AGI India Water Awards Recognize Exemplary Work in Water Sector
February 20, 2021, New Delhi, India: On the sidelines of India Geospatial Leadership Summit 2021, the Association of Geospatial Industries, India announced the AGI Water Awards on February 16, 2021. The awards were conferred for exemplary work done for Irrigation Management, Urban Water Management, Capacity Development and Water Conservation. The objective of the award was to felicitate and encourage the use and adoption of innovative geospatial technologies for making India a water secure country.
AGI India received 27 nominations from across the country under various categories and covering different fields and perspectives. These nominations were evaluated on the basis of technology innovation, innovative methodology, project sustainability and scalability and capacity development and outreach. The nominations were assessed by a distinguished and independent jury, headed by Dr Shailesh Nayak, Director, NIAS and former secretory, Ministry of Earth Sciences, along with Dr V. K. Dadhwal, Director IIST and former Director NRSC and Shri Vishnu Chandra, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre.
On the occasion, Mr. Agendra Kumar, President of Association of Geospatial Industries said, “Innovative use of Geospatial technology to build solutions and applications for solving real-world challenges, especially related to water scarcity, water resource management, irrigation management has seen a rise in the past few years. With the intention to showcase some of these advancements and to encourage more user organizations to adopt technology in their area work, aiding national development agenda, AGI India introduced the AGI India Water Awards. We hope that by highlighting these outstanding use cases and application of technology in different categories, more users will begin to take advantage of the available data, resources, and technology that our industry has to offer. I congratulate the winners and applaud their efforts on using technology to improve the sustainability and ecological systems of their areas”.
Here’s the award categories and list of winners:
MISSION BHAGIRATH FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
Mission Bhagirath is a massive project with an outlay of Rs 45,028 Crores and is targeted to be completed in a record time of 3 years. It covers 2.72 crore people and 65.29 lakh households. The project was started in 2015 and covers rural habitations of Telangana State. The project was investigated, designed and estimated by the Mission Bhagirath Department, that ensures 98% of transmission and distribution systems function by gravity. The highlight of the project is that it integrates all existing water supply schemes and ongoing drinking water projects in the state. The project is developing capacities of the state by building a SMART GRID with Optic Fiber Network provided along the pipeline. The project is using modern survey equipment like DGPS and Hydraulic Modelling Software. It is also leveraging IT enabled Monitoring Systems – Smart Project with Automated Systems.
ODIIS (ODISHA IRRIGATION INFORMATION SYSTEM) FOR IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT
Started in the year 2017, Odisha Irrigation Information System (ODIIS) aims to ensure geospatial aided agricultural information system for Odisha. With the help of technology, the project aims to provide accurate agricultural information to help develop an understanding of the agricultural development process and food security and an application to provide insights about the agricultural land, cultivated areas, crop health, crop diversity and cropping system. Other objectives include multiple on-time information to empower authorities for decision making on policy, pricing, procurement, etc., cadastral/Village/GP based crop monitoring, fertilizer distribution advisory, land suitability for crop cultivation, irrigation infrastructure mapping. The project has successfully built an application of geographical database of the irrigation network, its asset and functioning status with accurate agricultural information which helps in understanding sustainable agricultural development process and food security.
WEST BENGAL ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT OF MINOR IRRIGATION (WBADMI) PROJECT FOR IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT
WBADMI Project with the World Bank support is an innovative project that reached out to the small and marginal farmers particularly tribal and women. The project was started in year 2012 and covers entire state of West Bengal. It is unique in the sense that it is for the first time that an integrated effort was made wherein Irrigation facilities combined agriculture, horticulture, and fishery activities in the created command area. Using various Geospatial data and technology, the project has been able to hand over almost 2000 minor irrigation schemes (both surface and sub surface) to the farmers based on Water Users Association (WUA). There has been a change in cropping intensity from 122% to 192%. Almost 60% targeted of 75000 ha unirrigated area has been converted into irrigated land, and there has been a 282% change in value of produce. The project has successfully implemented remote-sensing and GIS based soil moisture monitoring technique for optimum utilization of irrigation water. It leveraged a web GIS based technology for site suitability study for setting up surface and subsurface water schemes, as well as using a post scheme implementation impact assessment study based on web GIS techniques.
WATER EFFICIENT THRISSUR FOR URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT
Thrissur Municipal Corporation was facing many challenges in water distribution. City administrators have had difficulty grappling the problem because of the hidden and underground nature of water assets. It needed a solution which could equip public water supply, especially within the old municipal area of Thrissur, with the most modern systems.
. The project was started in March 2020 and was completed in August 2020, and mapped asset data such as pipes, valves, hydrants, meters, and other network features, as well as operational data such as pressure zones, work routes, main breaks, and inspection locations. It provided authorities with the tools to visualize and assess where they stand, in terms of water supply infrastructure. It gave citizens an interactive platform to air their grievances, simple graphics and processes make the platform accessible to everyone, sans barriers of age or ability. It also allows authorities to take charge of their assets and respond to how their city is growing.
PREPARATION OF SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION ACTION PLANS FOR WATER CONSERVATION
The Project Mission Water Conservation under MGNREGS covers 1,521 GPs in 88 blocks covering 5 districts located in Rayalaseema and Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh, which are highly drought prone areas. The main objective of the study is to provide Natural Resources Maps (NRM) to 1,520 Gram Panchayat in 88 blocks covered in 5 districts of AP using Geospatial Technology. APSAC technical teams facilitated scientific planning and management of soil and water conservation action plans through ridge to valley approach. Under this project APSAC identified and provided 32,000 water conservation locations in 1521 GPs for water conservation management. About 50,000 farmers have used the scientific results and the GIS maps for implementation of conservation measures. The project also yielded state, district, block, village and cluster level Capacity Building and Intuitional Arrangements and developed Web Portal WEBGIS.
About Association of Geospatial Industries (AGI India)
The Association of Geospatial Industry (AGI) is the apex industry body comprising of members from different geospatial domains, including surveying and mapping, remote sensing, GIS and spatial analytics, drones, start-ups, services, and solutions. AGI has dedicatedly worked since 2009 to further the aspirations of the geospatial industry in India and to ensure wider adoption of geospatial technologies in our country. AGI works with several levels of governance for improving policies related to geospatial technologies while taking into account the concerns of the Geospatial Industry in the country. Along with the annual flagship conference “India Geospatial Leadership Summit”, its various initiatives today are making an impact on the adoption of geospatial information and technologies by policymakers, administrators, academia, public and private sector users alike.
For details, contact:
Ms. Mahashreveta Choudhary
Content Manager
Association of Geospatial Industries, India
E: mahashreveta.choudhary@agiindia.com
