous rice varieties were cultivated traditionally from the historical times. Besides the capturing of geo-coordinates of these spots, geo-tagged photos as well as soil samples were also taken for lab analysis. Potential zones are highlighted in the map using QGIS open source software. Geo-tagged photos of the important field are also plotted in the map using a specific plug-in. Based on the different chemical properties of the collected soil samples, specific quality of the selected cultivated fields are also mapped. All these combined results are clearly delineating the present potential field of the indigenous rice varieties where they can be cultivated by following their traditional organic way without deteriorating the natural soil health. The disappearance of the traditional rice varieties is indeed alarming for the ecological imbalance of any area. No doubt, spreading of the cultivation of the traditional rice varieties in their potential zones will be able to restore the ecological balance of the study area again. Proper mapping of the potential zones of any specific rice cultivars is very much important for its in-situ conservation and it only is possible using geospatial technology. The QGIS platform becomes very helpful for mapping the pre-mentioned zones. Plotting the geo-tagging photos using a specific QGIS plugin helps to identify the specific geographic features of the specific fields which can further be helpful to differentiate the characteristics of different agricultural factors within any potential zone.

The 5th speaker of this session was Mr. Amiya Gayen, Calcutta University. He has presented on “Soil Erosion Vulnerability assessment and Management using Geospatial Science”. Soil erosion has adverse effect on land degradation, water quality, sedimentation of river, damage of roads, and agricultural productivity. Mr. Gayen attempted to produce the soil erosion vulnerability map due to management of the hazard prone areas, which can be very useful for land managers and policymakers to inaugurate the proper prioritising area. There were various physical processes based on empirical models used to quantify soil erosion vulnerability.

The final presentation of this session as well as that day i.e., “Rice Crop Growth Monitoring Using Machine Learning and Geospatial Technology Within the Fast-Processing Google Earth Engine Cloud” was presented by Ms. Chiranjit Singha, Kishore Chandra Swain, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal 731236, India. In this paper, rice crop growth monitoring in the Hooghly region, West Bengal, India was conducted based on earth observation high spatial–temporal resolution of optical and SAR data and in-situ plant dry biomass data using six machine learning models, namely Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, Extreme Gradient Boosting, K-nearest Neighbours, Decision Tree, and Logistic regression within the fast processing Google Colab and Google Earth Engine cloud. Normalised Vegetation Index and SAR-based VH/VV signatures are more suitable for the temporal detected phenology dynamics of certain crop growth periods. The result showed the booting to heading periods generated more biomass with a double bouncing effect with higher backscatter reflectance that are directly correlated to NDVI and crop yield quantity during the kharif rice-growing season 2020. Among the tested ML models, the RF regression model performed better than the others, with an RMSE of 1.23 t/ha, MAE of 0.88 t/ha, and R² of 0.86. In the classification-based AUROC analysis, the XGBoost models have a greater prediction rate for rice crop yield monitoring, than the other model's result. So, this research is simple but an effective approach for any developing countries precision agriculture development for sustainable crop practices to support the future food security and management of the greenhouse gas emission to atmospheric cycle.

The session ends with a fruitful question—answer session, discussion and suggestions by the Chair—Prof. Shamita Kumar and Co-chair Dr Shubha Pandey with the presenters.

On the 2nd day of the pre-event preceding the 2nd UN-WGIC main event, the 1st session of the day was chaired by Professor Milap Punia and the co-chair was Dr. Pulak Ghathakurta. For his (chair) inaugural speech he welcomed all the participants both national and international and talked about the importance of new technologies such as Neural Networks, ML and drone technologies. And he also talked about the flagship projects of the government of India such as “Svamitva”.10

The co-chair of the session also added that the ideas showcased here will be vital to societal progress and it is important to consider “What are we doing for the society?”.

