GIS based integrated planning assessment for sustainable land use development

Abstract

Development planning and assessment require an effective approach to achieve the desired goals and objectives, evaluate alternative as well as control development programs that are in line with the current and future prospects. The advent of information technology encouraged the integration of planning assessment and GIS approach for sustainable development. GIS technology has long been applied in planning activities which essentially include plans formulation as well as development control. The Manual for preparing the various levels of plan has provided that all plans use GIS technology in plan formulation. This paper sets out the information requirement and GIS functionalities, which are relevant to various plans especially the regional plan for Lembah Klang region. The dynamic nature of planning and monitoring of development in Klang Valley, the fastest growing region in Peninsular Malaysia, apparently requires a ‘tool’ for continuous evaluation and analysis of the current environment as well as the capacity for future development. As such, a new concept of evaluation model named Integrated Land use Assessment (ILA) was introduced within the prior developed “Application of Geographic Information System (GIS) for Klang Valley Region” (AGISwlk). The introduction of ILA as an integrated land use planning approach that exploits the GIS analysis capabilities, supported by the use of planning support systems is seen as a good mechanism for monitoring urban development. The ILA model developed is implemented through incorporation with the use of the What if? PSS which is a scenario-based, policy-oriented planning support system that uses increasingly available GIS data. Apart from that, a user interface is also developed to ease the access and preparation of data from the AGISwlk database to run the ILA model and generate alternative scenarios. This paper will discuss the approach, developed model and underlying concept of ILA and emphasise on the case study concerning the use of ILA model for generating alternative development scenarios in Klang Valley. To conclude, several issues raised in the study will be discussed.