A survey of the street lights on Betalbatim's main road.

Electricity is one of the basic human needs of modern society. In our villages, we have electricity distributed through overhead electrical wires mounted on poles equipped with street lights. Many times, the lights don't work and monitoring them becomes a hassle due to their number and close proximity between neighbouring electrical poles. Each pole has a unique pole number. Panch members and the villagers would benefit greatly if they could report their grievances by stating the pole number. The electrical staff and the panchayat members could subsequently refer to the pole distribution map made available to them. GIS can also be used to track one's position with respect to the village map. This is done using mobile phone GPS and a base map of the electrical pole distribution overlaid on satellite imagery. 

Geosensitive provides mapping services that can benefit the village administration in delivering better services to their villagers. Contact us to know more. Email: geosensitive.goa@gamil.com , WhattsApp: +91 7057067906. 

Optical fiber network mapping to enhance business operations, reduce capital expenditures, and increase customer service.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system used to store, edit, analyze and display geographically referenced information. This system utilizes GIS to map out where Fiber Cables are installed and used in order to provide valuable information to telecommunication companies for more accurate planning for new fiber network and seamless management of the entire integrated infrastructure. Staying competitive in the modern fiber optic development space is hard without a Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS platforms enable fiber network managers to create high-quality digital representations of their networks, run data queries, troubleshoot issues, and plan for future growth. 

Fiber Maps Defined 

A visual representation of a fiber network is called a “fiber map.” 

GIS fiber mapping is essential for the following reasons: 

• Understanding how all network components work together
• Revealing spatial distribution and growth opportunities
• Identifying network vulnerabilities 
• Improving system analyses

Understanding your network 

When it comes to fiber network management, operators must be able to visualize how all elements are arranged and related to each other. Creating visual representations of fiber optic networks, or fiber maps, helps bring about a deeper level of understanding of how a network is performing. With fiber maps, operators have a digital record of all network components that is easy to maintain and reference. Evaluating spatial distribution and planning for the future Using GIS platforms, fiber network operators can gain a clearer perspective on how components are distributed spatially across a given market. They can see where they lack coverage and plan expansion efforts more effectively. For example, a network operator could reference a fiber map to see where he or she has excess capacity in existing cable routes. With this information, the operator could make an informed decision on how to expand to serve new clients. Sales teams can also use fiber maps to see where they should focus their efforts. They could query network data to identify potential clients who were positioned close to unused fiber strands. Without investing major capital into new cable installations, sales leads could turn to their fiber maps for ideas on how to grow within a market. GIS fiber maps can also help network managers decide how to allocate limited resources, such as repair support. Guided by GIS tools, they could identify areas with the highest concentrations of clients and place repair technicians near those areas in order to reduce issue response times.

Keeping networks up and running

 Any fiber network operator knows the importance of effective troubleshooting. GIS platforms make it much easier for fiber optic network managers to identify problems and address them quickly. For example, network operators can use the fiber maps to determine where cable issues are occurring. Additionally, field technicians can study urban basemaps to create minimally invasive action plans when cables need repair. At the same time, operators could see where they have extra capacity to support clients while primary routes are repaired. Overall, using GIS for fiber management is less costly and reduces downtime for end users. On a broader level, GIS fiber mapping can help operators discover network vulnerabilities. Fiber maps make it much easier to recognize where there is a lack in network redundancy that could create issues down the road. Operators can use this information to address weaknesses and avoid future problems.

Web-based GIS 

With a web-based GIS product, many different departments within a company can access the data and use it for various applications including engineering, operations, research & development, marketing, finance, and planning. Overall, there are many use cases for fiber maps as operators can combine data layers in countless ways. Being able to visualize network elements has tremendous advantages for managing and optimizing fiber optic networks over the long term. 

Geotagged inventory of customers 

Visualizing customer distribution will generate locational intelligence that will help guide logistics management, enhancing inventory and marketing decisions. Geotagging can help you optimize your resources' distribution between branches. Identify how and where customers interact with your brand, helping you make better inventory and marketing decisions

Contact GeoSensitive for all your GIS Mapping Needs.
Ph: 7057067906

Margao City Heritage Walk

Take a stroll along Margao's streets to admire the Portuguese heritage architecture. An interactive city map with photos is presented. To expand the photo, click on the house icons. Click on the link below to access the web map.

https://malcolmadvetureseeker.github.io/Portuguese-Houses-in-Margao/#16/15.2827/73.9613

Contact Geosensitive at 7057067906 or geosensitive.goa@gmail.com if you would like more information about such maps.