The first speaker of the session was Dr. Diah Dwiana Lestiani, from Centre for Applied Nuclear Science and Technology, BATAN Bandung, Jln. Tamansari 71, Bandung 40132, Indonesia. She presented her work on how geospatial techniques are used to assess heavy metals contamination in soils collected in the vicinity of lead smelter in East Java, Indonesia. The main focus was on assessing risk regions around the lead smelter. The effect of heavy metals like lead on the environment and the soil was discussed. Through her study she has found that there is a relation between increased lead levels in the water and the topsoil of the region and decreased IQ levels in children, which is a health disaster. And proper action needs to be taken.

The second speaker of the session was Prof. Ogawa Michihiro, University of Tokyo, Japan on Asian Network for GIS Based Historical Studies (ANGIS) towards Expanding the 'Horizon of Applied GIS for Teaching and Research'. ANGIS is a network for GIS based historical studies in Asia. He talked about the institution and the conferences it held in a decade of its making. India Place Finder is one of its main features of the website. The website also has a lot of geospatial data which can be downloaded freely through its data portal. There are many research papers available on the website. He proposed to show their research on “GIS based Analysis of Environmental Change and Natural Hazards in Asian History” at the main event.

The third speaker of the session was Yazenia Linares Vega, from The Institute of Meteorology, Cuba. She showcased her project on how geospatial information and geographic information systems are being used to determine risk areas by co-circulation of dengue and SAR-CoV-2 in Cuba, which she worked on along with her students. The main focus of her work is using mapping tools like ArcGIS, mapping regions with potential for breeding of Dengue carrying mosquitoes. Also the same mapping tools are used to map the spread of SAR-COV-2 virus in Cuba. She also talked about how this information is being used in an early warning system which is helping authorities to make timely decisions.

The fourth speaker of the day was Prof. M. S Nathawat, School of Sciences, IGNOU, Block-D, Raman Bhavan, Academic Complex, New Delhi. His presentation focused on the issues and future direction in Geospatial Technology education. He firstly introduced us to the works being done at IGNOU for making a student centric learning system. The availability of loads of study materials as well as a variety of courses was shown by them. He talked about how geospatial technology is an important new technology that can be applied where spatial perspective is needed. Importance of geospatial education at basic level was also discussed. He also discussed how GSS is a new and budding field which is still not being used to its full potential. Availability of educational resources have made it possible for this field to flourish in the last few decades. The aim is to make this subject available for all the students at basic level and make a large trained workforce and use this field in governance and defence. He discussed the new GSS based courses that will be launched at IGNOU in January of 2023 he concluded by saying that GIS will play a very important role in our day to day lives. In the future, a government initiative of virtual lab was also discussed.

The fifth speaker of the day was Dr. Rohini Swaminathan, World Food Program, Rome. Dr Swaminathan showcased the geospatial ecosystem in the UN world food program (WFP). The main focus was the process of data collection then the information and then the decision making aspect. The WFP collects a lot of data ranging from vulnerability assessment to disaster response. Through the presentation she posed the question, how to quickly respond to disasters and other problems in hard to reach places of the world? Due to this necessity WFP relies on a lot of geospatial Technologies. According to Dr. Swaminathan, “it is a necessity to use geospatial technology now”. A huge amount of geospatial technologies are being used at the UN and the WFP. Dr. Swaminathan introduced us to a tool called “The Hunger map” which shows the current situation of world hunger. She also introduced the “zero hunger policy” of WFP. She discussed how for the past 7–8 years GIS has become an integral part of the UN and is being used not only at the headquarters but also at country offices around the world.

The final speaker of the 4th session was Mr. Vinay Babu Adimulam, from Hexagon. The subject of his presentation was Geospatial Technologies supporting Sustainable Development Goals as well as the geo-enabled solutions offered by the company for monitoring the SDGs. He introduced us to the history and the products of the company, the keywords being “autonomous”. In essence, how autonomous features can be integrated in various fields. He also talked about various 3d BIM models. Products like sensors and scanners made by the company were shown as well. The usage of drones was also touched on. Data management products offered by the company were showcased, Precision farming and autonomous and smart farming solutions discussed as well. Other fields of work shown in the presentation were Forestry, Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Real time situational awareness, Women helpline, Radar based monitoring, scenario simulations etc.

