India, a developing nation with a majority rural population, continues to experience stark developmental disparities between rural and urban areas. Although the government has launched various initiatives, effective planning and implementation remain hindered by insufficient data availability, weak management systems, and limited access to critical information. Geospatial technologies like GIS, GPS, and remote sensing enable efficient data storage, spatial analysis, and evidence-based decision-making, offering transformative solutions for rural development and sustainable resource management. The Geo-spatial Village Information System (GVIS) developed in this study enables data-driven decision-making for land resources and LULC dynamics in rural Himachal Pradesh. Combining satellite imagery, GIS, and field data, GVIS supports evidence-based planning for sustainable development at the grassroots level. This paper aims to demonstrate how a Geo-spatial Village Information System (GVIS) can:1. Integrate diverse datasets into a unified platform, 2. Enable efficient monitoring of land resources and visualization of LULC changes, and 3. Enhance block-level rural development planning by facilitating seamless data sharing across agencies for more effective program implementation.
Ajay et al. (2026) studied this question.