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Municipal GIS for Resource Mapping and Planning: A case study from Byass municipal area, Nepal
Kabindra Joshi
Institute of Engineering, Nepal
Abstract
During the past ten years, Nepal has witnessed a rapid migration of people to urban areas from rural areas for the better living standards and resource utilization. The influx of people has compounded urban management and planning challenges. This has been particular problematic in areas that have attend urban status since the passage of the Local Self Governance act of 1996 by His Majesty’s Government of Nepal. That act places the burden of urban planning on a municipality’s governing bodies, but many newly created and designated urban areas, lack of appropriate tools to handle the existing information for a complex planning process.
To address the problem, I undertook a test project under the assistance and technical guidance of the Rural-Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP) a joint venture of HMG/N and the United Nations Development Programme to create a digital database and resource map for the Byass Municipality, which has a population of about 29,000 and is approximately 150 Km away from Kathmandu. This took place in between 20th September 1999 till 15th January 2002. The goal was to create an integrated information resource using GIS and GPS that would provide the municipality with the necessary tools to develop a comprehensive and appropriate framework to guide the planning and development of the city.
Building a GIS data for the municipality however was not a small feat, considering the municipal government itself did not have the proper maps to handle the various activities like land management, infrastructure, land use planning, river network e.t.c. I thus first gathered data and information from past and current research studies from the relevant organizations, including the city government, RUPP and the affiliated Projects.
To build the base map for the GIS I relied on a four topographic hardcopy maps of the area provided by RUPP. Those 1:25,000 scale maps also identified only six different land cover/landuse types in the region. The maps were scanned and then digitized manually for different theme like municipal and ward boundaries, landuse zoning, road and river networks, electricity utility line, industry and factory location, and social services buildings (educational facilities, public institutions, health services, and so forth). I converted all the resulting CAD layers to DXF files and then subsequently imported those into shapefiles in ArcView.
Because much of the resulting spatial information in the GIS was incomplete and five years out of date, my next task involved several site visits within the municipality with a GPS receiver. During these visits, I used GPS to verify the ward and municipal boundaries and to collect the building footprint positions for all social services buildings throughout the city. In this process, I mapped several new buildings not present in the 1996 topographic map and also obtained position information and for other facilities such as bus stops, landmarks, shops, hotel and temples.
With the spatial data in place, I then built a database of nonspatial (attribute data). The database included ward population counts and number of households data obtained from the municipality as well as data about demography, heritage, and trade amassed from various research studies and published documents pertaining to the region. I tabulated all the attribute data using a spreadsheet program, and saved the files in dbf format so that the data could be easily accepted and displayed by the GIS Softwares.
At the end GIS proved to be invaluable tool for handling the municipality digital base map and database, all in less than three months time. Government officials and staff need to be trained to use the GIS and interpret the maps, but the system provides a much-needed tool for assisting with the planning and urban management operations. Fortunately, overcoming the technology gap should progress quickly. The response to the GIS has been so positive that RUPP applied the resource mapping and conducting training in next eleven different municipalities where its support organizations are established. I am handling all the next various projects for preparing the database and conducting a week training programme in the respective Municipalities.
The municipalities planning section are happy to have a digital database and they are realizing the use and need of GIS in the concerned field.
1. Introduction
The present paper is based on the project “Municipal Level GIS for Resource Mapping and Planning using GIS and GPS” This project was carried out with the assistance as well as technical guidance from Rural-Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP/UNDP). Main objective of the assignment was to prepare a GIS based Digital Database and Preparation of a Resource Maps as a planning and resource management tool in accordance with the provisions made in the Local Self Governance Act and Regulations.
The other objective of the resource mapping is to strengthen planning capability of local authorities that may be municipal or ward in maintaining and proper utilization of resources available.
The resource map as prepared will help the people to consolidate future plans in those areas where resources are lacking as well as in deciding the location planning activities.
2 Introduction of the Study Area
Byass is one of the municipalities of Tanahun District in Nepal.
Byass Municipality is located between 27° 57’ 4” to 28° 02’31” North latitude and 84° 13’ 05” to 84° 20’10” East longitude and lies (give here direction ) about 150 kilometers away from KathmanduThe Municipality comprises of eleven different administrative wards and 110 Toles (Tole/Lane Organizations) with an area of 60.519 Sq.Km. The elevation ranges from 320 to 1080m from msl.
The surrounding VDCs of the Municipality are Kyamin, Tanahunsur, Ghansikuwa, Pokharibhanjyang, Kahunshivapur, Jamune Manpang and Syamgha.
3D generated from 20 meters contour Intervals
Tole Lane Organization Map (110 Tole boundaries demarcated)
3. Methodology of Database
4. Demography
According to the 2058 census, the total population of Byass municipality is 28,443. In which the number of male population (13,546) is slightly smaller than the number of female population (14,897). With a total of 5,039 households and 6,603 family numbers, the population density of the municipality is 400 per km2.
5. Physical infrastructure
Physical infrastructure plays an important role in planned urban development. It is a visual indicator to measure a city's amenities. It covers mainly road, water supply, electricity and telecommunication networks. A short description of major infrastructure network has been given below:
5.1 Road network:
The road networks are largely developed in the municipality area and most of the roads are worthy for vehicular traffic even though they are earthen. The Prithvi Rajmarg passes through the municipality acting as a ward boundary separating wards 2, 10 and 11. The road networks in ward no. 2 and 10 are well managed in grid street pattern totaling in length to only about 4 kms from the high way.
5.2 Electricity network:
Most part of the municipality does have access to electricity network. In addition, 132 KVA and 32 KVA transmission lines also pass through the municipality.
5.3 Telephone network:
The telephone facility is available in core town area as well as other parts of the municipality.
5.4 Waste Management
Apart from above-mentioned infrastructure, a municipality initiated waste management system does not seem to be in place. Nevertheless, the town looks by and large tidy as communities themselves engage in waste disposal initiatives.
5.5 Education
There are 28 educational institutions within the municipality. 25 of them are schools and 3 of them are colleges. Among the colleges, Aadikabi BhanuBhakta College is a multiple campus and was financed in part by the Lions Club. Each of the wards does at least have 2 schools. There are 5 schools in ward no. 1. As for the access to basic educational facilities, no ward is left behind.
5.6 Health:
As regards to the provision of health services, this municipality does not have a hospital or private nursing home. Besides, there are only four health posts in ward 5, 9 and 10, and no sub-health posts. This point towards severe lack of health facilities. In case of emergency, local residents have to rush either to Kathmandu or Pokhara. Establishment of district level hospital and more health centers in the wards is the urgent need of Byass municipality.
5.7 Public Institutions:
There are a number of Banks, Post offices, ward offices, Governmental and semi-governmental organizations etc in Byass municipality. There are more than 40 public institutions within the core town area. Besides ward offices, most of the Public institutions are located in ward no l, 2 and 10.
5.8 Sites of cultural importance:
Byass Gufa is one of the oldest heritage sites located within Byass municipality. Byass Gufa and Parasar Ashram are situated in close proximity with each other. The backdrop of Madi Nadi and Seti River adds more aesthetic value to sites of cultural and religious importance. The number of temples within the municipality is few and the most important one is Bhagwati temple which is located in ward no. 10 - on the way of Prithvi Rajmarg.
5.9 Factory/Industries:
At present Byass municipality has only one relatively big industry which is Manakamana Tanning Industry. The other industry of modest size is Shree Ram Brick Factory.
5.10 Public services:
In comparison with other social infrastructure, less number of public services are available within the municipal area. These services include Bank, Post office, ward office etc.
5.11 Market Centers:
There are no big market centers in Byass. But core municipal area does have fruits and vegetable market area located in Tarkari Chowk , Ghumti Chowk and Shrijana Chowk.
Rural Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP) which is a UNDP supported programme with its activities in the area of urban governance and poverty alleviation, has extended support for the construction sheds in Budhabare Hat Bazar of Byass municipality where every Wednesday people from rural and urban areas come to sell and purchase agricultural as well as other products.
6. Land use according to 1996 Topographic map
For the preparation of land use cover of Byass Municipality, the Topographic map of 1996 was used as the base map. In total six different land cover types have been identified.
The land use map illustrates the land use pattern of Byass municipal area for 1996. The map shows that the dominant land-use class in this area is different types of agricultural land sharing major percentage of municipal land use pattern. This shows the significance of agriculture as main source of livelihood even in the area. Forest is the second predominant element of land use of Byass municipality. Major forestland seen consists of natural vegetation, dense and scattered forest areas.