After the presentation, the question was raised by Prof. Milap Puniya on how and what services are being offered for the Universities and colleges? To which the reply was that there are training programs where software licences are provided for these students, also help to set up GIS Labs in universities is also available.

The final fifth session was Chaired by Prof. M. S. Nathawat, IGNOU, New Delhi. The first presentation of the 5th session was by Prof. Soumya K. Ghosh from IIT KGP. The topic was “Spatial Data Infrastructure and its Applications”. Concept of spatial data, application of spatial data organisations were introduced. Challenges, data management, Analysis of data, Trends of the field were discussed. All of the concepts were clumped together as the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) which was the main focus of Professor Ghosh’s talk. Benefits and typical SDI components were discussed as well. Case study of Bankura District was presented. This approach is trying to fulfil the IGIF (Integrated Geospatial Information Framework) of UN-GGIM. His concluding remarks was that the SDI is the need of the hour and spatial data science is growing enormous interest.

In this session HODs of different Universities (Dr. Jyoti Sankar Bandyopadhyay, Director, Centre for Environmental Studies, Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, Dr. Debasis Ghosh, Head, Department of Geography, Calcutta University, Kolkata, West Bengal, Prof. Suman Paul, Head, Department of Geography, SKB University, Purulia, Dr. Arijit Das, Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga, Malda, West Bengal) represents their respective geospatial departments and their related activities.

The third lecture of this session was given by Dr. Anindya Bose from the Department of Physics, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan. He showcased his team’s works on low cost GNSS receivers. He explained why the Indian subcontinent region has a multi-GNSS environment and considered a GNSS Hotspot. The question he posed was “how well can we utilise this position for the benefit of our country and citizens?” The main goal of his work is to reduce the prohibitive cost of GNSS receivers which is the big roadblock in the GNSS field. The market trends in this field were shown as well. Application of GNSS was also touched upon. GNSS positioning techniques were quickly and very simply explained. Then the work being done by him and his team on very low cost GNSS modules, details about these modules were discussed. Development of NavIC enabled modules were showcased. The advantages were listed, ongoing projects were shown. The talk was concluded after thanking all the sponsors of the project, SAP, AICTE, DRDO, AND SERB.

The sixth lecture of this session was given by Dr Dipanwita Dutta, Head, Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal. With the wide range of applications, geospatial technology has become an essential tool for all major projects dealing with earth and environmental issues. The last couple of decades have experienced a significant growth in the geospatial sector of our country followed by a sea of opportunities for the younger generation. The Department of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System, Vidyasagar University was established in the year 2003 as a pioneer department in Eastern India providing M. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees in regular mode. The major aim for starting this course in this underprivileged and remote part of the state was to enhance the employability of the students. There has been a sharp increase in the demand for efficient and skilled workforce in geospatial sector and the department has significant contribution in catering the demand for qualified manpower in the GIS sector of our country. The alumni of the department are well placed in many state and central government agencies, research institutes and MNCs. The students are encouraged to take up innovative project in their final semester dissertation. Many of them pursue dissertation projects in collaboration with scientists of renowned research institutions like IIT-KGP, RRSC (ISRO). The faculty members of the department are engaged in various projects funded by ISRO, DST-SERB, INCOIS, DBT, UGC etc. Research works of the faculty members and scholars have been published in reputed national and international journals. Despite of its limited resources and infrastructure, the department has been playing a key role in empowering the rural youths of West Bengal.

The eight speaker of this session, Dr. Deb Prakash Pahari, Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan has presented one of his beautiful GIS based research work i.e. Natural Hazard, Coastal Management and Tourism: A Case Study using Remote Sensing and GIS. The case study is going through Digha, Sundarban and West Bengal Borders. The main objective of this research is to trace the history of development and evolutionary trend of growth in hotels, holiday homes and infrastructure in coastal resorts of West Bengal and also to suggest appropriate mitigation measures and sustainable management plan for the individual resorts.

