The Use of GIS
Geographic Information Systems are an important new entry point into fields where location in geographic space makes a difference, what might be called the mapping Sciences (Clarke, 1997). He also says that the evolution of the GIS has now reached maturity, and the benefits to all are self-evident. This benefit can now be applied in locating the siktes for the installations of Midas' telecommunication system, although it might be first of it kind.

The Remote Sensing (RS) technique and the Geographical Positioning System (GPS) would have produced images of all ground features of various places in the world. The Geographical Information System (GIS) developed by the above techniques offer a great relief in showing the latest positions of the features including the towers, antennae, tall buildings etc. These features help locating the exact positions for the installations from the boardroom of Midas instead of making various visits to the sites. The author's personal experience as an airborne and ground geophysicist with Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources (now Australian Geological Survey Organisation) has shown that the positions located by using GIS have been accurate when compared to locations plotted by the aerial photographs. The pilot flying with the help of air photos and the old Doppler navigation system often ended up in guesswork as to either the featur would have changed or the waterways dried up etc. The Conference might be aware that the GIS is being used in the agricultural projects in India and abroad, but there is not enough information about the use of GIS for the location of sites for communication installations. Although some information is available from different sources, it is possible that the job can be done more accurately to pinpoint the locations using GIS. This being a new development in the scientific field, it is difficult to estimate as to how much of GIS is being used and what are the areas GIS has gone into. It is hoped that this conference containing very distinguished GIS scientists will guide Midas in the right direction. As mentioned in the introduction that the author is not here to talk about GIS but learn from you as to how best GIS can be employed in selecting sites for the installations of Midas' telecommunication technology developed to offer connectivity to all section of the Indian Community.