Customized Thematic Maps: Village Road Network

In a world full of ready access to knowledge, getting the right direction becomes crucial. At a click of a button, we can get access to a lot of data however what we often really need is a focused blueprint. Welcome to the world of customized thematic maps. This post is about how a customized thematic road network map can give us an edge in planning. 

As a part of our endeavour to document our entire village biodiversity, we need to plan documentation trails for field data collection. This sounds straightforward. Google maps? You may say. here are some difficulties 

• Village roads are better known to the village people rather than google. (Think of all your childhood secret trails and escape routes after stealing mangoes)  
• Satellite imagery/maps do not represent village/ward/other boundaries however local landmarks do. 
• Most often, the type of road, its status is not shown on ready available roads maps. 
• All you need is just the Road map minus the clutter.

Therefore we took up this task to compile a road network map for Betalbatim Village in Salcete Goa. We will keep on updating this but for now, we shall plan our documentation trails for birds, religious structures etc.. with this map. 

Presenting a clutter-free thematic road map of Betalbatim village below. 

Road network overlaid on Satellite Imagery

How will you use your village road network map? Tell us in the comments below. 

Thank you, readers. 

GeoSensitive: Simplifying Decision Making - Services Offered

GeoSensitive prides itself in being a service provider to the bottom level decision-maker and upwards. We deliver spatial insights using Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing for decision making that impact lives, livelihoods and our environment. Our speciality is that we do this using a collection of some of the worlds leading open-source GIS platforms, skills we have honed over a period of 5 years. This allows us to provide the best and latest technology solutions at significantly lower project costs.

Our services cover two broad aspects

• Providing Geographic Information Systems Services and Remote Sensing Services for quick decision making and facilitating better and efficient management of resources to the people of Goa.
• Offering professional GIS skill development training on the world’s leading open-source GIS platform i.e., QGIS. 

 Our customers include- NGO'S, Local panchayat bodies, Businesses, Researchers, Farmer groups etc. 

Technical Services

Geosensitive provides specific technical expertise for the clients. These include but are not limited to 

• GIS mapping
• Field Data Collection/Surveying
• Terrain Analysis
• Hydrological Modelling
•  Digitization of existing maps

Training Services

Geosensitive provides education to the client. This can take the form of workshops, coaching, on-the-job support, etc. The following workshops can be curated as per the needs of our clients.

• Basic mapping using QGIS- 2-days (hands-on program).
• Advanced mapping using QGIS- 6 days (hands-on program).
• Ground truthing and Field data collection – 2-days (hands-on program).
• Basics of Satellite Remote Sensing – 6 days (hands-on program).

Specialized Services

Geosensitive provides specialized expertise and advice to the client.

• Spatial Analysis
• Site Suitability Analysis based on set criteria
• Remote Sensing Applications

Project Management

This includes completing a broad range of tasks for the client that is delivered as a package.

• Providing training and follow-up for employees.
• Overseeing implementation of the system.

We are always looking to upgrade our knowledge and expertise by tackling new problems and are happy to discuss burning issues concerning your environment/locality. Write in the comments below.

Drop-in an email at geosensitive.goa@gmail.com to connect with us and we will be happy to respond.   

Mobile GIS for Ground Truthing

In this post, I wish to highlight the usefulness of mobile GIS for ground-truthing work. First of all, what is ground-truthing? Simply put it is verifying the features/facts present on the ground. Why am I talking about ground-truthing? Recently a lot of villages in Goa received notices from various government departments saying that officials will be deputed for ground-truthing work related to Coastal Zone Management Plans.  This exercise is very important considering the fact that many important features such as sand dunes, khazan lands, fish breeding areas, fishing areas, water bodies, mangroves, coastal infrastructure and several other cultural and heritage structures were missed in the proposed plans. Most of the villages in Goa identified these errors and made their own plans with the help of NGO'S and handed these over to the State Coastal Zone Management Authority in the form of hard copy maps and also in the form of soft copy Georeferenced Pdf file format.    

It is observed that the deputed government officials are finding it difficult to accurately locate these features onto the cadastral plan used by them. A very easy approach to solve this problem is the use of GIS apps on a GPS enabled mobile device.  

The app allows one to stack/overlay georeferenced layers of maps one above another and using the inbuilt GPS on the mobile device one can easily identify their location on each of the maps. The maps in this case would be 1. Proposed CZMP 2. Peoples CZMP 3. Cadastral Plan and 4. Satellite Imagery. The location is updated as one moves from one location to another just like a car navigation system but with your choice of the base map instead of the default satellite/road imagery. In addition to this, the app can also be configured to collect additional attribute data in the form of geotagged photographs, text, numbers, booleans etc. 

Screenshot shows the app interface with Betalbatim Village Peoples CZMP stacked on top of Satellite Imagery, Blue dot indicates my location at the time of taking this image. 

Detailed view of the Peoples CZMP map with a scale and finer details on zooming in on the location. Note: The location of the device is out of the scene at the time of taking this imagery hence no blue dot indicating the location on a map.  

Thank you. 

GeoSensitive- Providing Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems intelligence for informed decision making.