The last and final speaker of this pre-event was Dr. Shailesh Chaure, Govt. Holkar Science College, Indore, M.P. He gave one of the most valuable lectures on “Open source Software Tools for finding numbers of SOI Topographical sheets”. SOI Toposheets are the most authentic and widely used pan India data especially at 1:50,000 scale for Indian scholars, researchers, planners, and field executors of various Government Departments. In the present scenario when we are using all the data in digital format, but there is no tool or application available to have the system through which one can automatically fetch the toposheet number, geometry or layers which have been created in GIS. To fulfil these gap, Dr. Chaure has done some excellent work during few years and developed a few tools using Python, Django & Delphi. Various tools has been developed for different categories of users like Python Django Web service, QGIS-Python plugin, A standalone windows application, Toposheet numbering tutor and OSM tutor. He has presented briefly about the user inferences of these tools.

The focus of the discussion was on the different types of innovative ideas on geospatial ecosystem from Industrial, Academia, Civil Society and Youth along with how they can be showcased in the main event. A very important suggestion was made by Dr. Tapati Banerjee, former Director, NATMO, Government of India about how students all over India in many universities are working on various projects and if those projects could be set forth together. From the DST side Dr. P.S Acharya added that the elements of integration should be visible in addition to integrating the solutions for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The innovative ideas from the youth were discussed and how these innovations could be very revolutionary and would help achieve sustainable development goals. A proposal of a separate session for the youth projects was put forth.

Dr. P.S Acharya dubbed the “voluntary GIS”—the concept of verification and validation was focused on. He remarked that the ideas might be uploaded to a central repository and the decision would be made by the National and the International Advisory Committee. After the decision a call could be taken. Dr. Shailesh Chaure added to this by pointing out that the issue of validation can be solved by organising some competition at college level to pick out the best ideas. He gave the example of a “Geo- youth program” organised by Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Department of Geology, where PG and PhD students present their work. He added, similar competitions could be held for the selection of suitable ideas for the event and to give the students a chance to showcase their work. Then Dr. Anindya Bose proposed an excellent idea for selecting the student projects. Two months from now an “Idea hackathon” could be organised where the whole country would be divided into 4 regions and 10 or 20 ideas from each region could be selected. To this Dr. Acharya added that this was a great idea and details of which could be worked out. He added that the idea of this “hackathon” ought to be discussed.

Dr Sumit Sen then added to this discussion. He said that IIT Bombay has been organising “Mapathons” every year for the students and the idea is very close to Dr. Bose and Prof. Chaurey’s suggestion and they will be very happy to provide assistance regarding this. Lastly Dr. Tapati Banerjee added that the students should be provided with the experience of working in industry or in government sectors to increase their knowledge in practical field work.

With this Prof. Biplab Biswas (Organiser) culminated the event and thanked all the participants, officials and the dignitaries present.

The solar calculator and VEDAS by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Govt. of India was ingenious. It would not only be obliging to the country but also the whole world. It would help the world in obtaining the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 a bit easier.

One of the innovative, effective as well as interesting presentation was “POST—Plus-Code Offering Spatial Tags”, jointly presented by the students of The University of Burdwan. This presentation was very much appreciated by all the dignitaries presented in the session and also they suggested for the betterment of this work.

The work being done by Dr Anindya Bose and his team in the field of GNSS is really very exciting. Cutting the cost down on important GNSS hardware components will open up new opportunities for start-ups and academia. Funding in academia and in start-ups is usually low. New companies and researchers will be able to use affordable hardware components. All thanks to him and his team’s work.

The presentation by Dr. Laxmi Swaminathan from the World Food Programme was very interesting. The use of ‘Geospatial Tools for Conflict Mapping and Mapping Food Security’ was very innovative. The key takeaway from her presentation was that there is still much more work needed. How the data about disaster, hunger, conflict and the maps can be utilised to make informed decision. Using the data to make informed decisions is very important.

The last and final presentation, “Open source Software Tools for finding numbers of SOI Topographical sheets'', was given by Prof. Shailesh Chaure was most ingenious.

The author(s) have published a few meetings report in journals including NASI News Letters (1–2).

Funding

There is no funding available in this report writing.

Declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interests or have no competing interests in this paper.