Easy Access Coastal Information System Easy Access Coastal Information System for Thiruvananthapuram coast Thiruvanathapuram Corporation, Varkala and Attingal Municipalities and 21 other panchayats in Thiruvanathapuram district have CRZ. Out of these 12 are along the seacoast and 9 are on the banks of rivers/backwaters. It consists of CRZ I, CRZ II and CRZ III categories. The information system shown in Fig. 2 shows the easy interface for the user to browse CRZ of all these local bodies. Each coastal panchayat can be identified and the HTL, LTL, CRZ boundaries and categories and No Development Zones (NDZ) can be displayed including quantified information. User can insert his development site into its location in the CRZ map and assess the CRZ status to determine the feasibility of development. Any officer can verify the CRZ status of a proposed development and give clearance. It now takes months to determine the CRZ status of a development proposal. The decision taking process would reduce to a few days with an access to the Easy Access CIS developed. Detailed local level CRZ maps in cadastral scale, whichever available, are inserted (Fig. 3) and can be accessed by local level officers for an accurate interpretation of regulations. More such cadastral CRZ maps can be inserted whenever these are prepared. Query facilities embedded with the CIS are HTL, LTL, CRZ categories, No Development Zones, 500m & 200m regulation lines, prohibited and permissible activities, roads, rails, etc.  Fig. 2. Local bodies with CRZ in Thiruvanathapuram District EACIS also contains pages that describe what the site is about, contact information, a disclaimer about use of the site and the data held within it, guidelines about data sets used and where they may be purchased and downloaded, a help page describing how to use the application, and a page with links to information about coastal management, mapping and GIS.  Fig. 3 Cadastral scale CRZ map of Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram Conclusion Using ArcIMS tools an effective decision support system has been developed and web enabled. E-governance is expected to be in all the government establishments in Kerala even to the panchayat level. The availability of Easy Access Coastal Information System for the CRZ of Kerala could extend the decision taking process with respect to CRZ to panchayat level and thus make it faster and more reliable. The coastal tourism industry, for which it takes about one year even to make plan proposals in confirmation with CRZ, will be much benefited by this. NGOs and the general public would be able to identify CRZ violations in coastal area and thus be a check to illegal constructions, which may upset the sensitive coastal ecosystems. This will also be useful to planners and administrators at different levels like panchayat, block, district and the state. Acknowledgement Authors wish to thank the Director, CESS, Thiruvananthapuram and Head, Marine Sciences Division, for providing necessary facilities to carry out this work. Thanks are due to Dr. M. Samsuddin, Mr. V.N. Neelakandan and Dr. Terry Machado, Scientists, CESS, for providing digital CRZ maps. Thanks are also due to Miss. Sharika Mathew, Miss Nandini.K.B and Miss P.M. Anita, Research Fellows and other colleagues for the support. References
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