Geo-information Services to Rural Extension Community for Rural Development Planning – A Framework

This study focuses on developing a new approach to provide geo-information service to the rural extension community, using open source Geospatial Information Communication Technology (GeoICT) tools such as PrimaGIS, GRASS, Deegree -Web Map Service (WMS) and GeoVISTA Studio and Plone as a content management system (CMS). Our goal is to give a cost effective and robust geo-information service to the rural extension community. The proposed rural information system (RIS) integrates (1) land information system (LIS) (2) agriculture information system (AIS) (3) watershed information system (WIS) and wireless sensor network (WSN) for providing dynamic weather, agriculture information as a part of Indo-Japan GeoICT and sensor network project. This approach will enhance the informatics culture in Indian districts. In addition, integrating multi criteria spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS) into the model enhances judicial decision making spatial querying entity. Plans are also afoot to provide, a prototype RIS is under development.