Desertification and its impact assessment, Geo-Environmental appraisal of mine and other anthropogenic contamination areas, Arsenic and Fluoride contamination studies of groundwater in parts of the country are some of the socio-environmentally relevant studies which figure prominently in the annual programme of GSI.

To understand the ecosystem from a global perspective, GSI has been conducting Glaciological Studies, Petrological studies and transect mapping in Antractica to decipher the Tectono-metamorphic evolution in the frozen continent. Similar glaciological studies are also conducted regularly in the Himalayan glaciers.