Adoption of GIS technology in land use planning for development authority

Adoption of GIS technology in land use planning for development authority

Tapas Ghatak
Senior Geophysicist, Environment
Cell, CMDA Government of West Bengal
Email : t_k_g_@hotmail.com

Town and Country planning act and its effectiveness on land use planning.

To control the use of land and to provide statute to its planning and development in rural as well as in urban areas of West Bengal, Town and Country (Planning & Development) bill was brought in 1978. In the absence of any such legal authority situation had often resulted in disorganised and uncoordinated growth creating serious civil and environmental problem. As a remedy of the situation, it was imperative to prepare comprehensive development plan to control the uses of land and to provide the basic framework for development for new areas. It was also necessary that such development plans should have adequate legislative sanction so that they can be properly enforced and implemented. The above bill of 1978 provides necessary measures in these regards.

However, the bill provides for setting of Planning Authority or Planning cum Development Authority in different Planning areas that may be identified in the different part of the state. Such authorities would require preparing development plan including the framework of future land use and development in the respective areas. In addition, Planning and Development Authorities also called as Development Authority were invested with powers to prepare and execute specific development schemes for the development areas.

Environmental dimension in development of land use planning

The urban environment encompasses all such interactive phenomena as they take place within the spatial confines of urban areas. The rapid process of urban growth, or a faster urbanization in other words, if allowed to take place in an uncontrolled and unregulated manner, would lead to a less than healthy urban environment. In fact, this has been the case in many of the developing countries including India, which have faced a rapid urban growth for a variety of reasons. The lack of healthy urban environment manifests itself in a variety of ways. It should be borne in mind that such environmental deficiencies have been mostly the result of human actions and are a threat to human beings themselves. The spectrum of environmental deficiencies is so wide and so much inter-related that it is very difficult to perceive the multifarious manifestation of the same precisely. However, the common and important environmental deficiencies can be perceived in terms of unplanned settlement, polluted air, polluted water, excessive noise, lack of sanitary facilities, vulnerability to disaster, poverty and disparity, slum settlements, high morbidity and mortality, gender discrimination. Illiteracy and various social tensions and deteriorating value. These environmental disorders are caused by a variety of factors. Leaving aside the ecological attributes of environmental deficiencies, the socio-economic impacts of the latter are no less important as to deserve appropriate attention. As a matter of fact, the productive base of the economy is greatly conditioned by the productivity of workforce. It would be quite evident from the environmental problems and causes thereof, as outlined above, that tackling the same would have to have multi-pronged and multi-departmental initiatives. Obviously, this would call for a comprehensive approach to the environmental issues and devising policies and strategies that need to be orchestrated through the actions of the different departments and agencies. This upholds the importance of urban environmental management in a multi-departmental and multi-tiered institutional perspective.

The unabated deterioration in urban environment and the need for arresting them on priority basis led to creation of a powerful agency such as the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) in 1970 with the mandate to effect implementation of the plans and programmes outlined in the BDP (Basic Development Plan), the basic thrust of which had been on development of such infrastructures and services that had a great deal of environmental improvement implications. Initially, the Government of India and later the World Bank came forward with financial assistance to facilitate the development initiatives by CMDA. Some of the projects that CMDA implemented could be related directly to environmental improvement, while the others indirectly. As for the instances of the former, the projects in areas of water supply and sanitation can be cited, as these directly impact the beneficiaries with improved environment. For the latter type, the transport and area development projects can be given as examples. The major projects in this group attempted to relieve the congestion in the metrocore perceived as one of the environmental adversaries.

It was realised in CMDA that urban infrastructures and services alone were not enough to take care of the developmental needs and a regulatory regime was required to be designed for the purpose of controlling the use and development of land. The Town and Country (Planning & Development) Act, 1979 was introduced and the CMDA was designated as the custodian of the Act for the metropolis of Calcutta. The Act provides for preparation of not only existing land use maps and registers, but also formulation of land use and development control plans (LUDCPs) that seek to provide a healthy living environment within CMA.

After gaining experience in urban planning and development for sometime, it was realised by CMDA that mere physical infrastructure provision of the urban services was not enough to address the environmental deficiencies, particularly amongst the urban poor. The poor sections were found to be having very little or no accessibility to the basic urban services. It was felt that for an effective environmental improvement, the needs of the poor communities in terms of health, nutrition, elementary education, gainful employment, social awareness etc. were equally important and target group oriented programmes for the purpose were sine qua non. Accordingly, a number of supplementary schemes were undertaken by CMDA under its various development programmes Nevertheless, a probe into the plans and programmes implemented so far would reveal that gaps yet exist in terms of attainment of some of the environmental attributes.

