During its centenary year, Punjab Engineering College Chandigarh is organizing various technical workshops/conferences related to different aspects of engineering. The civil engineering department, in association with the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (Department of Space) Dehradun, organized one day workshop titled “Open Source Geospatial Products in Disaster Management.” The primary mandate of the workshop is to create awareness about the various free available software for digital mapping used in disaster management. Participants from Chandigarh Administration, Fire department, DGRE, and various educational institutes attended the workshop.
During the inaugural session, Dr. Baldev Setia (Director PEC) motivated and persuaded the participants to understand the need for inexpensive technical disaster management interventions. He also emphasized the collaboration of the academic institute with the industry, which may help mitigate disasters. Dr. Umesh Sharma (Head, CED) shared the legacy of the civil engineering department and discussed the importance of such technologies in the related field. Dr. Har Amrit Singh Sandhu (Faculty Cooridnator) introduced the mandate of the workshop to the participants.
In his keynote address, Dr. Vivek Saxena (Scientist F, DGRE) shared the evolution of the FOSS4G consortium and his various projects in mitigating disasters. Dr. Sangeeta (Asst Prof, PEC) discussed a case study of Landslides and Risk assessment in Kumaun Himalays using GIS with participants. Sh Shiva Reddy (Scientist, IIRS) demonstrated the QRealTime plugin developed by his team. Dr. Mahesh Pal (Professor, NIT Kurukshetra) enlightened the importance of image classification in disaster-related studies. Sh. Syed (Manager, MtrixGeo) explained the applications of Artificial Intelligence base tools in the related field. Dr. Chandan Ghosh (Professor, National Institute of Disaster Management) discussed the urban risk management techniques with the participants.
The closing ceremony was graced by Dr. Chandan Ghosh, Dr. Umesh Sharma, Dr. Har Amrit Singh Sandhu, and Dr. Kamal Kumar. In his closing remarks, Dr. Kamal Kumar thanked the institute, sponsoring agency, and participants. He also lauded the efforts of the student coordinators (Ms. Hempreet, Ms. Tawqeer, Mr. Ashutosh, Ms. Sonal, Ms. Nidhi, Mr. Shivam and Mr. Rajan Dabral) for organizing the event of such magnitude.
