Geospatial technology education: Capacity building for sustainable development

Abstract

Sustainable development requires judicious use of resources which can cater for present need and also makes provision for the future. Geospatial technology operates at a regional level as well as micro level by providing a framework for data visualization and analysis which is crucial to the decision making process. Such a platform provides tools that help decision makers analyze complex situations and complete the task with efficiency. Research shows that Geospatial thinking is critical to survive and operate in today’s digitized world. Research has also shown that education in Geospatial technology will be crucial to make workforce competent across all sectors of the economy and it will be particularly necessary for achieving sustainable development goals. Geospatial education in India is lagging behind the rest of the world due to the specific constraints of the University structure in running Interdisciplinary subject. Geography education largely restricts to bachelor degree with little or no technological grounding. This paper is an attempt to critically analyze Geospatial education scenario in India with special reference to the experiences of the teaching Geospatial curriculum at Symbiosis Institute of Geoinformatics. This paper also attempts to evaluate the efforts of integrating research on sustainable development with the core curriculum.