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Land information of Durgapur area with focus on industrial usage
Susmita Ghosh,
GIS Consultant, B-9, Govt. College,
Durgapur, W. Bengal 713214
Phone: (0343) 50-0737;
Emil: sghosh_geo_ind@hotmail.com
Abstract
There is an urgent economic as well as social need, from the point of view of public health, to and evaluate the use of land and water resources of Durgapur city in West Bengal. Durgapur was developed as a major industrial town of India in the 1950s. Some of India’s important large scale industries and several medium scale industries were established here. As a result, planned townships fringed with commercial hubs and overgrown rural clusters came up. Later on with the stagnation and decline of industrial prosperity there has been a decay of the overall landscape. Now much of the land lies either under-utilised or mis-utilised and the conditions are rapidly deteriorating. Yet the spatial data available are highly inadequate for a proper evaluation of the landuse pattern and for making broad-based amendments and long-term plans in a modern, scientific and integrated manner.
Also, with the overcrowding and increasing pollution in the State capital region (i.e. Calcutta Metropolitan Area), it has become necessary to shift many of the industries from there. This has now necessitated taking a fresh look at Durgapur region to accommodate new industries without compromising on the quality of its air, soil and water resources.
The author collected landuse data at cadastral level (16” to a mile) and updated the existing city planning maps (4” to a mile) of Durgapur region with remote sensing data supported by intensive field surveys. Additionally the physiographical and geological attributes, social attributes, industrial status and infrastructural information have been incorporated into the database. These detailed and comprehensive data are awaiting automation. The paper will discuss the details of the methodology of data collection and collation, and highlight the problems faced and the suggested way-outs.
Introduction
This paper deals with the land information data, which were collected as part of a project on assessment of environmental status of Durgapur area. Durgapur is primarily an industrial town, which has now grown so large that it has been accorded a municipal corporation status. The focus of this paper is to assess the suitability of land in terms of industrial usage. Land information is vital for planning as well as for environmental impact assessment. Adhoc and subjective urban planning can no longer be acceptable in today’s world. The previously created areas of mixed landuse lead to conflicts and litigation, with each party stressing on its own need to survive and to survive well. Hence precise landuse planning is required, which demands good land information database. Availability of such spatial data of the required quality and detail is minimal in India. This creates enormous difficulties for the sincere-minded LIS workers in our country.
To boost economy setting up or developing the industries is required; at the same time it is essential to maintain the quality of the environment well within the safety limits for human habitation. Thus to ensure sustainable development it is extremely important to know in detail about the land and water resources available. In other words we need to know the carrying capacity of the land. There are many factors to be considered for the purpose of site selection for any new industry or treatment plant (such as water, sewage or solid waste treatment plant/s) and for this reason detailed existing landuse data are very essential. With these points in mind the land information data of Durgapur area were collected so as to facilitate both pollution management and urban planning.
After the introduction the second section of the paper describes the study area highlighting its favourable location as an industrial centre. The third section delineates the methodology and the type of data collected. The process of data integration from different sources and scales, and related problems are discussed here. The next section discusses the landuse classification scheme used for this work. The application of the scheme and other land information is dealt with in this section. The last section summarises the conclusions.
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