Mapping tool Bhuvan to take up sundry jobs

India’s own geographic information system (GIS) tool Bhuvan is now looking to protect over 3,500 archaeological monuments, contribute to the Ganga-cleaning mission and map the Pin Code zones to facilitate rolling out of postal banking service.

Bhuvan, which is being integrated with the mechanism to carry out these and other sundry jobs, will be presented to several state and central departments in September in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

YVN Krishnamurthy, Scientific Secretary at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) told Deccan Herald that talks were held with 70 out of 83 central departments over what kind of applications they need from Bhuvan.

 He said a meeting featuring secretaries from all central departments, chief secretaries from each state besides the prime minister has been planned around next month.
Bhuvan, referred to as India’s answer to Google Earth, receives images from several remote-sensing satellites. Besides mapping land use, agriculture and water resources, Bhuvan also carries 1 mt resolution images for 350 towns for planning.

“While Google Earth carried high-resolution data, focusing on citizen services and commerce, Bhuvan focused on local-level land-use mapping, agriculture and government use,” said V K Dadhwal, director, National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad.

The Andhra Pradesh government took Bhuvan’s help to assess the damage in the wake of Cyclone Hudhud in October last year, from people.

Bhuvan received 20,000 data point from the people, informing the administration about the location of damaged electric polls, telephone line or buildings, helping in quicker reconstruction.

About Bhuvan’s new responsibilities, the tool would be used to examine the parameter of over 3,500 monuments of cultural heritage and check whether they have faced any encroachment or damage.

Three Bhuvan apps were released recently to the Google Play Store, one of which is on Clean Ganga Mission. “People can download the app to share the problems and solutions to clean up the river,” said P G Diwakar, Deputy Director (RSA), NRSC.
Bhuvan was also used to create a geographic map of each PIN code zone in Mysuru, Karnataka, so that the postmasters would know the geographic limit of their areas and plans for postal banks.