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Urban GIS applications development - need of the hour




Guidelines for the large scale mapping & GIS projects -analysis of the various process
Sl.no.   High Resolution Satellite Images Aerial photos Ground Survey (Total 100%)
1. Preparatory work for Mapping Provision of Extents of the area for Satellite image to the agency (specifications – broad level needed) Provision of Extents of the area, to the agency, and finalisation of the frames required (area), (detailed specifications needed) Start from the scratch, extensive planning of the work, coordination with teams (whole to part method), need for proper base map
2. Procurement and clearance · Procurement from NRSA
no clearance required (restricted areas will be masked) ·
Flying / Photography from NRSA
· Defence clearance required
From any registered surveying agency (survey work)
3. Availability of data Available throughout the year Seasonal (Dec-April) Ground Survey work can be done any time (except summer season)
4. Approval of competent authority NIL Ministry of Defence Approval takes minimum 3-4 months NIL
5. Cost of data Quick bird – (35 $ per sqkm) Rs.1750/sqkm Photography, (flying) scanning, mosaicing – Rs. 6750 sq.km At the completion of the project – will get estimate.
6. Establishment of Ground Control points Less GCPs required, 1-5 Nos. for every 10 sq.km. (50 primary (principal) control points, tie points, well distributed for inter- visibility and for Ground Survey Comparatively more GCPs required (min 4 per bundle) Depends on the area covered. (more numbers even at every street/road)
7. Prepointing 5 to 10% of total control points, act as for prepointing Cost – 7000 Rs. Per Point ( Rs. 3,000 for monumentation and 4,000 Rs. For GPS observation)  
8. Rectification of Data Rectification of Satellite Images using GCPs, Rs. 1,750 / sq.km Part of Photogrammetry - Data capture process  
9. Data Capture For Feature extraction, Rs. 12,800 / sq.km For Photogrammetry / Data Capture Rs. 25,600 /sq.km  
10. Ground Survey / Field Verification · Ground Survey work is needed, for property & utility details. (Property boundaries, building details and other utility details·
The details other than in from base map are needed ·
Ground survey work is needed for property & utility details. ·
The details other than from the base map only needed
100% Ground Survey work, all the details – included details required for the base map apart from the property & utility details, property boundaries, building details & other utilities like drainage, electricity, water supply etc.
11. Total Cost / Sq.km for Ground Survey Work Rs. 23,300 for Data Cost & data extraction, part Ground Survey Work Costs– 20,000 to 30,000 per sq.km depends on the amount of details needed for the project Rs. 39,300 for data & data extraction, partground Survey works 20 to 30,000 per sq.km, depends on the amount of details needed for the project. Total cost is (min) Rs. 80,000 to Rs.1,00,000 / sq.km, it will vary for high medium and low densely built up areas.
12. Time Maximum 2 or 3 months for acquisition of data, data capture works and part Ground Survey Work, one or 2 months Maximum 2 or 3 months for acquisition of data (subjected to MOD Clearance ) and part Ground Survey works for one or 2 months Time required is minimum 3 to 5 months for one sq.km area, it will vary depends on the density of the area
13. Area Coverage More area covered in a single scene (16.5 x 16.5 km ) Less area covered per photo Less area covered (in order to maintain accuracy)
14. Contour intervals 3 m Contour 1 m Contour Flat Terrain – 0.2 to 0.5 m
Hilly Terrain – 1.0 to 2.0 m
15. Updation Repetitive coverage, available throughout the year Availability is based on request for flying (fresh data) Tedius to carry on updation, resurvey work and cost also increases by two fold.
16. GIS Database development · GIS ready format (Arc images coverages / shape files)·
No time required for GIS database development ·
Data cleaning is required·
Topology building is to be done·
Bringing it to GIS compabile format·
30% total project of time required for this work ·
Survey data has to be converted into drawings then clean up & topology, then GIS database to be developed·
50% of project time required for Database Development
17 Availability Control : Eror and verification · Not much , except the system generated·
Cross verification is easier with the satellite image ·
Error accumulated from the photogrammetryprocess and database.·
Cross verifications is possible with the help of photos ·
Susceptible to lot of errors ( human involvement)Ground Survey, conversion of survey data & database developement·
100% cross verification is tedious and not able to verify all the areas.


Three different sources of data, one is high resolution satellite images, second one is the Aerial photos and the third one is the data collected by means of Ground Survey. The various experiences in India and abroad, shows the combination of these data is the optimal solution. Each one of these three different sources of data has their own advantages. The widely used source of data nowadays, is the high resolution satellite images like IKONOS, Quickbird and India Remote Sensing (IRS) data. ISRO is launching specific satellites for the urban planning & development purposes like CARTOSAT, RESOURCE SAT, etc. So in the future, satellite data is the main source of data, because of competitive nature and number of private satellite like Quickbird & IKONOS come into picture, the cost and acquisition time also less compared to other sources of data like Aerial photos and Ground Survey methods.

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