KALUGA, December 19 (RIA Novosti). A space monitoring center will be set up in the Kaluga Region to promote the area's social and economic development. A program for developing the center has been drawn up for the period ending in 2009.
The center will primarily allow for the creation of a multi-layer electronic map of the region based on images taken from space. It will help monitor agricultural activities, natural resources and their use, land use, the environment, emergencies and vital facilities. This will make it easier to manage the region and, according to the regional government, will speed up decision-making related to construction, development of engineering systems, etc.
The region has already begun using the results of the space survey. Monitoring of agricultural land is already underway and has allowed land-improvement costs to be reduced and the efficiency of land use to be controlled.
Yet another project is the use of the space navigation systems. In 2005, the region built the first line of the Satellite Support System, which comprises six permanently operating GPS/GLONASS stations. This system allows the location of any object in the region to be determined with an accuracy of 1 cm using geodesic measurements.
However, in order to solve urgent problems, it will be necessary to build a second line of the Satellite Support System that will work in real-time mode. This work has already been planned.
Some elements of the region's satellite navigation system have been implemented at the school bus company, improving the safety of children's transportation, especially in rural areas. Soon such systems will be installed in ambulances and public transport. This will reduce damage from accidents and emergencies by 70%-80%, and the cost of inventorying real estate and demarcating land plots will fall by 30%-50%, according to calculations by the regional government.
The region plans to spend 242 million rubles on the implementation of space technology in 2007-2009.
