A system for land development approval management using geographic information systems : A case study of Thimbirigasyaya Ward, Colombo

Abstract

In a developing Country like Sri Lanka, it is very important to plan and manage its land development programmes to attract investments to develop land resources. In this context special emphasis should be given to urban areas.

The prevailing systems of issuing preliminary land development clearance by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) which is based on a manual filing system consumes significant time and is unable to provide alternative solutions to prospective developers. Most of the countries use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for similar land management work.

A study was carried out, selecting Thimbirigasyaya ward of Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) to develop a GIS based land data management system in order to carry out the management of the land clearances in an efficient manner.

Land parcel information obtained from CMC and UDA were scanned, spatial data were georeferenced and a mosaic was constructed. Input data were subjected to accuracy checks and were verified. Accuracies of data duplication, length, extent etc., were found satisfactory and adequate for UDA land clearance work. The database also incorporates the UDA conditions stipulated for location, zone and regulations enabling the checking of applications. The developed land information system was designed to include all functional aspects in the previous systems and additional capability to provide alternative solutions. The system developed using GIS was verified for computational accuracy using manual calculations. Adequacy checks were done with respect to the approved regulations.

The developed Land Management Information system reduces the application processing time from 40 days to 5 days enabling quick decision-making. Present day IT tools such as Geographic Information Systems enable easy management of land parcels and possesses capability to overlay and analyze special data with minimum time. The present study highlights the data and accuracy requirements of the methodology to develop spatial databases for land development management. It also provides alternative solutions and can be used for land management policy analysis