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ineffective. There is also a risk factor involved in single 
action plan which is based almost entirely on the 
'assumed best’ in alliance with goals and objectives of 
the planning, though such an action may not necessarily 
agree with the individual land holder. Alternatives 
provide a choice to the land owners to select from 
amongst several recommended action plans and thus 
indirectly help to overcome their resistance to 
compliance of something which, at least some of them, 
may feel thrust upon them. 
Alternatives are developed within the frame work 
of optimal land use. On applications of Land Capability 
Classification (LCC) model, optimal broad land use 
category is derived from Composite Mapping Unit 
(CMU). This when matched with present land use 
(indicated by CMU) helps decision of broad landuse 
revision matching LCC. The need for specific 
programmes of development, conservation and 
management is assessed by application of Runoff 
Potential Classification (RPC) model, Land Irrigability 
classification model (L1C) and Productivity Index Value 
(P1V). P1V when rated for specific crop against the 
present level of production per unit area helps to assess 
the gap that has to be bridged by adoption of 
recommended practices. PIV in monetary terms helps in 
revision of cropping pattern for introduction of 
climatically adapted high value crops. Irrigation and 
other input conditions as well as socio-economic 
priorities of the area specific to the CMU are never lost 
sight of in formulating land and water use programmes 
leading to options of land and water utilization types 
and practices. 
Finally, the alternatives are developed to cover : 
- all the systems to be planned 
- all the sectors of economy, and 
- all the sectors of community 
4.0 CUSTOMIZATION OF GIS FOR 
WATERSHED PLANNING AND 
DEVELOPMENT 
The Dept, of Space under NR1S program has 
developed query shells to retrieve the information 
required for the area of interest for further analysis 
towards land and water resources developmental 
planning. One such package is Geo-LAWNS (Geograph 
ically Encoded Land & Water Information System). 
4.1 Geo-LAWNS 
Geo-LA WNS is a value added query shell for land 
& water resources development, planning & manage 
ment by integrating Remote Sensing and Geographical 
Information System (GIS) tools. The package works 
with the standardised datasets defined for NRIS. The 
standardisation lays down an uniform format for NRIS 
database creation. The standards cover the data 
elements, coding schemes, design guidelines for GIS 
database, database creation procedures etc. 
4.1.1 Major Modules and Functionalities of 
GeoLAWNS 
a) Database Integration Module (DIM): This module 
provides the user interface menus for integration of 
the database for the state and district node. In this 
module the standard coverage are checked and 
respective key fields are created. 
b) Centre-STATE-District node selection: This 
module facilitates the user in display, query and 
output module and toggle between various state 
and district node. This module also facilitates 
integration of new node database. 
4.1.2 Display and Query Module: This is the main 
module where NRIS databases can be displayed, 
overlaid and identified for various thematic features. 
Simple and multiple query operation both on spatial and 
non spatial data is possible in this module. The various 
operations that can be performed are: 
- Selection of Area of Interest (AOI) like Taluk, 
Watershed, SOI toposheet, User defined etc. 
- Display of primary and derived layers, Overlay of 
themes. 
- Display of socio-economic information in the form 
of chlorepeth maps. 
- Information on methodology adopted to generate a 
particular layer. 
- Location identification in Latitude and Longitude. 
- Socio-economic query, thematic query & simple 
and multiple query, overlay query, etc. 
- Various utilities like PAN, ZOOM, statistics 
computation based on AOI, Legend editing, 
Measurement of area and length, Manipulation of 
symbol set, define symbol and other various 
preference settings. 
4.1.3 Analysis Module: Spatial and non-Spatial 
analysis can be performed under this package leading to 
Land resources development suggesting alternate 
optimal landuse and water resources development 
specific to local potentials and constraints. The package 
is bundled with specific application modules which are 
given below :