Potential of Geospatial Technologies for the Water Sector in India

Context: Recently, the Association of Geospatial Industries released a report titled “Potential of Geospatial Technologies for the Water Sector in India''. 

• The report mentions opportunities in the Water sector that can benefit from the use of Geospatial technologies.

About the technology

• Geospatial technology is a term used to describe the range of modern tools contributing to the geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth.
• The term 'geospatial' refers not to one single technology, but a collection of technologies that help to collect, analyse, store, manage, distribute, integrate, and present geographic information.
• Benefits: Geospatial technology enables better measurement, management, and maintenance of assets, monitoring of resources and even providing predictive and prescriptive analysis for forecasting and planned interventions.

About the report

• The report outlines key water sector programs and projects in the country. 
• It provides an overview of how each of these programs is currently using geospatial technologies, and how to improve technology adoption in the future.
• For instance, technologies are used in the Namami Gange Mission for mapping different attributes of the Ganga basin. 
• Various other missions such as Jal Jeevan Mission, Atal BhujalYojna, also have set up projects using these technologies

As per the report, a plethora of Geospatial and Digital technologies can be effectively used to combat the water crisis. This includes

• Geospatial: Satellite-based Remote Sensing, Surveying and Mapping, GPS based equipment and sensors, GIS and Spatial Analytics, 
• Digital: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things, 5G, Robotics and Digital Twin.

The report has also listed several case studies highlighting the use of geospatial technologies in different contexts related to water problems.

• It also provides a list of openly available geospatial and digital tools that are widely used by the global, national, and sub-national level agencies.

Why should the government adopt Geospatial Technology in the water sector?

• Given the population density and requirement of water for agriculture, India is heavily dependent on groundwater.
• Further, it is one of the worst-hit countries as far as the water crisis is concerned.
• The use of the latest and best digital and spatial technologies will help in taking data-based informed decisions.
• It will ensure better measurement, management, and maintenance of assets. 
• It will improve monitoring of resources and even provide predictive and prescriptive analysis for forecasting and planned interventions.

Hence, a focus on Geospatial technology is desired to combat this pervasive challenge and to ensure better water management in the country. 

Additional Information

Digital Twin

Digital Twin is a virtual replica of the physical world, its dynamics, and processes, which allow us to simulate real life situations and analyse its impact.
Digital twins are composed of three parts namely:

1. the physical entities in the physical world,
2. the virtual models in the virtual world, and
3. the connected data that tie the two worlds.

Digital Twins not only integrate the digital representation of physical assets, like physical systems of pipes, pumps, valves, and tanks, but also include historical data sets such as weather records and realtime dynamic interactions, which allow them to be used for multiple analyses.