GIS Based Ecomapping of Industries A Potential Tool for Environmental Performance Analysis and Optimization

Sustainable development is widely practiced by many engineers, academicians and policy makers for making the industries environmental friendly, to obtain sustainability in any industry there are many methods. Resources utilized in an industry should be identified properly in various processes and its utilization is to be optimized to increase the environmental performance of the industry. Ecomapping is a visual, simple and practical tool to analyze, manage, and communicate the environmental performance of industries in developing economies. Ecomapping is creative and helps small SME’s to implement environmental management systems like ISO 140001 and EMAS. Ecomap if properly employed will increase the sustainability of the industries and also helps in reducing the resource utilization and enhances the productivity. Even though the Ecomapping can be done manually, using GIS will enhance the productivity, enables clear detailing of resource identification and mapping. This paper provides an insight into Ecomapping, its advantages, preparing ecomap for an industry using GIS.