NCHSE boasts of a fully-fledged GIS centre at its Head Office in Bhopal and undertakes the work of fulfilling the GIS and Remote Sensing technique based needs of the State. This centre today is one of the most reputed GIS centres in India. NCHSE, thus, is contributing to the growth of GIS technology in India through its humble efforts.
The centre is constantly engaged in carrying out GIS mapping for implementation projects especially related to watershed management, agricultural sustainability, etc. GIS techniques have been used in preparation of thematic maps like Base map, Drainage and Contours, Land use/ Land cover, Irrigation, Cropping pattern, Soil type, ownership, Slope classification, and Action plan map. In fact, GIS and Remote Sensing have immensely helped in appropriate planning, monitoring, documentation, impact assessment and analysis.
NCHSE also providing GIS and Remote Sensing Applications support to other organizations (NGOs, Govt. departments, corporate sectors, technical institutions, etc.) in implementation of their projects.
Its GIS based web portal and mobile applications proved very useful in collection and interpretation of data in real time and for effective decisions making in regards to real time monitoring of watershed development activities.
NCHSE has handled several prestigious projects on GIS applications. In 1997 the Department of Electronics (Ministry of IT), Government of India, New Delhi sanctioned four projects for GIS applications to four organizations located in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in which NCHSE was selected to prepare GIS for Jhabua Block of Madhya Pradesh. The objective of this project was to develop a GIS based methodology for watershed planning and the experience and field inputs of the local people were taken along with remote sensing and other published maps using GIS packages. Under this project the GIS based WATMAN package was successfully developed.
In 2004, another mega-assignment by the organization for DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency), NCHSE was to conduct a comprehensive survey of health infrastructure and services in about 54,000 villages and 329 towns in all districts of the state of Madhya Pradesh, computerize the information, integrate it with village maps, finally create a Geographic Information System on health facilities. The district-wise-block-wise maps and data were prepared as a digital GIS package, which was easy to use. This task was completed in a period of just 7 months. This GIS package was installed in 313 block medical offices, special training was also given to all the staff and officials like BMO, District Resource Person, CMO etc. to make them aware of the features and capabilities of the package and the final product was handed over to the Health Department after the package was installed in each block medical office.
In 2010 -11, a software related assignment from Women and Child Development Department included review of existing MIS software and its documentation. Besides, UNICEF initiated project in UP was also assigned to NCHSE and software was developed for Base line data and digitations of social maps.
The software related and GIS related assignments were also received from NGOs like ASA, Bhopal and Arvee Associates, Hyderabad, Haritika, Chhindwara, etc. which all included various thematic mapping and GIS software preparation and also included remote sensing data handling.
It is really encouraging to note that NCHSE has been designated as the Central MIS Processing agency by the NABARD for all Wadi projects implemented with the support of a number of NGOs in the State of MP. NCHSE shall now be the sole agency to provide MIS development services to these implementing agencies.
It is interesting to note that NCHSE is able to make a breakthrough with WaterAid in areas of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in rural areas, which are also the areas of major concern to the organization. There is possibility of NCHSE’s association with the partners of WaterAid through such assignments by using its resources of GIS and software.
NCHSE has developed MSK GIS APP and Web GIS portal for ITC to locate, monitor and update its activities being supported in different states in India. GIS Software developed provides a centralized database repository system to fetch and store the data including Geographical reference. Software also has many significant features like online powerful analysis, search, Geo-tagging with data, query and easy access to data along with digital maps over virtual data. It helps in generating analytical reports for monitoring purposes with project summary. This APP has the capacity to work on both online as well as offline mode.
National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment