Analysis, Design and Development of a GIS Based Municipal Information System for Rajshahi City Corporation, Bangladesh

Abstract

Functional parameters of city administrators/managers and decision makers include a wide variety of data and information components. The rapid increase in cities' population and socio­economic functions has widened the horizon of the functional parameters and data platform significantly, particularly in the recent time. It is observable that in the early days, the decision makers' style of function was so simple that it required very few types of data. The data of those days were collected, maintained and organized in a very simple and straight forward way. But, now the situation is significantly changed. Impact of the decision whether it is correct or wrong goes to the distant sector of cities setup. In the present situation, it is observed that, while taking a decision, the required data and information is not often readily available. It is not necessarily true that the data is unavailable, rather the data is found to be inaccessible due to its disorganized maintenance. Also, the currently prevailing manual system does not permit error free quick retrieval of the data and quick effective decision-making. The system is also vulnerable to misuse and misappropriation. Now, the need of an efficient data base management system for the use of city administrator as well as for different users is very urgent. The present study aims to develop an efficient database management system that could be optimally utilized and used for proper City management and decision-making. City administration includes involvement of the government, semi-government authorities and the city corporation authority itself. The data of both attribute and spatial type broadly include maps (mainly the cadastral), data related to various facilities and decision support. In fact, decision support data type is very closely related to the decision-maker for proper planning and implementation of decisions on the facilities. It is not realistic to develop a wider approach system in such a limited time by the researcher. So, the research project aims to cover a representative and selective database which is basically purposed to serve the need of a particular section of the city administration i.e., the Rajshahi City Corporation Authority. The Rajshahi City has been chosen since it is a single corporate body where quite a wide range of diversified functions are performed. However, the proposed system may be considered as a model approach. The model can be expanded, tested to cover the entire city administration by including necessary modifications and rectifications. The development of computer and information technology and its successful application in every sector today, are well known and most impressive. In developing countries, urban planning and urban management involve large volumes of geographic data. At present, such information is mainly collected and stored in traditional handwriting documents, making subsequent retrieval very difficult. This system takes any inquiry into urban information base weeks, months or even years rather than minutes or hours, making the day-to-day planning task difficult. Existing system or information based is not able to scope with rapidly growing various municipal functions. A computer can facilitate the creation of a municipal information system that will allow easy storage, updating, retrieval and mapping of a wide range of information related to planning and management of municipal functions. The Geographic Information System (GIS) technology in planning can give planning a broader empirical function and more design flexibility; proper use of automation tools like GIS might improve plan quality considerably. This study proposed the GIS based information system to be integrated in the municipality and made a conceptual model of the municipal database for Rajshahi City Corporation to run its functions effectively and efficiently. The various categories of land related data and how they interact to form a municipal database and described. The conceptual model is justified by applying it to the taxation system of Rajshahi City Corporation and total procedure to develop such a system like this. The successful development of prototype taxation system has proved the applicability of GIS in the municipality. GIS in developing countries like Bangladesh require some special attentions as it is impeded by the lack of appropriate data, technical support, political willingness and above all poverty.