GIS for the Development of a Cebu Geographic Planning Atlas
Eng'r .Christine Delfin -Homez
Planning Officer
Geoplan Cebu Foundation Inc.
Cebu City
1. Introduction
Today's challenge to both developed and developing countries is sustainable development Philippines for one. Which relies most on is natural resources, is not an exemption on this call.
The Province of Cebu which is located in Central Philippines, is experiencing rapid development. Especially in areas near the growth centers and/or metropolitan cities due to the influx of many local and foreign investments. Cebu City and its surrounding areas is experiencing massive infrastructure development. The pressure on land and its resources has greatly increased in recent year. The massive rapid population growth on Cebu and on t urban growth center in particular has aggravated the pressure on land and its resources. Since land and resources is finite, it is apparent therefore that planning and management should take into account all aspects of the land and its resources and that development should be sustainable .
The knowledge about the geographic distribution of resources ( both natural and socioeconomic) is as prerequisite for a sustainable economic development and management of natural resources . topographic and thematic maps have always been and always be, one of the main tools for spatial planning, may it be urban, land-use or regional planning. Geographic information systems (GIS ) has been successfully used by many user in different develop countries as a tool in planning, monitoring and implementing projects .
A survey of the existing data condition in Cebu, be it spatial or non-spatial, revealed that these data re complied at different offices and agencies and as a result very difficult for the user to access these various data . there is a need then to compile these datasets for better access and easy updating.
The technology of Geographic information system (GIS), was employed to produce this Atlas. Te compilation of colored maps of different topics was one of the outputs to give better visualization and impression of the spatial aspects and phenomena inherent in the area.
The development of this Atlas was supported by the Department of Science and technology (DPST, Region 7) through s grant in Aid Program and carried out by Geoplan Cebu Foundation, Inc.
2 . Objects
The main objective of the development of the Geographic Atlas of Cebu through the use of GIS is to develop a geographic database of Cebu to facilitate improved spatial planning and decision making with regards to sustainable economic development and natural resource management.
The Atlas can be use by various users such as planners, decision-makers, investors engineers , researchers , high school and college student and other end-users for various purposes among which are planning, monitoring, site selection, feasibility studies, resources inventory and monitoring, forecasting and a educational material. The system developed for this Atlas allows the combination of existing data sets to generate other sets to generate other topics, and to quickly update existing information.
3. Methodology :
since commencing the Atlas project in April 1, 1997, different biophysical, socio-economic and demographic data have been generated and put into the system. Different coverage's have been generated to describe better the features of the area. These include Region 7, Cebu Province, Metro Cebu and some selected city and Municipalities.
The Atlas project were undertaken in 5 steps:
| Steps |
Method |
| Data collection |
- Preparation of a detailed data collection plan
- Data Acquisition
|
| Data Input |
- Spatial data input: digitizing
- Attribute data input: keyboard entry
- Other digital data: import
|
|
Data Management |
- Development of spatial and attribute databases
- Combination of both spatial and non-spatial and building a
topology
- Organization as layers
- Data security
|
| Data Analysis |
- Spatial operations (geometric, logical combination, etc.)
- Statistical analysis to generate new information
|
| Data Presentation |
- Preparation of cartographic outputs
- Map outputs
|
3.1 Data Collection
The success of the project depends on the equality of the data inputs. Since the data used in GIS represent always a generalized and abstracted picture of the real world at some point in time, it is essential for a useful GIS to have the right place and at the right time. It was necessary therefore to evaluate which data would be relevant to achieve the objective and also which data would be available and accessible at acceptable quality .
Since the acquisition of primary data was not possible due to financial constraints, Geoplan decided to used secondary data available locally.
An evaluation criteria was then set forth in the data collection plan, as follows .
- Accuracy ( geometric )
-
Comprehensiveness (coverage )
-
Correctness ( contents )
-
Age
