Nagaland minister for planning and coordination, land resources and parliamentary affairs Neiba Kronu releasing the report on ‘Geospatial Water Resource Map of Nagaland’ on Friday.

Nagaland Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing Centre located in Kohima successfully completed a project called ‘Geospatial Water Resource Map of Nagaland’ especially for surface water resource management and development of hydro electric power generation potential of the state.

The project was funded by the North Eastern Council for conducting a detailed survey on the water resource potential in Nagaland, including preparation of report on potential of river.

Minister for planning and coordination, land resources and parliamentary affairs Neiba Kronu released a two-volume report of the project at the GIS and Remote Sensing Centre on Friday.

Kronu said the report will provide momentum in the development of hydro electric power, irrigation and drinking water availability as well as for monitoring of water quality and quantity in the state.

He said line departments such as water resource, power, new and renewable energy, land resources, PHED, disaster management etc will greatly benefit from the generated geospatial database as it would provide them with tools to plan with more precision and accuracy in the area of water resource programmes and schemes.

Kronu also highlighted the problem of traffic congestion in Kohima and Dimapur for which an intensive study is being undertaken by the centre to provide viable recommendations to the government for immediate action.

He congratulated the officers and staff of the state GIS and Remote Sensing Centre for the successful completion of the project and encouraged them to take up more of such challenging programmes in future.

Project director, Nagaland GIS and Remote Sensing Centre, Mhathung Kithan said the project was carried out with thorough research and intensive field survey with special emphasis on surface water resource management and development of hydro electric power generation potential of the state.

The report contains mapping of the entire river system, drainage network, drainage pattern and preparation of large scale watershed delineation and morphometric analysis of the 22 watershed and the survey and assessment of surface water runoff/discharge in more than 100 different locations across the state.

Other activities and studies undertaken by the GIS and Remote Sensing Centre includes GIS in crime study, unmanned aerial vehicle, village resource mapping, real world terrain modeling, space based information support for decentralised planning, geomorphology and lineament mapping etc.

It provides for a vast pool of information and data that are highly useful for the planning and execution of the schemes and activities of the various other line departments of the state.

Bhadra Gogoi is Northeast Now Correspondent in Nagaland. He can be reached at: [email protected]