Considering the importance of the Geographic Information System (GIS) the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) has decided to accord priority to establish GIS cells in each district with the assistance of the planning department. The GIS cells have presently been established in five districts- Uttarkashi, Tehri, Almora, Pithoragarh and Udham Singh Nagar while necessary action is being taken to establish such cells in the remaining districts, said the disaster management secretary Amit Singh Negi. He said this at a workshop on the use of GIS based data for disaster risk reduction organised by the USDMA here on Tuesday.
He said that data is vital for better understanding of spatial distribution of hazards, exposure and vulnerabilities to take appropriate decisions aimed at reducing risk of various disasters to which the state is exposed. He said that the workshop was aimed at bringing the data of various stakeholders on a common geospatial platform and the same would be available to general public as well. This, as highlighted by Negi, would ensure risk-informed decision making at all levels, bring forth awareness on disaster risk and ensure voluntary compliance of various disaster risk reduction measures.
The Kumaon University, Centre for Excellence, geography department head JS Rawat informed the gathering in detail about the utility of GIS. He said that it is an important tool in the technological developments which can be of much use for mitigating the impact of disaster scenarios. GIS is used in various important spheres for design making, landuse planning, urban development and resource mapping. Rawat also presented the district-wise departmental resources list prepared in the GIS format on the occasion. He stressed on the effective use of GIS for disaster management.
It was also stated in the workshop that picking out crucial piece of intelligence that is relevant for decision making purposes is a major challenge. Due to this most agencies rather than trying to filter information at the time of emergency or need, prefer to identify in advance the data that they might require and maintain and update these systematically in an environment where it can be easily managed; stored, saved, updated, retrieved, analysed, visualised, correlated, mapped, viewed and used for decision making. GIS provides an environment that is suited for managing and analysing both spatial and non-spatial data of various sorts and their attributes and correlate and analyse these so as to have actionable intelligence. Additional secretary Savin Bansal, Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC) executive director Piyoosh Rautela and representatives of various government departments were also among those present on the occasion.