7. Service Centre
The primary survey of service centre was undertaken and as a result of the survey the study catalogued more than 110 services centers of six different types.
8. Rationale for using GIS in Municipal Planning
One of the major challenges in municipal level planning is balancing the spatial equity of facility or service provision with that of economic viability. Naturally, most residents would prefer high level of access to service facilities such as schools, health services, banks and other services. Planners need to consider whether or not it is feasible to provide such facilities given the available resources. Hence important decisions have to be made on what are the best locations for facilities given variations of local need or demand. More than 80% of municipal information contains some sort of spatial component. Spatial interaction modeling provides a comprehensive and appropriate framework for comparative analysis of new service centers and a means for assessing their impact on the surrounding areas. Similarly, providing adequate transport facility, developing a new residential land use and other physical infrastructure must be balanced against the environmental impacts. GIS plays important role to support such decisions which can be of a great value in municipal planning process.
There is an increasing demand for better information within the municipality and in the relevant organizations to guide more rational planning process. GIS technology is seen as integrating tool for divergent sources of data and information and the obvious way to achieve these objectives is through the use of GIS technology. To do so, municipal authorities have to improve the data handling capabilities, set-up appropriate technical infrastructure and interface with a wide variety of other agencies, such as government departments, local authorities, NGO’s and many others. The proliferation of GIS have offered new era for spatial modeling in municipal level planning and encourages interactions and co-operations among line agencies.
Municipal Level GIS Database Structure
Conclusion
The GIS database/map was prepared in a time period of Four months. The findings of the project have been comprehensively compiled in the form of GIS maps and report The study attempted to build a comprehensive GIS database of Byass Municipality, the lack of which has so far constrained the planning process for the development of the municipality. It is hoped that this project will bring awareness among all on the importance of GIS database and maps. The maps presented in the report would be used for achievement of different objectives through the use of GIS. The study is expected to be highly useful to different stakeholders involved in the developmental activities of the Municipality.
The GIS database and maps would be useful to many sectors including the local government and NGOs, educational institutions etc.
Deliverables
The following deliverables were provided at the completion of the project.
Kabindra Joshi
Institute of Engineering, Nepal
Abstract
During the past ten years, Nepal has witnessed a rapid migration of people to urban areas from rural areas for the better living standards and resource utilization. The influx of people has compounded urban management and planning challenges. This has been particular problematic in areas that have attend urban status since the passage of the Local Self Governance act of 1996 by His Majesty’s Government of Nepal. That act places the burden of urban planning on a municipality’s governing bodies, but many newly created and designated urban areas, lack of appropriate tools to handle the existing information for a complex planning process.
To address the problem, I undertook a test project under the assistance and technical guidance of the Rural-Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP) a joint venture of HMG/N and the United Nations Development Programme to create a digital database and resource map for the Byass Municipality, which has a population of about 29,000 and is approximately 150 Km away from Kathmandu. This took place in between 20th September 1999 till 15th January 2002. The goal was to create an integrated information resource using GIS and GPS that would provide the municipality with the necessary tools to develop a comprehensive and appropriate framework to guide the planning and development of the city.
Building a GIS data for the municipality however was not a small feat, considering the municipal government itself did not have the proper maps to handle the various activities like land management, infrastructure, land use planning, river network e.t.c. I thus first gathered data and information from past and current research studies from the relevant organizations, including the city government, RUPP and the affiliated Projects.
To build the base map for the GIS I relied on a four topographic hardcopy maps of the area provided by RUPP. Those 1:25,000 scale maps also identified only six different land cover/landuse types in the region. The maps were scanned and then digitized manually for different theme like municipal and ward boundaries, landuse zoning, road and river networks, electricity utility line, industry and factory location, and social services buildings (educational facilities, public institutions, health services, and so forth). I converted all the resulting CAD layers to DXF files and then subsequently imported those into shapefiles in ArcView.
Because much of the resulting spatial information in the GIS was incomplete and five years out of date, my next task involved several site visits within the municipality with a GPS receiver. During these visits, I used GPS to verify the ward and municipal boundaries and to collect the building footprint positions for all social services buildings throughout the city. In this process, I mapped several new buildings not present in the 1996 topographic map and also obtained position information and for other facilities such as bus stops, landmarks, shops, hotel and temples.
With the spatial data in place, I then built a database of nonspatial (attribute data). The database included ward population counts and number of households data obtained from the municipality as well as data about demography, heritage, and trade amassed from various research studies and published documents pertaining to the region. I tabulated all the attribute data using a spreadsheet program, and saved the files in dbf format so that the data could be easily accepted and displayed by the GIS Softwares.
At the end GIS proved to be invaluable tool for handling the municipality digital base map and database, all in less than three months time. Government officials and staff need to be trained to use the GIS and interpret the maps, but the system provides a much-needed tool for assisting with the planning and urban management operations. Fortunately, overcoming the technology gap should progress quickly. The response to the GIS has been so positive that RUPP applied the resource mapping and conducting training in next eleven different municipalities where its support organizations are established. I am handling all the next various projects for preparing the database and conducting a week training programme in the respective Municipalities.
The municipalities planning section are happy to have a digital database and they are realizing the use and need of GIS in the concerned field.
1. Introduction
The present paper is based on the project “Municipal Level GIS for Resource Mapping and Planning using GIS and GPS” This project was carried out with the assistance as well as technical guidance from Rural-Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP/UNDP). Main objective of the assignment was to prepare a GIS based Digital Database and Preparation of a Resource Maps as a planning and resource management tool in accordance with the provisions made in the Local Self Governance Act and Regulations.
The other objective of the resource mapping is to strengthen planning capability of local authorities that may be municipal or ward in maintaining and proper utilization of resources available.
The resource map as prepared will help the people to consolidate future plans in those areas where resources are lacking as well as in deciding the location planning activities.
2 Introduction of the Study Area
Byass is one of the municipalities of Tanahun District in Nepal.
Byass Municipality is located between 27° 57’ 4” to 28° 02’31” North latitude and 84° 13’ 05” to 84° 20’10” East longitude and lies (give here direction ) about 150 kilometers away from KathmanduThe Municipality comprises of eleven different administrative wards and 110 Toles (Tole/Lane Organizations) with an area of 60.519 Sq.Km. The elevation ranges from 320 to 1080m from msl.
The surrounding VDCs of the Municipality are Kyamin, Tanahunsur, Ghansikuwa, Pokharibhanjyang, Kahunshivapur, Jamune Manpang and Syamgha.
3D generated from 20 meters contour Intervals
Tole Lane Organization Map (110 Tole boundaries demarcated)
3. Methodology of Database
4. Demography
According to the 2058 census, the total population of Byass municipality is 28,443. In which the number of male population (13,546) is slightly smaller than the number of female population (14,897). With a total of 5,039 households and 6,603 family numbers, the population density of the municipality is 400 per km2.
5. Physical infrastructure
Physical infrastructure plays an important role in planned urban development. It is a visual indicator to measure a city's amenities. It covers mainly road, water supply, electricity and telecommunication networks. A short description of major infrastructure network has been given below:
5.1 Road network:
The road networks are largely developed in the municipality area and most of the roads are worthy for vehicular traffic even though they are earthen. The Prithvi Rajmarg passes through the municipality acting as a ward boundary separating wards 2, 10 and 11. The road networks in ward no. 2 and 10 are well managed in grid street pattern totaling in length to only about 4 kms from the high way.
5.2 Electricity network:
Most part of the municipality does have access to electricity network. In addition, 132 KVA and 32 KVA transmission lines also pass through the municipality.
5.3 Telephone network:
The telephone facility is available in core town area as well as other parts of the municipality.
5.4 Waste Management
Apart from above-mentioned infrastructure, a municipality initiated waste management system does not seem to be in place. Nevertheless, the town looks by and large tidy as communities themselves engage in waste disposal initiatives.
5.5 Education
There are 28 educational institutions within the municipality. 25 of them are schools and 3 of them are colleges. Among the colleges, Aadikabi BhanuBhakta College is a multiple campus and was financed in part by the Lions Club. Each of the wards does at least have 2 schools. There are 5 schools in ward no. 1. As for the access to basic educational facilities, no ward is left behind.
5.6 Health:
As regards to the provision of health services, this municipality does not have a hospital or private nursing home. Besides, there are only four health posts in ward 5, 9 and 10, and no sub-health posts. This point towards severe lack of health facilities. In case of emergency, local residents have to rush either to Kathmandu or Pokhara. Establishment of district level hospital and more health centers in the wards is the urgent need of Byass municipality.
