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- IIT Kharagpur to collaborate with the British Geological Survey to convert Varanasi into a smart city.
- The project aims to develop the methodologies and approaches of urban geosciences at Varanasi for hazard risk assessment.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, is in the process of developing Varanasi into a smart city with an approach of a three-dimensional underground survey for redesigning the city as a future smart city.
The 3D geological modelling prepared under Varanasi city will help to improve and build new service infrastructure and transport service, manage the sustainability of water supplies as well as flooding hazards and to preserve the archaeological sites.
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The faculty members, Joy Sen from the department of Architecture and Regional Planning & RGCGSIDM and Probal Sengupta from the department of Geology and Geophysics will contribute to the project, working as the co-investigators.
Abhijit Mukherjee, who is the project leader of the department of Geophysics and Geology at IIT Kharagpur explained about the possible degradation of environment and resources which will affect both the city and its rural remote areas. Although according to few studies, they are just considered as a linked ecosystem.
He discussed the various application of geoscientific methods through the project like remote sensing, hydrogeological, tectonics, geophysical, drilling and geological. The project intends to trace the evolution of Varanasi as a pilot for other cities in India from hazard zonation/ alleviation. The retrieved information will result in the construction of a multi-scale three-dimensional conceptual model leading to visualise underground survey of the city.
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Dr. Martin Smith, Director Science of British Geological Survey told that this project will be the first major three-dimensional subsurface urban study and planning of its own kind in the country India, with an ultimate aim of developing methodologies and approaches of urban geology for planning and hazard risk management.
