Meet on climate change’s impact on soil sustainability held

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Department of Geography, Bangalore University, is organising a two-day 11th Union of Geographic Information Technologists (UGIT) international conference on Climate ChangeSoil Sustainability.

The conference was inaugurated on Friday by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jayakar SM, N Mahesh Babu, KAS, Registrar, Bangalore University, Professor Dr S Rajendra Prasad, former vice-chancellor of Agriculture university, Bangalore, Dr Manojrajan Director Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) and Professor Ashok D Hanjagi President of UGIT and Head of the Department of Geography, Bangalore University, Bangalore.

Prasad stressed on climate change and he mentioned rising temperature has a great impact on advancing maturity and the yield of the crops. He said that shortage of water would be a big obstacle in the days to come. BU Registrar Mahesh Babu briefed the audience about the theme of the conference.

Rajan expressed the exponential growth of Geospatial technologies, as he quoted about the technology has accessed even to remote areas as a testimonial, later he emphasised Geography as an opportunity rather than a subject for serving the society. Jayakar presided over the event. He said that the role of sustainability is an extremely urgent and universal concern.

We can no longer put off our efforts to fight the climate crisis. In the context of climate change he suggested switching to clean energy, and alternative transportation methods, which do not contribute to warming the planet. Ashok D Hanjagi emphasised climate change put soil under pressure.

“Degradation of our soils will have environmental impacts on our vegetation and water quality. It will also affect our agricultural production,” he said. During the occasion three scientists who had contributed in the area of Earth Science and Geoinformatics were awarded the UGIT’S Excellence Award 2022. The recipients were Dr Manoj Rajan, Commissioner, KSDMA, Dr Sunil Kumar De, Professor, NEHU, Shillong and Dr Seema Jalan, Professor and Head, Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur.