International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B7. Istanbul 2004 
  
As GIS does more than just display the data; it enables 
the user to dynamically analyze and update the 
information linked to those locations spatially and can 
further strengthen the e-governance 
One district will take as a case study covering all the 
blocks with villages. The administrative maps were 
digitized and non-spatial attribute data, prepared on MS- 
Excel, were incorporated to each of the villages in spatial 
data. In the present study among several parameters — 
health end education were taken as a model to 
demonstrate the GIS based e-governance. Similarly other 
amenities can also be linked and a holistic analysis of the 
regional development can be found out. The purpose of 
this study is to locate existing health and education 
facilities and indicate upgradation /new creation of such 
facilities require as per the norms. An interface was 
customized where the user can query on the datasets to 
retrieve tabular and spatial information. GIS software 
were used for creating maps (to the scale) and for creating 
the GIS based information system. Provision is made for 
background of the hierarchical system approach and 
valuable experiences of spatial data handling a consistent 
spatial information database can be created. Despite 
problems with data accuracy, logical consistency and 
completeness of data, a powerful tool for regional and 
local planning can be developed which can serve as a 
framework for a variety of planning purposes at the local 
and regional levels, as well as the transfer of know-how 
between governmental agencies and institutions using an 
interactive approach 
Decentralized Planning at District Level in India 
A study was undertaken in the tribal-oriented and rural- 
based district in India to demonstrate the integration of 
village-level spatial and  non-spatial data in GIS 
environment into a useful informatics tool for 
decentralized planning. A simple and robust tool, called 
‘VLIS’ (Village-Level Information Systems) will assist 
the decision-makers to generate various eco-socio- 
economic views/scenarios for identifying villages for 
rural watershed management schemes. The paper also 
envisages future development and usefulness of this 
community GIS tool for grass-root level planning. 
Generation of Spatial Village Maps 
District and taluka boundaries were drawn from the SOI 
topographical maps. These were brought in as GIS 
coverage's after following the standard procedure: 
digitization, geo-referencing, etc. Taluka maps, collected 
from the local government offices in the district, contain 
village boundaries with contour lines and other 
topographical information. These taluka maps, which do 
not show geographical co-ordinates, were traced, marking 
GCPs with respect to the SOI base map, digitized and 
brought to the real world coordinate system after 
projecting the maps (polyconic system) and carrying out 
similarly for education; percentage literates, 
number of primary schools and middle schools 
required and its optimum location, number of 
teachers posted, vacancy and required as per 
norms etc. in a village. 
Educationists, planners, researchers, decision makers. 
administrators, communication professionals and officials 
from different departments and some reputed NGOs should 
be invited to discuss the role of GIS Technology and 
should implement the same outcome immediately for 
ensuring sustainable development and socio-economic and 
educational uplifting of the country. 
The implementation of GIS in Research Programme raised 
a variety of conceptual questions for both the ecological 
and the socio-economic sectors of this regional, integrated 
research programme. In addition to these basic units of 
research, spatial links between the two sectors and levels of 
data abstraction for the spatial database had to be defined. 
Using the theoretical 
generated in the present study integrating the spatial village 
maps with non-spatial or tabular information can be 
demonstrated for its potential for grass-root level 
development planning taking into consideration the local 
needs and constraints. It has also established its usefulness 
to the decision-makers in the district to generate 
views/scenarios for decision-making at local-level. This 
prototype Community GIS tool will serve as a first step 
towards the development of Decision Support System for 
decentralized planning at district/sub-district level. 
DISTRICT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY 
The various divisions of administrative bodies from the 
district to village who will be directly benefited through 
this proposed system to take economic and administrative 
decision for the village people are shown as under 
The Government also intends to set up Service Delivery 
Points (SDPs) progressively at convenient locations for 
rural people to access services. These may include in the 
long run — Information Kiosks having intelligent public 
interface with touch screen monitors, or cord operated 
phones in public places such as shopping centers, post 
offices, railway stations & libraries, private centers and 
STD /ISD booths etc. 
PRESENT SCENARIO OF PLANNING & MONITORING 
In the present scenario the project planning of the state has 
been carried out in the conventional manner, i.e., both maps 
and the database for planning and the development, and the 
planning process itself are conducted on paper. With GIS 
methodology not only small-scale but the large scale 
planning of a system is to create a base for development of 
the society, implementation and evaluation of the socio- 
economic status for easy operation and execution. The 
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