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GIS in community transition vis- a -vis physical transformation Bhopal


Seemi Ahmed
Research Scholar


Aruna Saxena
Lecturer

Deptt. of Architecture & Planning, M. A. C. T., Bhopal
arunasaxena2000@yahoo.com

Abstract
In present world scenario the focus is on ‘Sustainable Development’, which is promoting a widespread awareness of the need to preserve our resources and prepare management policies at a global level. Historic Urban centres are being recognised and accepted as a ‘cultural resource element of the inner city community environment’. Bhopal in the state of Madhya Pradesh, is one of the many cities in India, rich in cultural heritage. In the patronage of kings and rulers it has acquired a complex urban structure over the years. Even today this walled city is a core area for the Capital City of Bhopal. The central part or the core have gone through unusual changes in terms of social and physical transformations. The organic extension have just sprung up and they do not follow any definite pattern but they are again very intense and interestingly follow the same housing morphology of theWalled City.The integrated Innercity Community Resource Management process being outlined in this paper is a shift from the static theories evolving around the physical aspects of the city to a common ground where the ‘reality’ in the city is perceived as per the ‘user’. The focus on the ‘user’ pushes into prominence the various psychological issues related to the perception and cognition of the real world and its representation in a technological medium for analysis and display.The integrated process relies more on networks and interconnection between various entities and the interaction between them in the spatio-temporal environment.

This paper assesses the capability of GIS in being able to model the space-time continuum in cities and the multi-dimensional dynamic nature of the community environment, which becomes much more complex as the dimension of ‘historicity’ is added to it. The paper also lends a fresh insight into possible extensions in the existing GIS through coupling with other techniques that can make it a more useful tool for planners, conservationists and policy makers.

Introduction
Historic Cities are increasingly being seen as ‘cultural landscapes’ emerging out of the Human-Environment interaction, and not solely as collections of isolated physical entities. This brings into focus what the ‘practice theorists’ emphasise with regard to the human actions being understood through mediating social relations and cultural meanings. With the approach to understanding a city having moved from merely identifying the historic landmarks to finding meanings in spatial relations, the ‘process’ of reading the city would play a great role in shaping our experiences and determining what we see around us. This ‘process’ works at several levels of interaction from creation to perception, and necessitates the configuration of the underlying spatial and social networks.

Post post-modern thought concerns itself more with this ‘process’ rather than the end result. This has meant a marked shift from the ‘freezing approach’ - which manifested itself into an obsession with the past and preservation of the physical manifestation into the present - to a ‘management’ process. With the cultural imprints in a city also now being considered as ‘resources’, there is a need to manage these resources and prevent their depletion through time.

Urban areas are complex multi-dimensional systems evolving out of an interaction of multiple agents at several levels. At any given singular moment of time, several transformations may be occurring simultaneously, which every human being perceives differently and comprehends individually.These individual experiences result from the perceptual and cognitive processes in the human brain that also determine the meanings that we derive from our surroundings. These perceptual processes also determine the image that is created in the human brain of the environment around us, and is a selective process influenced by our cultural and social positions. This process of formation of mental images through individual experiences and recollections is always rooted in the spatio-temporal context and by forming connections between the past and the present it can help us in assigning values to the remains from the past and justifying the need for their continuation into the future.

Bhopal Functional and Physical Form Transformation
In the case of Bhopal, these resources exist in various forms ranging from concrete physical forms to the more abstract cultural values that people may associate with a place. The walled city of Bhopal was self contained unit governing a very small principality. The basic regional functions taking place in spaces were related to administration. This function of administration still continues but with a wide change of scale. Except for a few units not much industrial activity could settle in Bhopal. This was the first impact on physical form of disturbances. Special mention is being made in this period because in latter half of twentieth century.

The whole country physical configuration was undergone a rapid change of urbanisation and industrialisation. Almost overnight, the core area had to function as the center for a whole lot of new spatial developments, with the increase in population at a tremendous rate the walled city had to assume the function of a commercial center .

Land Use and Activities of Innercity Area
This Landuse variation shows the need to integrate the preservation process with the planning and development process. As the focus has shifted from the city to the user, the goals and targets in this process have changed. An integrated planning process needs to be defined which considers the reality as perceived by the user such that the ‘process’ is designed with the user’s expectations providing the ‘pointers’.

This interface of planning has to be flexible and transparent to accommodate the change in perceptions or values through time rather than setting out rigid parameters or design constraints, which predetermine the future behaviour and aspirations of the community. An understanding of the underlying spatial patterns and social systems is essential before any future interventions are carried out. This is important to avoid the dissonance that may occur in the resultant urban structure because of conflicting patterns superimposed over one another. A management plan for a city, especially for one that has strong links to the past, has to then necessarily start with understanding the transformations that have taken place in the city through time. Any planning has to evolve out of this spatio-temporal context of the city, which further emphasises the need for the integration of a research aspect to a statistical process such as urban planning.

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