Geological sciences is one of the important and vital disciplines for rural development. Therefore, the Institute has created the “Centre for Applied Geology” on 19th January 2012. The Centre uses space and spatial technologies on its own and in collaboration with other centers and departments of the GRI, in the areas like inventory of rural mineral resources and brings out the options for mineral resources for mineral based rural industries; rural water management modeling including village wise surface water resources estimation, water quality forecasting model for the water bodies using satellite infrared data, reservoir siltation and preventive land management plans, surface water quality monitoring including pollution through satellite data, village wise ground water targeting and budgeting, artificial recharge models etc; oil and gas exploration; inventory and mapping of hot water springs etc. In Addition the center will also work on riverine, coastal and arid systems to develop ecosystem based development of model for rural areas models. The center is also engaged in research to bring out disaster protective and preventive rural development plans to combat Earthquake, Landslide, Tsunami, Flood and other disasters.