Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today informed that Government of UT – Ladakh has approached the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), a unit of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for developing “Spatial Data Infrastructure geoportal ‘Geo-Ladakh’ for UT-Ladakh”.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the project encompasses spatial database generation (water resources, vegetation and energy potential) using remote sensing, geospatial techniques and the development of a Geo-portal for hosting this database.
The project also aims towards training of UT-Ladakh officials on Geospatial techniques and applications. Portal provides geospatial data visualization and analytics for UT-Ladakh, consisting of Spatial viewer, Carbon Neutrality, Geospatial utlility mapping and Geo-Tourism. An MoU was also signed between IIRS (ISRO) and UT-Ladakh Administration on January 1, 2022 towards carrying out the above work.
The potential of space technology could be used for generating the spatial database on time series snow cover, fresh water availability, sites for renewable energy potential (solar and wind), availability of alpine pastures/grazing lands for natural resource management and change assessment at periodic interval.
Presently, ISRO is setting up an optical tele-scope at Hanle for tracking spacecraft and space objects.