South Indian Population Information System (SIPIS)

Part of ’Population et espace’ project

Objectives

A database on South Indian Population was generated in 2000. The team was very rapidly assailed by an uninterrupted flow of requests for further details on geographical and statistical tools of information. Hence it became imperative to develop the relevant tools of communication and restitution of data for satisfactory usage by researchers and other end-users (NGOs, governments, private sector). It was not practically possible to display the entire collection of data on Internet unless restricted to sample viewing by well-informed users. The CD-ROM was ultimately selected as the most practical mode of data presentation to which would be appended a cartographic consultation tool.

Materials and Methods

The SIPIS project is targeted at the South Indian State of Tamil Nadu. It was supported by the United Nations Fund For Population Activities (UNFPA). The efforts were primarily directed towards the development of a user friendly tool that made the transition from maps possible. From the geographic point of view, this project was aimed at generating new variables calculated from gross Census results and presented in a manner that enabled the end user to obtain the solicited information with a simple click of the mouse, for example, on an alphabetical index or a map on administrative boundaries. All statistical data has been grouped into general categories (social, economic, employment, infrastructure etc). Some of the coordinating maps have been presented in raster format literacy, fertility) with the view to help the user identify regional trends.

Funding

• United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Delhi
• Wellcome Trust, London
• IRD, Laboratoire Population-Environnement-Développement, Marseille.

Team

• Dr. CZ Guilmoto, DR, (IRD/IFP)
• S.Oliveau (Paris I/IFP)
• Sattia Vingadassamy (IFP)
• R. Amuda (IFP)

Main Outputs

CD-ROM

• South Indian Population Information System : volume I : Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry, Pondichéry (Inde), Institut Français de Pondichéry, CD-Rom.

Chapters in books

• GUILMOTO, C.Z., OLIVEAU S., VINGADASSAMY S., 2002. Une expérience de SIG en Inde du Sud : Théorie, mise en œuvre et application thématique, In Espace, Population, Société, Vol 1-2, pp. 147-163.

• OLIVEAU S., 2002 Geographic Information in the ICT’s era : what has changed, and how ? in , Communication Technology and Development : Perspectives and Applications.(Ed. Kiran Prasad, Prasad Mathew, Vivek P. Mathew)

Articles

• GUILMOTO, C.Z., 2001 : Digitizing South India, Newsletter of the International Institute for Asian Studies, 25, 22.

• GUILMOTO, C.Z., 2001 : Tamil Nadu Population through Maps, GIS Development, 1, 6, 37-42.

• PRUVOST GIRON C., Palakkad Pass and the cattle trail. An example of a territory of reference in South India, Pondy Papers in Social Sciences n°28, IFP, 2002, 59 p.

• GUILMOTO, C.Z., OLIVEAU S., CHASLES V., DELAGE R., & VELLA S., Mapping out social change In South India. A geographic information system and its applications, Pondy Papers in Social Sciences n° 31, IFP, 2004,117 p.

More information on SIPIS is available on the website www.demographie.net/sipis