Explore India by GIS

In today's world, to get the information about any country and locating various places on the map is slightly difficult. It becomes more tedious and cumbersome in case of querying. To overcome this problem, we have designed 'EXplore India', which will be useful for general query, thematic query, path trace, flood trace and other analysis to get visual results. The query can be executed from the query library, which has the predefined statement. Query can be user defined, which should contain relevant query attributes (Attributes present in Database). This GI System is useful for any individual who wants to know more about India.

About 'EXplore India'
It is specially designed to explore the Indian Territory, which includes details about Indian States & Union Territories, Population Trends, Transport Network, Annual Rainfall, Temperature Zones, Major Rivers, Forest, Major Earthquakes, Tourism, Languages, National Insignia and other information.

The Project is still under execution and considered to be a Beta version in this first Phase. We have planned to do the further development by using other GIS tools.

Methodology
'EXplore India' is designed and developed by using AutoDesk Map 4.5 as front-end and MS Access 2000 as back-end. The user is provided with a main web page to view the web enabled dynamic maps. The interactive web page is linked with AutoDesk Map 4.5 to query the object about specific information sought, regarding Object and Trace (these queries are Path Trace, Flood Trace, Buffer Trace and Thematic Query). These web-enabled maps support real-time panning, zooming as well as control over the display of layers, named views and embedded hyperlinks. For user convenience, predefined views are created with each map to see a particular location on a mouse click. The maps are in .dwf format, which can be viewed and plotted by using internet browser with the AutoDesk WHIP! 4.0 plug-in. The maps can be downloaded in .bmp, .dwf and .dwg format for further analysis.

'EXplore India' – Main Page
This web page provides the facility to view the linked maps and images in Internet browser. The maps deliver information about General Information about India, Transportation Networks, All States, National Insignia, NCT, Union Territories and other information. The dynamic maps are also linked with another web page to query the map elements.

Following are the few questions that can be answered by 'EXplore India'

• Which is the highly populated state?
• Where are Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai located?
• Which state has the largest forest cover?
• Which is the state that has male population > 20 lakhs and population density < 250 persons/sq km?
• Which is the least literate state?
• Which state has a population 2000 sq km where sex ratio is the highest?
• Which is the shortest route between two cities by air, road or rail and it's alternatives?

Maps in Drawing Web Format
The pop-up menu of web-enabled maps is available with zoom, pan, layer management and Named view options. To reduce the complexity of map, Layer Management option is very useful where you can turn OFF and ON the particular layers as per your convenience. The Named views (predefined views) are also available to get the quick view of the particular location, city, district and Key map etc.e.g. Tamilnadu State Map: One of the all web enabled state-maps available in 'EXplore India'.

India Map with General Information
Here you can run the query and view the location of the particular place with respect to the query attributes as follows.

• State Name
• Area (sq km)
• Capital
• Languages
• Districts
• Total Literacy (%)
• Male Literacy (%)
• Female Literacy (%)
• Urban Population (%)
• Population
• Male Population
• Female Population
• Growth Rate (%age)
• Forest Cover (sq km)
• Tourist Places etc.
• Density (Persons/sq km)

Major Earthquakes in India
Location of the Major Earthquakes (Area covered in RED Ellipse) in India can be queried on the map with respect to the query attributes as follows.

• Date and Year
• Richter scale
• Name of the places
• Name of the State
• Toll

All above attribute can be used as a range also. (e.g.. Richter Scale is in between 6.000 to 8.500.)

Air Network
Here you can trace the shortest path (Red) and it's alternative (Blue) by Airways in between two different cities. The alternative is depending upon the following applicable resistances.

• Name of the Air Transport
• Flight Frequency (flights/hr)
• Type of the flight with respect to distance (Short / Long)
• Name of the Airport
• Type of the Airport (International / Domestic)
• Rail Network

Here you can trace the shortest path (Red) and it's alternative (Blue) by Railways in between two different cities. The alternative route is depending upon the following applicable resistances.

• Railway Zones (C, E, N, CN, NF, S, SC, W, K)
• Number of tracks (1 to 4 nos.)
• Gauge (Broad / Meter)7 Type of the Track (Major / Minor)
• Road Network

Here you can trace the shortest path (Blue) and it's alternative (Red) by Road in between two different cities. Along with the path trace, nearest places can be located by flood trace (Magenta) from a specified location shown in a blue circle. The alternatives and Flood trace (nearest places or road junctions) are depending upon the following applicable resistances.

• Road Name (NH1, NH2, NH4 etc.)
• Type of the Road
• Width
• Surface of the road (Concrete / Tar)
• Traffic Flow

State Map with General Information
Here you can run the query and view the location of the particular place with respect to the query attributes as follows.

• District
• Area (sq km)
• Population
• Head Quarters

Estimation of River Flood
Here you can speculate the approximate area covered by river flood or can visualize the situation caused by heavy monsoon. The conditions can be applied with respect to the query attributes as follows.

• Width of the river
• Average Depth of River
• Flow of River

Analysis of an individual river also can be done. The same tool is also useful for road widening or cable network.In the picture light green color indicates width of river with normal flow and light blue color indicates river flood useful for flood analysis.

Rainfall Zones
Here you can view the Rainfall Zones with respect to the Rainfall details. The Thematic Query can be defined with respect to the following attributes.

• Name of the Zones
• Rainfall Details
• Minimum Rainfall
• Maximum Rainfall

All above attribute can be used as a range also. The same tool is also useful to do Market Survey in FMCG sector.

Limitations of 'EXplore India'

1. Area and Population details covered are limited up to country, states and districts.
2. Maps are not to scale.
3. Query options are restricted up to country, state and district level.
4. River depth & width, Road width, flow and Air traffic frequency are assumed.