Need for information generation its collection, assimilation, synthesisation and dissemination for resource base planning

Improvement of resource base of urban local bodies as well as agencies responsible for operation and maintenance of the infrastructure facilities created over a period of time is the most important factor to ensure sustainability of the development efforts. Improvement of the resource base needs specific attention and has to be attempted through a number of initiatives Decongestion of the metro core through development of new settlement areas in a decentralised manner is another important aspect. The State Government and CMDA have adopted a decentralised planning and development approach involving direct participation of elected local bodies. It was observed earlier that some of the projects did not suit the requirements of the beneficiaries in that the design of the same precluded involvement of the target groups. There are many cases where the local needs and priorities were not properly reflected because of lack of involvement of the elected local bodies. However, a gradual emphasis on decentralised planning and involvement of the ULB (Urban Local Bodies) in planning and implementation resulted in CUDP (Calcutta Urban Development for Poor) witnessing an interesting synthesis of both centralisation and decentralisation of the planning and development process in which the local priorities were dovetailed into the metropolitan development planning.

For channeling growth and development of different areas, the Town and Country (Planning & Development) Act, 1979 provides scope for preparation of land use and development control plans. However, the T&CP Act do not provide for working with such parameters that take into account the underground geomorphologic conditions. Even the technical design of the various infrastructure projects like transport and area development have hardly taken into account the geophysical and geomorphologic considerations affecting them. In absence of treatment of such considerations, the recommendations with respect to either identifying new area for growth of future settlements or location of projects in existing settlements may not conform to the requirements of environmental improvement. It is extremely important to find out the carrying capability of both new and existing areas through study of both surface and sub-surface geomorphologic factors, so as to be able to properly direct the urban growth spatially. The absence of geomorphologic parameters in urban planning and development may create environmental problems in many ways. For instance, whereas the solid waste management project directly addresses to improvement of physical environment within the urban areas, the planning and design of the final disposal of solid waste in the form of sanitary land fill has seldomly examined the issues of geophysics and geomorphology and as such is prone to creating environmental hazard in the form of groundwater contamination.

The State is poised for an accelerated growth of industries and many of them are likely to come up within CMA. Industrial growth would, on the one hand, tackle the problem of poverty - one of the environmental ills - in terms of generating income and employment, but, on the other hand, disturb the ecological attributes of healthy environment. While the issue of making necessary provision of infrastructures and services for facilitating the process of industrial growth is beyond question, the necessity of reconciliation between the envisioned industrial growth and the consequential environmental degradation cannot be over-emphasized.

All the above issues, as far as they relate to environment, would call for a holistic approach to the plans and programmes of urban development. Incidentally, the international bodies including the UN agencies and also the national governments, as a part of the agreement reached at the Rio De Janerio conference in 1992, want an explicit focus on the environmental issues and an effective management of environmental improvement measures across the globe. Dealing with many of these issues effectively would require collection, collation and compilation of certain data and information having environmental bearing; a situational analysis of such data and information; defining future policies and strategies for compliance by different departments and agencies involved; and reflecting the strategies in investment plans and statutory obligations under the T&CP Act, 1979. Given that decentralisation is the key to any institutional framework, the involvement of the elected local bodies in design and implementation of environmental policies and strategies would be a sine qua non. The requirement of involving the elected local bodies has been reinforced by the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 that has devolved a good deal of developmental responsibilities including environmental improvement, to elected local bodies. Each municipality is required to prepare plans for economic development and social justice with due regard to “matters of common interest between Panchayats and Municipalities including spatial planning, sharing of water and other physical and natural resources, the integrated development of infrastructure and environmental conservation”

Adoption of new technology like GIS for proper use of information in land use planning

So far the need for information generation and its importance in planning was being discussed in general. It is accepted that some information is being utilized in planning for an over all perspective but along with this let us also accept that most of the plans failed to use or incorporate the available data or information available with the planners due to some reason or other. The basic deficiency is to visualise the gap in the information system and therefore adopt an ad-hoc plan for easy implementation. To give visuality to the entire system, the concept of spatial planning is must, thereby the geographic information of each locatable parameters of the planning become an essential tool of the process. A specific planning element may have quite a number of information which may be required for consideration in different period of the planning process and there by concept of layers of information is introduced in planning. A recent soft ware technology developed to use such layered information for any specific geographic location is widely accepted among the planners elsewhere and is known as Geographic Information System (GIS). A wise and systematic beginning to the entire planning process can be made by adopting GIS. However this will require a sincere involvement from the decision-makers to promote this technology so that a transparent and information based management system can be evolved.

Decentralision of planning and the role of information system

Decentralisation of planning process is by far the most effective form of planning in recent period. As already mentioned in the previous paragraph, there exists a statutory provision.and once a statutory provision for doing so has been given in the constitution this is the right time for its implementation. The elected members of the urban and rural local bodies may not always have the fullest capacity for such planning, but it can not be denied that they are nearer to the need of the people. Therefore the planning process must evolve from them. The initialsation of the process may be their primary requirement, may be they also need the primary financial and technical assistance for building up their capacity, but the fact remains that only they can utilise the entire system most effectively. The information on land and people along with their uses and habits are extremely dynamic, i.e. progressively changing and require a continuous updating. These information, in an updateable format with a geographic perception of the area becomes an important part of the planning document and the local decision maker feels more comfortable and confident in dealing with such document which has been essentially prepared by them. Development Authorities play an important role in building up their capacity and by sharing their initial financial requirement in adopting new technology like GIS.

