Norcross, GA — ERDAS announces that ERDAS APOLLO is being used to support local planning initiatives in Karnataka, India.
The state of Karnataka in southern India is composed of 29 districts, with each district broken down into sub-districts (known as ‘taluks’), and villages within the taluks. The Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology was created to improve the quality of life for impoverished populations throughout the state. The Council recognized that inventory and availability of both spatial and non-spatial data would be crucial to the local planning efforts undertaken to achieve this goal, and defined the need for a comprehensive data management system for easy access to data and information.
The Karnataka Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS) was established to promote the use of spatial data management and analysis in local area planning. District NRDMS centers were established in each state district to provide custom applications, value-added information, training and support to planners and administrators in local governments.
Initially, district NRDMS centers provided geospatial services to users through independent systems. This stovepipe method meant that data that could not easily be shared between other systems within the state. Recognizing the power of centralization, the Karnataka State Spatial Data Infrastructure (KSSDI) was planned as a joint project between NRDMS and the government of Karnataka, to be an Internet-based geospatial data directory for the entire state.
Mr. H. Hemanth Kumar is the lead Project Investigator at NRDMS. “The goal is to implement a centralized hub and single-window access mechanism to assist users discovering geospatial datasets,” said Kumar. “This ultimately will be immensely useful in local planning initiatives across the state.” This gateway will also allow for various data generating agencies to share information across government organizations, scientific organizations and industry.
The KSSDI project, with OGC-compliant ERDAS APOLLO, manages geospatial data across multiple departments or offices. It serves as a core component of the spatial data infrastructure at KSSDI, and is responsible for securely cataloging all of the state’s geospatial data and delivering it over the web via web services, including OGC-compliant WMS, WFS and WCS. Web services are made available to a custom front end, or may also be accessed via Universal Resource Locator (URL) into major geospatial software applications.
“Interoperability and flexibility are imperative for the KSSDI project to ensure the swift, unencumbered flow of information between the agencies and departments involved in planning efforts, “ said Kaushik Chakraborty, Vice President, Asia Pacific, ERDAS. “ERDAS APOLLO’s OGC-compliant design facilitates this flow by easily integrating with both custom and well-known front-end client applications, contributing to the success of the KSSDI project.”
“The Karnataka NRDMS program is a role model for all other States,” adds Kumar. “For the first time in the country, spatial data for decision-making has been institutionalized. Decision makers have been extensively using NRDMS centers for geospatial services.” In the future, the goal is to extend the site to support online data sales, which will ultimately contribute to state revenue generation.
For more information on the KSSDI project, please visit http://kscst.org.in/kssdi.html.
For more information about ERDAS or its products and services, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 877 GO ERDAS, or visit www.erdas.com.
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ERDAS – The Earth to Business Company – helps organizations harness the information of the changing earth for greater advantage. ERDAS creates geospatial business systems that transform our earth’s data into business information, enabling individuals, businesses and public agencies to quickly access, manage, process and share that information from anywhere. Using secure geospatial information, ERDAS solutions improve employee, customer and partner visibility to information, enabling them to respond faster and collaborate better. It also means better decision-making, increased productivity and new revenue streams. Welcome to ERDAS: a trusted name, with a new energy, and a new vision. Earth to business starts here. ERDAS is a part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden. For more information about ERDAS or its products and services, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 866 534 2286, or visit www.erdas.com.