5.7 Public Institutions:
There are a number of Banks, Post offices, ward offices, Governmental and semi-governmental organizations etc in Byass municipality. There are more than 40 public institutions within the core town area. Besides ward offices, most of the Public institutions are located in ward no l, 2 and 10.
5.8 Sites of cultural importance:
Byass Gufa is one of the oldest heritage sites located within Byass municipality. Byass Gufa and Parasar Ashram are situated in close proximity with each other. The backdrop of Madi Nadi and Seti River adds more aesthetic value to sites of cultural and religious importance. The number of temples within the municipality is few and the most important one is Bhagwati temple which is located in ward no. 10 - on the way of Prithvi Rajmarg.
5.9 Factory/Industries:
At present Byass municipality has only one relatively big industry which is Manakamana Tanning Industry. The other industry of modest size is Shree Ram Brick Factory.
5.10 Public services:
In comparison with other social infrastructure, less number of public services are available within the municipal area. These services include Bank, Post office, ward office etc.
5.11 Market Centers:
There are no big market centers in Byass. But core municipal area does have fruits and vegetable market area located in Tarkari Chowk , Ghumti Chowk and Shrijana Chowk.
Rural Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP) which is a UNDP supported programme with its activities in the area of urban governance and poverty alleviation, has extended support for the construction sheds in Budhabare Hat Bazar of Byass municipality where every Wednesday people from rural and urban areas come to sell and purchase agricultural as well as other products.
6. Land use according to 1996 Topographic map
For the preparation of land use cover of Byass Municipality, the Topographic map of 1996 was used as the base map. In total six different land cover types have been identified.
The land use map illustrates the land use pattern of Byass municipal area for 1996. The map shows that the dominant land-use class in this area is different types of agricultural land sharing major percentage of municipal land use pattern. This shows the significance of agriculture as main source of livelihood even in the area. Forest is the second predominant element of land use of Byass municipality. Major forestland seen consists of natural vegetation, dense and scattered forest areas.
7. Service Centre
The primary survey of service centre was undertaken and as a result of the survey the study catalogued more than 110 services centers of six different types.
8. Rationale for using GIS in Municipal Planning
One of the major challenges in municipal level planning is balancing the spatial equity of facility or service provision with that of economic viability. Naturally, most residents would prefer high level of access to service facilities such as schools, health services, banks and other services. Planners need to consider whether or not it is feasible to provide such facilities given the available resources. Hence important decisions have to be made on what are the best locations for facilities given variations of local need or demand. More than 80% of municipal information contains some sort of spatial component. Spatial interaction modeling provides a comprehensive and appropriate framework for comparative analysis of new service centers and a means for assessing their impact on the surrounding areas. Similarly, providing adequate transport facility, developing a new residential land use and other physical infrastructure must be balanced against the environmental impacts. GIS plays important role to support such decisions which can be of a great value in municipal planning process.
There is an increasing demand for better information within the municipality and in the relevant organizations to guide more rational planning process. GIS technology is seen as integrating tool for divergent sources of data and information and the obvious way to achieve these objectives is through the use of GIS technology. To do so, municipal authorities have to improve the data handling capabilities, set-up appropriate technical infrastructure and interface with a wide variety of other agencies, such as government departments, local authorities, NGO’s and many others. The proliferation of GIS have offered new era for spatial modeling in municipal level planning and encourages interactions and co-operations among line agencies.
Municipal Level GIS Database Structure
Conclusion
The GIS database/map was prepared in a time period of Four months. The findings of the project have been comprehensively compiled in the form of GIS maps and report The study attempted to build a comprehensive GIS database of Byass Municipality, the lack of which has so far constrained the planning process for the development of the municipality. It is hoped that this project will bring awareness among all on the importance of GIS database and maps. The maps presented in the report would be used for achievement of different objectives through the use of GIS. The study is expected to be highly useful to different stakeholders involved in the developmental activities of the Municipality.
The GIS database and maps would be useful to many sectors including the local government and NGOs, educational institutions etc.
Deliverables
The following deliverables were provided at the completion of the project.
- Resource map of the municipality as per the requirement
- Digital copy of completed coverage installed in the municipality computer in Urban Information Centre.