Strengthening Geospatial Capacity Building on the Pillars of Equitability, Standardisation, and Feedback

Overview

The Geospatial capacity building initiative was designed and implemented by the National Geospatial Program (NGP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, in collaboration with the Project Management Unit (PMU) at the Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune (BVIEER), aims at empowering cross-sectoral Indian professionals with the right geospatial data, tools, products, and services.

Vision: To build knowledge and adaptation capacity of geospatial technologies at various levels.

Objectives

y To strengthen capacity building in teaching, research & development, and use of geospatial technologies. y To promote the use of open-source Geographic Information Systems y To promote interactions and networking among government, academic, research and industrial organizations. y To recognize, encourage, and nurture innovation among the country’s youth towards larger socioeconomic development goals.

Stakeholders Involved

Faculty members, scientists, technologists, researchers from academia, personnel from national institutions of research, smart city cells, municipal corporations, and other government departments as well as non-government organizations.

Solution and Implementation

The unique capacity building initiative devised a centralised approach to identify training needs, across the entire Geospatial value chain that can then be reformed to ensure uniformity in educational practices. Key stakeholders and relevant institutions who could be important players in the process were identified. The focus was on standardising the capacity building program content, ensuring delivery through open-source software, use of expert inputs as well as provision of a wide range of teaching-learning resources.

The capacity building program was designed to have four components: Assessment, Design, Implementation, and Feedback. The focus was on aligning and boosting innovation in the Geospatial ecosystem in line with improved governance, system efficiency, and widespread adoption across sectors for greater economic and social value.

Since its inception in 2010, the initiative has further evolved and shaped as per contemporary needs and developments. A unique Geo Innovation Challenge was also designed as part of the program to serve as a repository of ideas that could be drawn upon by DST at a later stage.

Activity

Development of a portal for dissemination of geospatial teaching-learning material Development of teaching-learning material using opensource software

Design and standardization of the training program

Method/Approach

Development of tutorials on various aspects of geospatial technologies using open-source software. Development by BVIEER core team and through PIs involved in the program followed by peer review. Participatory approach for designing the Level 1 (basic) three-week Summer/Winter School as well as the Level 2 (advanced and theme specific) Summer/Winter School.

Design of the Geo-Innovation Challenge

NGP-DST Expert Committee Selection of training institutions Nationwide call for proposals and selection by the NGPDST Expert Committee Orientation of PIs through a two/three-day workshop Workshop

Selection of participants Centralised application process and selection based on criteria

Analysing impact of the program

Improve the effectiveness of the capacity building program Periodic review and updates

To develop a platform for networking of resource persons, trainees for sustainable impact of the program Upgradation of the www://dst-iget portal Announcements of new programs, etc. pertaining to geospatial capacity building Continuous updates on the portal

Online questionnaires/visits during the training/tracking of participants post training/networking platform

Use of Geospatial Technologies

The program focuses solely on the use of open-source Geospatial software for trainings. A standardized curriculum and readily available teaching modules with step-by-step instructions and data were initiated in 2013.

While several independent exercises using open-source Geospatial content and platforms exist in a fragmented manner on the web, this capacity building program designed a set of 32 modules using open-source GIS software Quantum GIS and SAGA for remote sensing. These modules focused on building and upgrading skills stepwise on foundational data building, analysis, and modelling using data from the Indian subcontinent.