We care a lot to pin our location/address and mark it on Google Maps but how can we care to mark the identity of a water body that Google Maps doesn’t know of.
Welcome to the redundant sight of dry water beds that seem Blue on Google maps, but stays brown or in some drier colours. There are houses, offices and business houses around a waterbody that have their markings perfectly calibrated, but the water body keeps losing it’s boundaries as encroachments begin on and around it. With no voice to stand up for it’s boundaries, it would just be the Google Map that can mark and keep it’s boundaries intact.
What am I talking about?
In this era of digital maps where the address is just the numbers which show the lattitude and the longitude, the boundary lines could be perfectly marked with it’s radius exactly on the bunds which guard the water body. The human hand that draws the map may not be perfect, but the digital boundaries, as Google Map evolves, could mark them perfectly.
As Governments are beginning to freeze on location tagging, turning to digital archives for references, the map markers would perfectly preserve the boundaries. What this could translate into is, the future would seem as present, without change as the reference pointers would earmark the spaces as WATER BODIES.
Much needs to be done at the Google Labelling levels as I face multiple problems while trying to select a POND/RIVER/CHANNEL etc and my new label isn’t accepted by Google Maps. Much of my effort then goes down the drain but I know that I can’t give up and would reach out to the support team.
Similarly, there are heritage sites in and around Madurai where recent excavations have been carried out. Marking those places with the excavated artifacts and posting those pictures/videos on Google Maps would turn those places into ONLINE MUSEUMS. Google Maps would then become the BRIDGE that connects that distant past into a more distant future and would also direct the visitors to the spot to celebrate ancient marvels.
If you are a Local Guide, then please do join me to create a sustainable eco-friendly world of tommorrow through Google maps