UN report cites ISRO efforts in assisting Indian government to contain COVID19 pandemic
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The report additionally mentioned that India has been making vital progress in responding to the calls for of right this moment’s cities.
A report by the United Nations has cited efforts by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to leverage its geospatial instruments in assisting the central and state governments in direction of containing the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting sustainable improvement initiatives in the nation.
The UN report ‘Geospatial Practices for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific 2020’ cites the position being performed by ‘BHUVAN’, the nationwide geo-portal developed and hosted by ISRO comprising of geo spatial knowledge, providers and instruments for evaluation, in combating COVID-19.
The Government of India and its state governments have taken a number of steps to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. ISRO has assisted in this by offering and leveraging geospatial instruments, in explicit BHUVAN — the Indian Geo-Platform, the report mentioned.
It added that the geospatial info platform offered service in six facets: monitoring, figuring out hotspots, vegetable markets, meals wanted, house isolation and air pollution.
Additionally, as India wanted a dashboard to higher perceive the present circumstances in the nation, ISRO customised the Geo-portal and developed ‘Bhuvan- COVID-19’ at a nationwide stage to monitor the pandemic and replace the general public on the present scenario, the report mentioned.
The report, launched on Wednesday by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), showcases examples from the area’s international locations using functions of house know-how to advance sustainable improvement.
It mentioned that Asian and Pacific nations are more and more leveraging house know-how and geospatial info to reply to challenges on the bottom, together with in their efforts to contain the unfold and mitigate the impression of the coronavirus pandemic.
The report additionally mentioned that India has been making vital progress in responding to the calls for of right this moment’s cities by incorporating sturdy house applied sciences and GIS (geographic info system) into the city planning, transport administration and visitors navigation methods.
It mentioned the event of Road Asset Management system for National Highways (NHs) is a flagship venture by the National Highways Authority of India in affiliation with the Indian Space Research Organisation and the World Bank.
Bringing each private and non-private funded roads below one umbrella, the primary goal of this venture is to help in correct and scientific upkeep planning, improve highway security measures and plan the event of the NH community in India, the report mentioned.
The report additionally famous that ESCAP, with the assist of India, recurrently facilitates younger skilled officers from creating international locations in the area to be a part of a 9 month post-graduate course on distant sensing and the Global Navigation Satellite Systems on the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia Pacific, in Dehradun.
Some of the opposite practices undertaken by international locations in the area and cited in the report embrace ‘Night-light’ satellite tv for pc pictures monitoring the impression of lockdowns, ‘heatmaps’ to chart out communities weak to the pandemic and its socio-economic penalties, real-time situational evaluation, and dashboards integrating a large gamut of vital info to assist choices are a few of the practices cited.
The examples, in accordance to the report, present how house functions and geospatial knowledge have performed an vital position in offering important location-based and temporal knowledge to make an total knowledge map and snapshots on the COVID-19 pandemic for policymakers and the general public.
In addition, combining spatial knowledge from contact tracing, quarantining, and social distancing with digital options and synthetic intelligence (AI)-driven danger analytics may also help improve group resilience.
Such functions may assist in the restoration part to construct again higher, by offering an proof base for choices on the easing of lockdown and the resumption of financial and social actions, the report added.
The efficient integration of geospatial knowledge, with present statistics and ground-based info, can be key to delivering the well timed knowledge wanted for governments, companies, communities and residents to make evidenced-based choices, Executive Secretary of ESCAP Armida Salsiah Alisjahjabana mentioned.
The report, issued two years after Asian and Pacific international locations endorsed an bold plan of motion on use of house applied sciences to assist sustainable improvement additionally supplies a baseline for assessing future progress in the area.
In addition to presenting an outline of the standing alongside thematic areas akin to catastrophe danger, pure useful resource administration, connectivity, social improvement, power, and local weather change, the report additionally highlights the significance of multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Many regional and country-based efforts are sparking improvements that appeal to each private and non-private capital, supporting start-ups and spinoffs from house functions analysis and pilots, mentioned ESCAP.
The report outlined seven key suggestions for policymakers to combine functions of geospatial info into their planning and actions in direction of attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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