Application of gis in urban planning

Application of gis in urban planning

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  APPLICATION OF GISIN URBAN PLANNING BY MELI WESLEY KIPTOO
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  INTRODUCTION GIS technology isvery crucial in analyzing urban growth and its direction of expansion, and to find suitable sites for further urban development. In order to identify the sites suitable for the urban growth, certain factors have to be considered which are accessibility of land, topography of the land, utility of the land and supply of water. GIS is very significant in assessment of these factors and has been used not only in urban planning but across a variety of professions. Below are applications of GIS in urban planning.
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  Resource Inventory Geographical information,when integrated with remote sensing, can save time in collecting land use and environmental information. Remote sensing images are becoming an important source of spatial information for urban areas. They can help to detect land use and land use changes for whole urban areas. In particular, stereoscopic pairs of digital aerial photographs can be used to derive 3-dimensional CAD models of buildings of dynamic visualization of a city, or for direct import into a GIS database.
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  Analysis of ExistingSituations GIS can help to store, manipulate, and to analyze physical, social and economic data of a city. Planners can then use the spatial query and mapping functions of GIS to analyze the existing situations in the city. Through map overlay analysis, GIS can help to identify areas of conflict of land development with the environment by overlaying existing land development on land suitability maps. Areas of environmental sensitivity can be identified using remote sensing and other environmental information. This data and analysis can be then used to make important decisions that affects the current and future planning of an urban area.
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  Modeling and Projection Akey function of planning is the projection of future population and economic growth. GIS can be used for prediction and projection. Spatial modeling of spatial distributions makes it possible to estimate the widest range of impacts for existing trends of population, and of economic and environmental change. For example, a range of environmental scenarios can be investigated through the projection of future demand of land resources from a population and economic activities, modeling of spatial distribution of such demand, and using GIS map overlay analysis to identify areas of conflict. Using socioeconomic and environmental data stored in GIS, environmental planning models have been developed to identify areas of environmental concern and development conflict.
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  Development of PlanningOptions Land suitability maps are very useful in the development of planning options. They can be used to identify the solution for space for future development. The association of spatial optimization models with GIS together can help to formulate and develop planning options which try to maximize or minimize some objective functions. The stimulation of different scenarios of development with GIS can help in developing planning options.
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  Selection of PlanningOptions The selection of a planning option is increasingly a political process, but planners can provide technical support in terms of input to the process in order to help the community in making their collective choices. The integration of spatial and non- spatial models with GIS can help to evaluate different planning scenarios. The use of GIS with multi-criteria decision analysis can provide the technical inputs in the selection of planning options. The data provided by GIS and the subsequent analysis done can be used to inform the decisions of the political class to ensure that the planning is designed and implemented in the right way at the very first instance.
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  Plan Implementation GIS canbe used in the implementation of urban plans by carrying out environmental impact assessment of proposed projects to evaluate and minimize the impact of development on the environment. Following such work, remedial measures can be recommended to alleviate the impacts. Environmental impact assessment are usually a detailed process that requires that requires accurate estimations of data and impact analysis. GIS will come in handy in ensuring the same is achieved.
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  Conclusion In summary, GISis therefore crucial in sustenance and development of urban areas which promote industrial as well as economic growth. The recent integration of GIS and remote sensing an idea which is growing rapidly has allowed rapid update of GIS data layers, integration of field survey data, rapid assessment of land-use and land cover change, and community growth all of which has lead to better assessment of the urban infrastructure and better data for urban planning purposes.
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  References  Lillesand, ThomasM., 1994. Remote sensing and image interpretation.  Aronoff, Stanley, 2005. Remote sensing for GIS managers.  Bernhardsen, Tor, 2002. Geographic information systems: an introduction.  1993. Geographic information systems: principles and applications.  Chang, Kang-Tsung, 2008. Introduction to geographic information systems.  Demers, Michael N., 2009.Fundamentals of geographic information systems.