A3 Case Study – Preparation of Base Map for TUDA Region and Tirupati Town
Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA), Andhra Pradesh commissioned Environmental Planning Collaborative (EPC) to prepare the Master Plan for TUDA Region and Zonal Development Plan for Tirupati Town in August 2001. The first task was to prepare a Base Map for the entire planning area.
The entire planning area under the jurisdiction of TUDA has an area of 847.95 sq. km., half of which is covered by Reserved Forest. The TUDA area spans across the four mandals of Tirupati Urban, Tirupati Rural, Chandragiri and Renigunta. It includes well developed towns of Tirupati, Tirumala, Renigunta, Tiruchanur, Avilala and Chandragiri - and 85 rural settlements. There is no computerized Base Map for Tirupati Urban Development Authority area or the Tirupati Town area. The existing Base Maps have not been updated since a long time.
Because of the complexities of the issues involved and the availability of data, the Base Map preparation exercise for the entire planning area was divided into two parts.
- TUDA Region, comprising of 87 settlements and
- Tirupati Town, comprising of Tirupati Municipal Limits and Tirupati Non Municipal Area.
TUDA Region
TUDA Region comprises of 85 villages and 2 urbanized settlements and the Reserved Forest. Individual maps exist for villages. Each village map includes survey plot boundaries, survey numbers, roads and water bodies and drainage channels (major and minor). TUDA has manually traced and combined to form a seamless Base Map for TUDA Region by TUDA. However in the process a lot of detail was lost in terms of plot boundaries and survey numbers. Further the TUDA Region map was digitized and placed on the satellite images. It was found that the map was not geographically accurate. This is evident from the fact that when this map was digitized and the areas was calculated, it did not conform to published revenue area and various features such as roads, railways, water bodies, plot boundaries etc., did not match with those on the satellite image.
Further the map is outdated and does not reflect the recent developments that have occurred. Individual layouts for major developments are available with TUDA (as they have to be submitted for approval). Some of these layouts have been manually incorporated in the Base Maps for TUDA Region and hence the geographical/locational accuracy is questionable.
Tirupati Town
Tirupati Town comprises of Tirupati Municipal Limit and Tirupati Non Municipal Area (NMA). Tirupati Municipal Limit further comprises of 53 blocks and the Tirupati Village Revenue Area. Individual maps are available for 53 blocks. The block maps show revenue survey numbers, road plots and water body plots. The area within the blocks has Town Survey numbers and area within Tirupati Revenue Village and NMA has revenue survey numbers. There is no other source for the Tirupati Village Revenue area and NMA apart from the existing Town maps.
A seamless map for Tirupati Town has been prepared by combining Tirupati Municipal Corporation and M.R. Palle (NMA). There are two maps available for the Tirupati Town (at different scales) and both do not contain the same degree of information – in terms of roads, survey plots and survey numbers. Hence features from both maps were brought in. The two town maps were digitized and placed on the satellite images. It was found that both maps are not geographically accurate. This is evident from the fact that when these maps were digitized, and the areas were calculated from these maps they do not conform to published revenue areas and various features such as roads, railways, water bodies, plot boundaries etc. do not match with the satellite image.
Further both the maps are quite outdated and do not reflect the recent developments that have occurred. Individual layouts for major developments are available with TUDA (as they have to be submitted for approval). Some of these layouts have been manually incorporated in the Base Maps for Tirupati Town, but again geographical/locational accuracy is questionable.