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. Description of the study area Durgapur is situated in Burdwan district of West Bengal on the northern bank of river Damodar within 160 kms WNW of Calcutta. Originally Durgapur was a large village surrounded by several smaller villages. Dense sal and mixed jungle covered much of the area north of the Grand Trunk Road where Durgapur is located. We find references to the place in the writings of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (‘Devi Chaudhurani’) and also in the Gazetteer of Burdwan District written in 1910 by Paterson. Subsequently Durgapur became a small town, bounded to the north by the G.T. Road and to the south by Howrah (Calcutta) – Delhi railway line before. Due to its favourable position in respect to raw materials (good quality iron ore, coal and lime deposits), fresh water supply and easy transport for labour and market it was chosen for setting up a number of large industries. It was a good choice for setting up of major industries like iron and steel, thermal power, cement, chemicals, machinery and other allied industries. It was mainly during the Second Five Year Plan that major industrial surge came upon Durgapur; it used to be called at that time ‘the Ruhr of India’. Along with the industries, industrial townships were created and commercial activity began to cater to their needs. In this way Durgapur grew into a city. Some of the pre-existing villages remained in place (e.g. Kalipur, Faridpur, Palasdiha) while others (like Waria, Sujara, Mejidih, Banagram, Dhunara) had to be shifted to make room for large industries like Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), Alloy Steel Plant (ASP), Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL), Durgapur Thermal Power Supply (DTPS) etc. The people of these latter villages were rehabilitated. Then small slums grew up in connection with the industries and some more grew around the townships catering to the domestic needs. Tribal (Santhal) villages still exist on the outskirts of the city. In recent years Durgapur has become a municipal corporation (with population of 4,15,986 in 1991 and 5,00,578 estimated in year 2000 over an area of 154 sq. kms.). The municipal area covers 40 mouzas, which is now divided into 43 wards each having roughly 10,000 people. Geographically the Tropic of Cancer (23o30’N) passes through the city, and the city limit stretches from 87o12’E to 87o20’E on the northern banks of river Damodar. This river is intercepted at the eastern end of Durgapur at Durgapur Barrage. Geologically the area is significant as it marks a part of the boundary region between the Gondwana basin and the Bengal basin (Ref. Geo-resource map of Barddhaman District, GSI 1998). The prominent features are the Durgapur beds (feldspathic sandstone) of Jurassic age, followed by other shale and sandstone beds with coal seams. Lateritised outcrops are common in this area from which ‘murrum’ is excavated in many places. ‘Murrum’-excavation leaves behind a desolate landscape. The elevation of the land is highest (120 metres above sea level) at and around the outcrops of Durgapur beds in the central and north western parts of the city, whereas the banks and shoals of Damodar river are at 55 to 60 masl. Most of the area is gently undulating. The Grand Trunk Road (now NH2) runs through the place since the time of Sher Shah Suri and the Electrified broad gauge railway lines (Eastern Rly.) run parallel to it to the south. Most of the industries of the area are located between these two transport lines and few to the south of the railway line. North of the G.T. Road is mostly residential and commercial area. Agricultural, forest and barren lands lie mostly at the periphery of the city. Unfortunately the industrial surge is much reduced now due to various factors. In connection with identifying new sites for industries, it is important to note that there are large vacant areas, which are neither forested nor intensively cultivated at present. Additionally, large areas of the closed industries now lie unused in a dilapidated condition. These could be put to use first. The study area of the project covered an area somewhat larger than the municipal corporation area. This is so because whole physical entities, like sub-basins, were covered; thus parts of the neighbouring blocks of Andal and Kanksa were also included. Methodology and Data In order to incorporate all possible land information in every part of the city a scale quite larger than that of topographical maps (1:50,000) was required. Yet the merging of over 60 cadastral or mouza maps at 16” to a mile (1:3960) would create an excessively large map and database, which would be too large for the project infrastructure to