Harmonizing the Ancient and the Modern

To preserve Varanasi's cultural and spiritual heritage, Varanasi Smart City Limited deployed Esri’s ArcGIS software. It aims to facilitate map making and improve overall efficiency and productivity. By Titas

Roy & Archana Pal

'Banaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together'.

~ Mark Twain ~

Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities on this planet, intertwined with complex religious, spiritual, musical, and educational traditions. The rapid urbanization, owing to the city's vast heritage, draws the attention of authorities for planned development.

The 100 Smart Cities Mission, launched by the Prime Minister of India on June 25, 2015, led to the formation of Varanasi Smart City Limited (VSCL), which focuses on initiatives that improve living conditions for the city's residents, the city's physical infrastructure.

Varanasi Smart City envisions to make Varanasi a pleasant location to live, through IT and non-IT initiatives, with a priority on improving living conditions and citizen upliftment while preserving and promoting Varanasi's cultural ethos and traditional roots. These initiatives are designed and managed using a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) system, i.e., VSCL.

The SPV's goal is to expedite initiatives that preserve the city's rich legacy, spirituality, and traditions while assisting with inclusive social and financial solutions.

Challenges in Implementation

Nearly the whole of India identifies with Kashi, the symbol of timeless continuity. It is a pilgrimage as well as a major tourist attraction. The foremost challenge is of striking a balance between Varanasi's cultural and spiritual heritage and a modern city with better operations, administration, and holistic development.

The city’s overlapping growth, over centuries, has congested it. This makes it challenging to provide essential public infrastructure such as water, sewage collection and treatment, street lighting, transit, and parking assets. Managing and retaining tourist traffic and other active citywide development initiatives, while Executing the Smart City project, also comes across as a challenge.

Solutions

ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Online, two comprehensive products by Esri that enable mapping, analysis, data management, sharing, and collaboration capabilities, come handy to solve a lot of challenges. The SPV developed an integrated, corporate-wide city GIS using ArcGIS Platform Technology. As a result, a variety of data sources and levels became available for analysis. ArcGIS Platform evolved into a digital mesh that overlayed all the city's smart elements over a shared set of base maps.

Conclusion

Varanasi Smart City’s SPV is able

The following are some of the smart systems that are now enhancing the administration and coordination of city services:

Kashi Integrated Command and Control Centre Kashi Solid Waste Management System

Kashi Environmental Monitoring System Integration with traffic signals Integration with smart streetlights

Manages municipal security and traffic safety using location-based technologies.

Optimises garbage collection facilities through the installation of smart sensors on smart waste containers. Sensors for air quality monitoring offer useful data that alerts people to circumstances that might be dangerous to their health.

It maps a real-time data of air pollution in different parts of the city. Sensors for air quality monitoring offer useful data that alerts people to circumstances that might cause health-threatening conditions.

In the most Indian cities, crashing signals call traffic police to handle traffic, deflecting them from their actual policing duties. Real-time mapping of smart streetlights provides public authorities with up-to-the-minute information about defective lighting.

to combine location data from the municipal and data from the internet of Things (IoT) sensors over GIS base maps to provide real-time analytics that compelled effective decision-making about city administration and operations. It enabled various systems such as public announcement system, Automatic Number Plate Recognition, Adaptive Traffic Control System, speed violation detection system and others.

The following are some details of how IoTs based sensors provide real-time analytics and enable authorities in making decisions:

 Public Announcement System (PAS) which allows officials to address large public gatherings, emergencies, and movements at air and rail terminals.  Automatic Number Plate

Recognition (ANPR) which maintains road user safety and tracks traffic patterns.  Red Light Violation Detection (RLVD) System which ensures smooth vehicle movement and

improve adherence to traffic laws regarding red light violations.  E-Challan automatic e-challan for lawbreakers on a 24x7 basis.  Speed Violation Detection (SVD) identifies reckless drivers and passengers and imposes the relevant penalties.  Video Management System (VMS) ensures the safety and security of its users (citizens).  Environment Sensors realtime pollution levels are monitored using sensors.  Adaptive Traffic Control

System (ATCS) reduces travel time and congestion at intersections.  Variable Message Signboards (VMS) provide information to commuters heading to the city,  KICCC offers 24-hour monitoring for efficient management, control of road traffic in the city.

Through these initiatives, the authorities gained actionable insight for informed decision making, improved inter-departmental collaboration through geospatial mapping and geo-tagging of city assets; improved asset management and urban planning by providing insights into the use patterns of civic assets in the city.

The ArcGIS Platform was also used in creating heat maps for containment zones, GIS operating dashboards for health services, and CCTVs to track citizen mobility and social isolation in response to COVID-19. It also assisted in managing the health response; it built telemedicine facilities for remote health care and diagnostics, deployed drones to sterilise hotspots, and examined the availability of infrastructure to solve health issues.

Titas Roy

Senior Research Manager AEC & Digital Cities titas@geospatialworld.net

Archana Pal

Research Analyst archana@geospatialworld.net