APPLICATIONS OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS

IN LAND USE MAPPING

Muhammad Adeel
Geographic Information System is a most important tool in many kinds of development planning for two
principal reasons. First it is oriented to the spatial component of development. This comprises the use of the
land for human settlements, the use of land resources as in agriculture and forestry, and the management
and protection of the natural environment. Second, GIS is oriented not solely to the purely geographic
aspects of planning, but to its informational contents. As a tool, GIS cannot itself can do planning or solve
problems in development. it can also provide maor help in identifying trouble spots and in suggesting
possible actions. !and use mapping has been a lengthy and cumbersome procedure which needs to be
updated. The use of GIS and "emote Sensing can be helpful for time saving and efficient land use
mapping. It also adds the advantages of computer use to this process.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
!and use maps prepared by traditional approach of manual surveying have certain
limitations when we calculate their feasibility as compared to the technical and advanced
resources. These resources are available to us in the form of satellites and aero planes
which are capable of taking photographs at all scales.
#aper oriented maps are prepared by traditional methods of mapping. They have the
following common limitations.
!and use map of an average si$e city re%uires time in months for manual surveys.
It re%uires skilled surveyors and surveying instruments.
"evision of a land use map also re%uires much time considerable costs because of
manual physical surveys and data collection so such decisions are taken now and
then because of the e&isting manual practices for land use mapping. Absence of
up to date data results in poor planning practices in the cities and towns. For
e&ample, in our aces study area of !ahore development Authority the !and 'se
map was prepared at a scale of ()(**** in (++,-+. by Survey of #akistan. The
character of the case study area has been changed by that time from rural
hinterland to an almost fully urbani$ed land with some cultivation. /ut there is a
serious lack of land use map revison after (* years of map preparation of first
land use map. It has resulted in inability of !0A to e&ercise proper and efficient
land use and development control practices in the area.
Some of survey areas might be inaccessible because of topography, natural
ha$ards and other constraints. In this case traditional methods of land use
mapping are very difficult to practice.
Final output as land use map has certain %uestions on accuracy because of
personal bias and instrumental errors.
1n the other hand, land use is a continuous and ever changing process. In this case
changes remain un detective until the continuous revision of map. 2ver-growing
population of results in comple& land use activities. These activities need to be monitored
continuously for effective planning practice in an area.
3ontinuous monitoring of land uses from space or air 4known as "emote Sensing5 has
provided town planning an effective way to prepare land use maps and detect changes
fre%uently. The land cover picture is taken from space. "emotely sensed data can be
converted into land map using systematic process in a shorter time as compared to the
time consumed in manual land surveys. 'se of "emotely sensed images and GIS has
proved to be very effective techni%ue for land use mapping when time constraints of time
level of accuracy, data coordination 6 dissemination are taken into considerations.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
To assess the potentials of "emote Sensing and GIS for land use mapping.
To Identify and delineate different land use7land cover categories using high-
resolution remote sensing data
To prepare land use map of case study area and determine its accuracy in terms of
confidence level
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The proect shows the process of converting a satellite image into a land use map with a
practical e&ample of !ahore "aiwind "oad area satellite imagery. In long run this
techni%ue is more economical, time saving and efficient for data coordination. 8igh-
resolution images provide accurate information about dimensions of physical features.
This is called land cover information. /ut Ground surveys are also re%uired for attaining
greater accuracy in deciding the land use. 1ther kinds of remotely sensed data like aerial
photo can also be used for making land use map but its use and application is not
discussed in details
The output of work comes in the form of maps of land cover with a given level of
confidence about the results. They are not cent percent accurate because of lesser field
verifications but still they have a number of advantages over the manual land use
mapping.
#ractical Implementation in Town #lanning
The research focuses at planning and development aspects of land. The idea is completely
applicable in conte&t of #akistan9s :ational, #rovincial, !ocal Government and
0evelopment Authorities.
The use of GIS has been appreciated by 3apital 0evelopment Authority 430A5 and
"awalpindi 0evelopment Authority 4"0A5. "0A has initiated using GIS for land use
mapping of its area of urisdiction. :ow days they are working to build land use
ownership database.
:ational 2ngineering Services of #akistan 4:2S#A;5 is one of the leading engineering
consultants of #akistan. It has worked recently for !ahore 0evelopment Authority 4!0A5
for calculation of areas under different housing schemes in !ahore using remote sensing
and GIS. :2S#A; has used GIS in many other proects like /hasha 0am #roect. Such
kind of research is re%uired so as to use and analy$e the available modern techni%ues in
town planning profession.
SHORT METHODOLOGY
The research was conducted in the following broad steps.
Step () /ackground studies and concept building about the problem and GIS potentials
Step ,) Selection of The 3ase Study Area on the basis of satellite data availability
Step .) !and use7 land cover mapping from satellite image using Arc<iew .., GIS.
Step =) 2&ecution of ground surveys for determining accuracy level of the prepared land
use map.
TIME FRAME FOR THE PROJECT ACTIVITIES
The proect followed stepwise procedure form problem identification to the final out put.
Assigning a specific time to each activity was very useful in this research. The time frame
for proect activities helped us to assess our speed of work according to the available
time. The time frame of the proect activities is given in the form of table below.
Table Time Frame For The Proe!" A!"i#i"ie$
PROJECT ACTIVITY DURATION OF ACTIVITY
/ackground studies and concept building > weeks 4?une ,**= @ uly,**=5
0ata collection = weeks 4August ,**=5
!and use7 land cover mapping A weeks 4September @ mid 1ctober5
Ground Truthing and determining accuracy level , weeks 4,
nd
half of 1ctober5
3ompilation of results in the form of land use
maps and other statistics
= weeks 4:ovember ,**=5
E%i$"i&' Si"(a"io& o) GIS U$e I& Pa*i$"a&
In #akistan, Geographic Information Systems 4GIS5 in not fully developed and practiced
for planning and decision making both at national to local level of #lanning, in conte&t of
urban and regional planning, environmental planning and resource management. The
maor dominion which can be the focus of GIS operation for planning and research
include engineering universities, housing and physical planning departments,
environmental protection department, development authorities, local government and
rural development offices especially district councils, municipal corporations7
committees, semi-government agencies and private sector. Although some government
departments like soil survey of #akistan and the forest department has started some
proect on GIS but their area of application are %uite isolated and are limited to their own
specific obective which are usually not share by other planning departments. In this
situation there is a need to set up some guidelines of common interest for the national,
provincial and local government agencies involved in planning and decision making
regarding the augmentation of GIS applications.
The increasing magnitude of operation of Geographic Information Systems 4GIS5 and its
applications to urban, regional and natural resource planning and management for
effective use is of utmost significance for planners and decision makers. In case of
#akistan, GIS is not well practiced in the field of urban planning and resource
management and the degree of its usage is at different stages of development. The GIS
applications to planning and management are at the very infant stage in government
sector ranging from national to local level of planning agencies. Following this demand,
some strategies are proposed in this report which relate to the practice, e&pertise of GIS.