handle. Therefore maps of intermediate scale at 4” to a mile (1: 15,840) were selected. Original Police Station (PS) maps and Outline Development Plan of ADDA (Asansol Durgapur Development Authority) were used to form the base map for the study. Longitudes and latitudes were drawn at 2’30” interval to mark the registration points at their intersections. Features like water bodies, vested lands and paths were incorporated from P.S. maps in consultation with mouza maps. These provided good ground control points and location reference for field survey. Satellite imagery (IRS) of June 1998, August 1999 and February 2000 were used for making a landuse class map by visual interpretation. This was enlarged to fit the 1:15,840 scale base maps. Thus polygons of apparently similar landuse types were derived. Whereas, for the congested places within the city, plans obtained from ADDA or the industries at 1:3960 scale, were used so as to incorporate each commercial, residential, institutional or industrial sector. This process could have been done much more efficiently with GIS software, which was unfortunately not available. Finally intensive field survey was carried out in all seasons to check on each polygon derived from remote sensing or from plans of other organisations. The ponds and paths were used as control points for making corrections after field survey. In this manner the final and actual landuse map (at 1:15,840 scale) was prepared, which has at least 90% accuracy. The scheme and codes used for landuse are discussed in the next section. Apart from landuse data, data on administrative divisions, land ownership, infrastructures such as roads, railways, high voltage lines, water supply mains, sewerage and treatment plants were also collected on 1:15,840 scale. All industrial premises were delineated and coded on a map of similar scale, their chimneys and discharge outlets were also marked. Whereas data on physiography, surface flow direction, drainage network, geomorphology, soil, geology, geo-hydrology and geo-technical aspects were collected on 1:50,000 scale from government authorities, for overlay on 1:15,840 maps by matching registration points. Detailed attribute data (location, size, production, wastes, risk factor, pollution category etc.) related to the industries were also collected. Attribute data related to each mouza or ward, as the case may be, related to population, agriculture and proportion of land under different land class (according to Census) were also recorded. However, discussion of such data is not within the scope of this paper. The entire database is drafted and maintained in a manner ready to be automated into a spatial database and analysed by GIS. Although maps of two different scales have been used, there will be no major problem in overlaying, as they have 50 common registration points (intersection of latitudes and longitudes). The overlay procedure of such maps through geo-referencing would be familiar to anyone accustomed to GIS environment. Accuracy would not be compromised in using maps of two different scales at the overlaying phase, since themes with ‘fuzzy’ boundaries (Burrough, 1986), such as physiography, soil, hydrology, are on maps of similar but smaller scale (1:50,000), while themes with discrete boundaries such as land-ownership, roads, landuse etc. are on maps of larger scale (i.e. 1:15,840). At present the maps are drafted on polyester films (mylar) so distortion due to temperature or humidity changes or warping would not affect them. Landuse Classification The landuse classes were selected according to the local characteristics, so as to include and distinguish the typical landuse types of the area. It was found that following general landuse classifications such as USGS Level - I & II scheme (Anderson et al. 1972, 1976), or that of other applications (Zobrist et al, 1976, Ioka and Koda, 1986) would not be suitable for this area. Even though the landuse pattern used in the District Census Handbook (Census of India 1991) was noted for each mouza it was not sufficient for the detailed study. Therefore a landuse classification scheme was devised which has 12 major classes and altogether 33 sub-classes. The classification is as follows: LANDUSE CLASSES: Residential Township / quarters Rt Urban Ru Sparse settlement (s) Very congested (dense) settlement (d) Hospital related (leprosy colony) Rh Rural Rr (with) Poultry Rp (with) ‘khatal’ (i.e. local diary) Rk Slum Rs Commercial – residential mixed M Cremation: Burning Ghat / Burial Ground Bg Commercial (pure) C Petrol pump Cpp Coal dumps / coal burning Cd Institutional L Educational Ie Medical (hospital / nursing homes with id-number) Im Administrative offices Ia Defence / armed forces Id Public service Is (e.g. PS, Municipality, PWD, PO, Telecom, Fire Brigade, Waterworks etc.) Recreational P Park, Playground, Open Stadium Po Cinema, Theatre, Clubs, Indoor Stadiums Pc Cultural, Religious, Fair grounds Pf Transport T Road, Railways Tr Garage, Terminus, Servicing Tt Air strips or aerodromes Ta Vacant O Wastelands, Wilderness, Barren land Ow Dumping ground Od Vacant (transitional phase) Ot Murrum quarrying (lateritic surface) Om(L) Water Body W (River, lake, pond, reservoir, canal, streams) Land prone to inundation (including land under cultivation) Wi Industrial F Operative (production unit) Fo Manufacturing closed Fc Factory (under construction) Fuc Agricultural A Cultivated all seasons Ap Only Kharif crop As Forest Area (vegetated area) V Dense Mixed Forest Vd Plantation (Social forestry) Vp Open Forest Vo Village groves of old trees and bamboo clumps Vg Treatment Plants Water Treatment Plant WTP Sewage Treatment Plants STP In the above table ‘Cd’ denotes unauthorised burning of raw coal, which is often acquired illegally. This activity is carried out near slums around the DSP and DPL plants. It emits a great deal of smoke and renders the area very unhealthy leading to respiratory problems. When the temperature is low the smoke does not easily disperse; this leads to poor visibility for traffic, particularly from dusk to dawn through the night. The cattle-sheds (private dairies) providing milk to local residents, known as ‘khatal’ (marked ‘Rk’) are also unhygienic and increase the incidence of many diseases. The slums (‘Rs’), some of which are related to industries, are spread over different parts of the city. Some of them have become authorised by the Municipality (e.g. Ganatantra Pally), whereas some are not. Some of these may cause problems in urban planning, so rehabilitation measures need to be taken at an early stage. Rural areas within the municipal limits are generally villages antedating the industries; these still have intrinsic rural characteristics in the dwelling types and public utilities. Surely they deserve better municipal service. Conclusions We, therefore, find that land information is very vital for urban planning, particularly where industrial development and environmental quality control must go hand in hand. When it comes to site selection for any activity that may generate pollution of significant amount, medium scale maps (such as that derived from topographical sheets of 1:50,000) are not adequate. On the other hand, conventional mouza maps (at 16” = 1mile, i.e. 1: 3960) are too detailed and more often than not the plot-wise data are not updated and therefore not relevant any more. Nevertheless detailed data have to be entered for urban planning, industrial siting, planning or relocation of residential areas and so on. Therefore, there is an urgent need to maintain planning size maps on which details of landuse data can be maintained, all roads can be located and mouza maps can fit in with reasonable accuracy. For this purpose maps of 1:10,000 or 1:15,000 may be suitable. Such a practice is carried out for urban planning in various developed countries and such maps are also easily available to the public. It would be easy to update such maps through GIS. Land Information System has been taken up in some developing countries, such as Malaysia, on a detailed plot-wise database which requires a very large institutional infrastructure to be effectively maintained for the entire country. Since the launching of Landsat-4 with the thematic mapper (TM) with 30 metre resolution in 1982, satellite imagery has been used for urban area mapping. After the advent of higher resolution imagery, the delineation of the internal structure of the urban areas and the functional zoning for management and planning have become possible. However, due to the high price and the large computer memory space required for the latest high-resolution imagery, visual interpretation of IRS data (with nearly 30m resolution) is still commonly preferred in India. The procedure followed in this study was to a large extent guided and dictated by the institutional facilities available and the financial constraints. I believe this is quite a common practice forced by the circumstances in our country. Use of images with higher resolution, digital image processing in image classification, overlaying of the classified image on existing base map by GIS method and further rectification after field survey within the GIS would have indeed improved the quality of the work. Nevertheless all care was taken to maintain the accuracy of data, and further analyses on site selection and environmental quality management can be undertaken with the detailed database so far created. References:
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