Transfer of Technology from corporate sector to development sectors.

The present concept of regenerating every information under a pseudo terminology called "Information Technology" might have to be redefined for making it acceptable to the common planner. The common planner is somehow not accepting "I.T". Every stage of the computer world is new to them and therefore a suitable methodology for such transfer of technology will be extremely helpful. The planning community realises that the days old information system needs a change, but somehow refuses to accept the name " Technology" as they are hesitant in handling the new system as a Technology. As the entire concept is totally in a corporate world to which the local planners and decision makers are absolutely unexposed, some change is required in the form of transfer of technology. The new generation of our planner in the development sector is still in the familiarisation for governance in the local level and therefore electronic governance or e-governance may be the right term for their acceptance. Local governance for local development by local planner should by far be the best approach to transfer the technology from the corporate sector to the development sector.

Land information system for Development

There demand for land for any development will always be the primary requirement and to establish an utility oriented information system about such land must be an important criteria in our policy. The general land use map may be available for planning but the concept of a carrying capacity base land use plan is still a dream for any planner. To obtain a sustainability for any development plan such carrying capacity plays a vital role. Starting from a new area development plan for housing or industrial complex to a flood control district level mitigation policy, the land information becomes a primary criteria. The information will vary from a legal status of a RS Plot number of a cadastrial map needed for acquisition of construction of a Highway or Industry Relocation Areas to Geohydrological or Geotechnical information for the construction a reservoir or locating a Hazard Waste Disposal ground. Some of the stipulated rule are so stringent at present that if we are not equipped with such information , we can not obtain any clearance from the authority. Any development project essentially requires clearance from various department which need to be based on information on a developing land. The rehabilitation strategy has almost become a regular part of any development project and therefore information of presently occupying and to be occupied land, both become essential criteria of the project. While implementing such an exercise in reality the absence of a current and accurate land information map comes as a major hindrance. The available cadestrial maps are old and mostly do not contain any physically existing permanent point of location. Neither these maps contains any administrative boundary which are physically locatable. To incorporate such important information in the land information system not much trial is being given. No such policy is also seems to define any future programme of doing such exrcise. If a programme of redefining the available cadestral is taken with the help of GPS and GIS it might take 10 years to complete the entire country ,but surely it will be an asset to the entire country's planning document. More over if the georefferencing could be made to the cadastal map an effort could be made to correlate with the high resolution satellite imagery which will give a new concept of value-added cadastrial land use map. If such effort is ever conceived, it will be further required to think to redefine the administrative boundaries between two countries, two states, two districts and two sub-divisions with latitude and longitude and not merely by physical features like rivers, hills roads which are often dynamic. We must try to establish that lands have their own identity and their location can only be established by latitude and longitudes.

People participation and local level planning: a few suggestion from experience.

A need for spatial planning with information integration was being felt in every level of planning. The requirement of a faster decision making was being realised. Technologies are available in comparatively easier terms and new generation of planner are also willing to make a new beginning. Initiative, Motivation ,Leadership and of course Finance are among the main constrains for making the beginning. Government of West Bengal through CMDA, the foremost Planning and Development Authority of the state decided to take the lead with external finance and local expertise. CMDA's had already developed expertise in GIS based planning in the field of land use planning specially in the sectors of legal information in land acquisition, new area development (High way, housing, relocation of polluting industry etc,) solid waste management information system, chemical quality information system of portable water etc. CMDA was confident of taking a leading role and identified as a nodal agency to propagate the necessity and utility of GIS based planning among the local Self Government within its jurisdiction. The need of a more or less accurate map with a definite scale where the infrastructures are shown with necessary accuracy, was transmitted to the local municipality. A repeated interaction with the local bodies , corporate houses and the nodal body (CMDA)made the objective quite clear. The non recurring part of the expenditure has been made by the nodal agency which include specific hard wares, compatible GIS package , providing initial expenses for expert hands etc. Simultaneously Local bodies are also given the responsibility of providing accurate maps( if require after carrying out a survey) identifying local nodal person for sharing the responsibility of execution, fixing proper site within their premises for carrying out the entire operation and also communicate to the people within its municipality about the new beginning they are doing asking their co operation in fulfilling the objective. Finally , the house to house information generation which include demography, education, health, socio-economic status, infrastructural facility , municipal liabilities etc lies with the local level experts . These details when analysed through GIS for obtaining different themes to the planners , the importance of the technology is totally understood and acceptable. A feelings of possession is reflected in their action and the sustainability of the entire procedure is assured. The soft ware corporate house also plays an important role in the entire process by providing number of free training to the user, mostly on line with one to one computer availability. These training or exposure to the GIS world takes place in the municipality in front of the entire comminuting with numerous questions and doubts generating every moment and which are instantaneously answered.

It is therefore believed that a transfer of technology is possible only when you start operating within the community and not from outside. As a success result we have about 60 Local Government under this project in West Bengal covering about 150 million of population. Not only they feel a part of the process of development but also able to project the advantage of adopting the new technology to the outer world.