Achieving Inclusivity in Development Interventions through Geospatial Planning

Overview

The Government of India has prioritised the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in almost all its planning interventions over the last few years. This has led to the realisation that the absence of planned spatial development in rural India has been a major hurdle to regional development, leading to further pushing of the marginalised masses beyond the threshold of poverty.

The Eleventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution created by the 73rd Amendment enlists 29 subjects which the local village self-governments (Gram Panchayats in the rural setup) have administrative control over. Gram Panchayats must ensure economic development and social justice with respect to these sectors through the provision of basic services. These sectors include Agriculture, Land Improvement and minor irrigation, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Rural housing, Drinking water, Roads, Rural electrification, and many others.

This project involves the spatial development planning process and outcomes at Village Burgula in Farooq Nagar Mandal in the Rangareddy District in Telangana, India, using Geospatial technologies. A thorough assessment was done across the 29 subjects on 141 indicators, followed by the creation of a real-time interactive dashboard for easy monitoring, evaluation, and dissemination of data. A first-hand ethnographic approach was applied to corroborate data mapped using GIS and Remote Sensing technologies.

Vision: To ensure openness and accountability in the functioning of Gram Panchayats (Village-level administration) by encouraging spatial planning in local self-governance.

Objectives

y To assist in rural spatial development planning as per the Rural Area Development Plan Formulation and Implementation Guidelines (RADPFI) 2021 y To maintain detailed and accessible visual records of the spatial development plan project y To ensure that physical verification of the projects can be done easily irrespective of location y To boost legitimacy and acceptability of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) among stakeholders using GIS, as per the Guidelines for Preparation of GPDP 2018 by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj

Stakeholders Involved

Panchayati Raj Institution members, local NGOs, and local youth.

Solution and Implementation

The spatial data for integrating with Village Burgula’s Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDP) was generated using open-source Quantum GIS (QGIS) technology. Various datasets from Survey of India topographical sheets (1:50,000 scale) and high-resolution Indian satellite imagery were used for creating spatial thematic layers.

These spatial layers correspond to attributes like physical features, land holding and land ownership of revenue lands, land use in Abadi areas, overall physical and social infrastructure, built environment parameters like housing typology etc. It also integrates non-spatial attributes like socio-economic conditions, governance dimensions, and so on. The contour data derived from toposheets were used to generate the slope map of the study area.

The data collection process comprised an intensive primary survey aided by data sourced from Census 2011 and Mission Antyodaya. The teams also deployed crowdsourcing in collaboration with local youth, a local NGO and PRI members for data collection using Open Data Kit (ODK) forms, spanning pictures, videos, etc., followed by geo-tagging them. Other data collection tools included interviews and schedules, questionnaires for government officials working at the village level, and household surveys to gather data for mapping the whole village.

Next, advanced open-source technologies were leveraged to create a web-GIS application using Geoserver (for publishing data in the form of WMS and WFS), Leaflet (for displaying map services data in web interface) and PostgreSQL (for storing spatial data using the PostGIS extension) software. QGIS was used for preparing the geodatabase.

In addition, the study team developed a spatial dashboard for visualization of socioeconomic data of households collected through Open Data Kit (ODK) forms and geo-tagged the same. An interactive Performance Monitoring Dashboard was created to help all the stakeholders senior and grassroots government officials, PRI members and rural communities to see and assess the allocation of resources for a better, more efficient participatory planning experience. Existing development entities were mapped, and gap areas were identified to come forth with suggestions for future village development plans.

Use of Geospatial Technologies

Geospatial technologies play a key role in community-driven management and acquire special importance in the context of the process of participatory, integrated planning in the project. The comprehensive visualisation powered by Geospatial data and technology depicts the terrain, natural resources, human activities, and infrastructure facilities holistically, providing a much-needed base for spatial thinking and well-informed strategies, planning, and interventions.

Now, with the availability of 1-metre spatial resolution satellite data in the public domain in India, remote sensing and GIS technologies can create detailed natural resource information layers on a large scale in a shorter time.