Georeferencing

 

Georeferencing is the name given to the process of transforming a scanned map or aerial photograph so that GIS or mapping software can 'place' the image in its appropriate real-world location

GIS for Agricultural Planning at Village Level

Agricultural activity is best handled through community participation. This is particularly relevant in the case of Goa, India where farm holdings are extremely small and fragmented. In community farming, resources are shared and managed together, thereby bringing greater benefits to all. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to map and quantify all the available agricultural land in a village and identify its status of utilization, i.e. whether it is cultivated or not.  

An Agricultural Map of Carmona Village in South Goa is shown here. In order to map all the designated agricultural land in the villager, the Regional Plan for Carmona was used as a basemap. Various high-resolution satellite imagery was interpreted using Google Earth Engine and Google earth pro to identify cultivated and uncultivated areas. The map was further validated on the ground with farmer inputs before it was finalized.

Using this map, the village can better plan logistics for cultivating 250.5 ha of agricultural land, of which 90.2 ha are cultivated and 160.3 ha are uncultivated. 

On the basis of the spatial insight provided by the map, the farmers have identified four clusters of areas. Clusters have a designated farmer in charge to oversee all the farmers who have land in that particular cluster. This is the first time a local farmers' group has used GIS and Remote Sensing technology for grassroots planning in Goa. There is still a long way to go, and more plans for GIS implementation are in the works. This will be covered in another post. watch this space. Thanks for reading.

Destruction of Mangrove forest and the need for its documentation.

What's happening in Sal River? River dredging or Mangroove smothering!? Let's find out in this post. The river in question is located in Salcete Goa. Recently the river has been in the news due to the ongoing tussle between the Traditional fishermen community and the state government authorities to stop the dredging work. As per government view the dredging work is being carried out to desilt the river so as to allow sufficient depth for river navigation, fishing and other activities that will benefit the Traditional fishing community however the Traditional Fishermen community believes that their livelihood is at stake due to the environmental destruction caused by the haphazard dredging activity. 

In the below Sentinel II satellite time-lapse imagery from 2019-to 2022 of the river stretch between Varca and Carmona Village, it appears as if the river has been stripped of its jewels- the mangroves. 

A ground inspection of this stretch reveals piles of matured mangroves trees smothered to death under heaps of sand. A number of dead tree stubs protrude out of the sand on the river bank with machine cut marks an evidence of its death caused by humans. Take a look at the videos below captured along this stretch in Carmona on 25/07/2021 and in Varca on 28/12/2021 respectively.

 

Dredge caught in action while causing destruction of Mangrooves near Orlim bridge, on 28/12/2021. 

The extent of the loss is hard to quantify as most of the trees are buried beneath the heaps of sand, in spite of this there still a significant evidence left on the ground which needs to be documented properly so that the concerned authorities are held accountable. This documentation can be achieved by launching citizen science initiatives which can make use of open souce GIS software to collect geotagged ground data which can then be utilized to prepare authentic technical reports and measure the loss in terms of biodiversity, economic, ecological functions, watershed functions etc. Only by preparing such a report we will be able to draw the attention of the concerned authorities and seek answers from them. In the absence of such authentic data to substantiate claims the authorities in power easily plead ignorance to the subtle voices of the weaker sections of the society. GeoSensitive is capable of providing the technical GIS expertise and train volunteers to collect data and prepare authentic maps (sample below) which can be verified and acted upon by the concerned authorities. 

Sample Map from Geotagged data

To get in touch write to geosensitive.goa@gmail.com

Thank you.

References 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/stretches-of-sal-worst-hit-among-states-rivers-finds-pollution-body/articleshow/66112034.cms 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/traditional-fishermen-oppose-sal-river-desilting-seek-inspection/articleshow/80104683.cms

https://www.thegoan.net/goa-news/phase-ii-of-river-sal-dredging-fishermen-environmentalists-cry-foul-term-ongoing-dredging-work-as-illegal/80677.html

https://www.heraldgoa.in/News-Today/Ongoing-mode-of-dredging-in-River-Sal-to-put-livelihood-of-fishermen-at-risk-say-surveyors/186880

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.