This can be initiated say by posting of Development Plan, first at the draft stage and then after its sanction at a web site to facilitate wider dissemination of information and public participation. On-line availability of planning proposal details at survey number level would be a great service for all those concerned. Its scope could be extended to issue on-line zone confirmation certificate. Wandsworth Council in the United Kingdom offers such services under its Pathfinder Project, for instance. (Visit
www.wandswoth.gov.uk/pathfinder/ for details). To drive all these applications GIS processed database would be at the core. However, such graphics-heavy web-enabled GIS applications, generally suffer from slow retrieval rate. To devise suitable schemes in this regard is one challenging task and to incorporate local language query system module for those applications is another need.
Interfacing with Expert Systems:
Scrutiny of development proposals under the Development Control Regulations forms one more aspect of urban planning. Automation of this time consuming process is extremely desirable. This can be attempted by constructing a suitable Expert System i.e. a product of advanced researches in the computer field called Artificial Intelligence. Proposed Expert System will have GIS database engine storing spatial and attribute data and Inference Engine drawing upon the Development Control Regulations with suitable user-friendly front end tool to examine the proposal and produce remarks on the basis of logical interpretation of the rules and regulations. Promotion of such efforts needs be done on a priority basis.
Concluding Remarks
Urban planning and development is a continuous process and involves planners, administrators, developers, investors and of course, the residents. Their perceptions, expectations and actions sions, expectations and actions szation for complex analysis and rich envisioning capacity of GIS are found helpful to bring in transparency in planning desired by the above groups. It is therefore high time to consolidate on the reported gains of the GIS application in urban planning. In other words, the urban planning authorities and agencies in the country should adopt standard usage described in this paper at the earliest. Necessary support for acquiring hardware, software, database creation and manpower training to the State agencies and urban local bodies should therefore be provided. These bodies, for instance, should take advantage of the GIS infrastructure provision scheme formulated under the National Resources Information System (NRIS). Urban Reforms Incentive Fund (URIF) and City Challenge Fund (CCF) proposed by the Government of India with suitable guidelines can also help accelerating the use of GIS in urban planning.
On the other hand, moving further, interfacing of urban planning models with GIS should now receive due attention. Incorporation of land-use transportation models, water distribution network analysis, simulation of urban activities to evaluate different urban development alternatives in the GIS framework needs to be explored for added advantage. Evaluation of urban policy by model-based GIS approach provides a useful insight to guide the development process and this is another area of application [11]. Study of the relationship between sustainability and the compact city development in the new information economy age done by land-use pattern creation under GIS for 116 cities in Germany is another useful example [10]. Collaboration between public, private and academic and research institutions is expected to lead second generation of GIS application in the urban field. It is our belief that a systematic programme to involve the post-graduate students from relevant disciplines in the development of GIS database by the planning bodies would be greatly beneficial.