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Assessing Applicability of GIS as a Development Management Tool at Local Level: A Case Study of The City District Government, Lahore-Pakistan Development Plans and Development Control Preparations of Master/Structure plans require up-to-date maps/plans and all related attributes to perform various analyses afterward. Absence of proper mechanism for latest maps and traditional manual analytical approaches results in a long time period for the preparation of structure & allied plans. At the time of finalisation of plans, the ground reality changes altogether. Building Control is one of the main tools for the implementation of Master Plan. In some cases, even the location of site cannot be marked accurately on the plan due to small scale. Also administrative / building control boundaries may not be marked in detail accurately. Development may be defined as any material change on, under, over the land. Development may include completely new construction, demolition and reconstruction or addition & alteration. For better management, development may be thought of comprising
Lahore being the provincial capital and the second largest city of Pakistan is a role model for other small areas. Presently two main public authorities are controlling the planning & development functions in Lahore Metropolitan area excluding the Cantonment area. These are City District Government Lahore (CDGL) and Lahore Development Authority (LDA). City District Government Lahore controls the development within a number of housing schemes mostly developed in 1940s and 1950s. Most of the housing schemes are even difficult to properly locate mainly because of violations, encroachment and illegal developments. Sheikh Mubarak Ali housing scheme, located in city centre is selected as the focused study. This scheme was developed in 1940s. Street width was 15 ft while 2.5 ft wide area on both sides of streets was reserved for sewerage / drainage purpose, making the total width to 20 ft. Keeping in view the traffic and living style at that time, the streets were wide enough. Original maps and other information about ownership, approved building plans, etc. were collected from local building control authorities / departments. Field surveys were conducted to update the information about the current status of developments and all the violation made from the approved building permits / plans, and to update any consolidation or sub-division of land parcels. Local residents and officials were also interviewed using the questionnaire. Information System Development, Analysis and Information Extraction Designing of an information system is not resource highly intensive. Microsoft Access is used for database designing whereas AutoCAD, ARC/INFO and ArcView are used for GIS spatial database and spatial analysis.  Figure 1: ER Diagram In building control, GIS has widespread application. Master/Structure plan and other local plans provide the planning guidelines for the new development. Once these plans are prepared in proper GIS compatible format, proper identification of site and concerned planning parameters & building byelaws can be done within very short time. In building control, reference to old record is also made in certain cases. This proves a heading both for public as well as for government officials. Existing information are analysed to provide a basis for decision-making and new planning proposal. Once the record is prepared in GIS format as in case of Sheikh Mubarak Ali Scheme, the result can be retrieved in desired format quickly. If it is desired collect information specific to some time and certain other parameters, it can be done through simple query. For example, “list out the buildings along with their owner names and parcel ID where building plans were submitted after the year 1985 and later on were rejected” is explored by this simple query No. 1. Seven such buildings are identified in Figure 2.  Figure 2: Results of QueryNo.1 In the light of latest survey and original layout of scheme, encroachments are identified which shows that more than half of the houses have made some form of encroachments. These are identified by simply overlaying the present and original layout. Encroachments with exact location and dimensions are marked on map as shown in Figure 3.  Figure 3: Identification of Encroachments (highlighted parcel are encroaching the street portions) Urban renewal is useful method for up-gradation of depilated areas. Stress Analysis technique can be applied using spatial analysis capabilities of GIS for identification of highly and medium stress areas requiring immediate attention. Identification of dangerous buildings is an important part of this whole procedure, as these not only affect original owners but also neighbouring buildings. In case of Sheikh Mubark Ali Scheme, buildings, which are higher than single storeys and are in a bad or worst condition, are identified in Figure 4 below. Total number of such buildings is 15 which are 12% of total buildings in study area  Figure 4: Identification of Dangerous / Bad Condition Buildings Local authorities are responsible for providing all the facilities and services to their people. Basic facilities like primary school, dispensary etc. is to be provided at local level. A Service area of these facilities is calculated and deprived areas are identified. In case of primary school, standard service area is ¼ mile. Service area for a primary school is calculated as shown in Figure 5 below, which reveals that as far as the distance criteria is concerned, this school will not only serves all the houses of study area but also surrounding areas to some extend. Traditional techniques are based on circular radius / diameter where distance is the only possible criteria, whereas in network analysis actual road network is used and any criteria based on distance, time or safety factors may be used.  Figure 5: Calculation of a Primary School Catchments Area In traffic management, GIS has also very useful to provide the concerned information. Optimum route between two locations passing through certain points is identified which is very useful for route network planning and other emergency cases. Visitor not familiar with local areas can apply GIS to find nearest hotel, bank, bus stop, hospital etc. based on distance, time or any other criteria. The Ganga Ram hospital is the nearest hospital at a distance of 6400 feet from Sheikh Mubarak Ali Scheme. The complete optimum / shortest route (directions) with all its explanation has been calculated (Figure 6) and it may prove very helpful for visitors.  Figure 6: Optimal Route Calculation GIS provides excellent analytical tools, which are performed not only for problem solution but also for other management, development measures. Tracking analysis is done to track the movement of certain things like buses along a route with passage of time. GIS can be very helpful in all the departments like planning department, utility services department, land registration / administration department, forest department and other environmental departments in managing their day to day activates in a much better, rapid and convenient manner. Conclusion This paper is an effort to explore the usefulness of emerging technologies of GIS for the local urban authorities for day to day management of their necessary functions, keeping the basic stress on the development control activities from public monitoring point of view. Through the case study, paper has explained some of the ways to extract the information required for better performance and efficient service delivery. This is just a very short overview what can be done with this technology, otherwise there is no limit, as the continuous development in the software capabilities, hardware and professional manpower is on a very higher side. |