In the decade since its creation, the Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (USAC) has undertaken various projects to capitalise on the use of space technology for facilitating the desired level of development in the State. The USAC director Professor Durgesh Pant said this while speaking at a programme held to mark the 11th foundation day of the centre here on Monday.
Pant said that on September 21, 2005, the State Government had established USAC as an autonomous institution with the aim of facilitating proactive use of space technology in natural resource management, disaster management, rural development, e-governance and other fields. Since its establishment, the centre has worked on landcover/land use, types of forest cover, watershed area, potential ground water resources, agriculture and pasture, road network map, snow and glacier status through GIS and GPS to make multi-faceted maps of varying scales. The centre has created a detailed digital database which is used from time to time by linear departments in their respective tasks. Pant said that USAC is providing space technology information to the public through various media.
USAC senior scientist Aruna Rani said that in the last 10 years the centre had worked on creation of a wetland inventory, digital database creation,Rajiv Gandhi national drinking water mission phases III-IV, snow and glacier monitoring, land-use land cover mapping, multi-purpose school mapping project. In addition to this, a technology incubation cell, science of survival, health information project, Char Dham road map and other projects are being worked upon at the centre at present. USAC scientist Neelam Rawat made a presentation on the subject of climatic change on the occasion.
Retired senior scientists from Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), MC Porwal and DN Pant also shared their scientific experiences with the gathering on the occasion. later, the centre director felicitated USAC’s BS Rawat and Saurabh Dangwal for commendable work.