I have written in earlier blogs about the trouble with GIGO (Garbage-In-Garbage-Out), which basically means that if the data that goes into your software is garbage, then your output would be garbage too. However, sometimes the problem may be what Andrei Martyanov describes as "double-GIGO" (I can't remember which video it was in but feel free to check out this one anyway), where both the data used and the formulation of the problem may be garbage. Needless to say, that it is one hell of a tragedy when that happens. Unfortunately, it is not a rare phenomenon at all.
However, quit often, the problem is simply not knowing what data to look for and where to look. For example, last year the CITIIS program of the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) organised a training workshop for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Odisha for mapping of water bodies in urban areas of the state. The program started with the mapping of 19 water bodies in the pilot phase.
Having engaged with the implementation of such programs from the inside, I know for a fact that "there is many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip", when it comes to their objectives and the data that they use for achieving it. I have written extensively on the state of data in government projects in multiple blogs.
Even without going into any detail of this specific program, isn't it a bit peculiar to do such a gala workshop on such a theme, when the following already exists ??
This is the dashboard of the Water Bodies Information System (WBIS) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Here is the link to it.
The site clearly mentions -
"The water spread area information is extracted using images of 6 m to 56 m resolution for delineating water bodies of sizes as small as 0.025 ha and 50 ha respectively. This information is made available as Water Bodies Information System (WBIS) for visualisation and download."
One would expect that the organisers of the workshop to be atleast aware of the existence of such an information system prepared by such a respectable organisation - Alas, nothing of the sort !
When the knowledge and technical abilities of urban development professionals increasingly gets limited to preparing powerpoint presentations, having endless online meetings and organising various kinds of "capacity-building" events, then the probability of being able to identify relevant data (even when it stares at you point blank) is bound to decrease...and at a steep slope.
One can safely argue that it is hovering somewhere very close to zero if not already there
The ability to find data is very much a function of being able to recognise relevant data and that in turn is dependant of ones knowledge of the subject, which needs constant updating.
But is there any time left for that after the relentless "labour" of back-to-back online meetings ?
