Text Box: Center for Spatial Environmental Planning

Text Box: Endeavour Towards Sustainable Development

Text Box: Spatial Environmental Planning Program

Text Box: The overall objective of the Centre is to “initiate state-wide program on spatial environmental planning for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment, prevention and control of pollution, to buildup and strengthen technical and institutional capabilities needed for conducting spatial environmental planning studies”. This Centre has amply demonstrated its technical capabilities by preparing a plan for not only at the Regional and District levels but also at the Cadestral  levels. In view of the growing demands for Geographical Information System (GIS) and  Spatial Planning based solutions from various developmental agencies, the State Board through this Centre proposes to provide planning and map-based/GIS solutions at a competitive cost. Over the past few years, the State Board has developed a proven expertise in handling digital maps practically covering all scales (state, regional, district, block or local levels). These expertise have won Himachal Pradesh a second Centre in the area of spatial environmental planning in the country after the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi with a state-of-the-art equipment and multi-disciplinary team of experts. In the era of remote sensing, GIS techniques etc; spatial planning  is essentially required virtually at all the levels for effective decision-making and implementation of schemes/programs in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Text Box: The State Board has a duty to maintain the pristine environmental quality of Himachal Pradesh a green jewel nestled in Himalayan crown, through environmental protection, pollution abatement and control. In view of the growing environmental concerns and the risks associated due to haphazard siting of industries, developmental projects etc., the need to introduce an environmental tool was felt which ensures environmentally sound, compatible and sustainable development. The endeavor for integration of environmental concerns in developmental planning through the tool of spatial environmental planning resulted in a program popularly known as Zoning Atlas Program. It is basically an activity that helps in attaining the developmental goals in an environmentally sound, compatible and sustainable manner. The program was introduced way back in 1995 and has subsequently matured over the years to cover various other developmental sectors and areas of planning such as tourism, urban development, natural resource management and mining etc. The overall objective of the program was for establishing or strengthening technical, instrumental and institutional capabilities in the field spatial environmental planning so that the environmental concerns are got integrated in the developmental planning and to further use these facilities for assisting other developmental agencies in achieving the goals of sustainable development. These efforts have resulted in setting up of the Centre for Spatial Environmental Planning with state-of-the-art GIS and spatial environmental planning facilities. The Centre came into existence on 1st March, 2002 at the H.P. State Environment Protection & Pollution Control Board. This Centre has technical and financial support of the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India, Central Pollution Control Board, the World Bank and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

Text Box: Programme Components   1. Environmental Atlas of Himachal Pradesh; 2. District-wise Environmental Atlas; 3. Environmental Status Mapping of Satluj Catchment in HP— MoEF GOI funded Project; 4. Zoning Atlas for Siting of Industries; 5. Industrial Estate Planning; 6. Others     Text Box: HOME

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