About GIS

Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has been entrusted to supply cost effective and sustainable infrastructures in the area of rural, urban and water sectors throughout the country. To enhance the capacity of planning and monitoring of such type development program in an efficient way, LGED adopted the technological advantages of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Management Information System (MIS) in early 90s. The GIS Unit of LGED is the first setup of its kind in any public sector offices in Bangladesh. LGED not only institutionalized GIS within own institution, also playing pioneer role to disseminate the technology by providing database and technical support to other organizations in the country.

Purpose of GIS Unit

The main purpose of GIS Unit is to develop local government infrastructure database in GIS platform to facilitate local level planning and participation with modern planning tool. Geo-spatial database in different thematic layers becomes essential basic information for project planning and monitoring. LGED maintains the GIS database and maps which enable the local stakeholders to take part in the process of planning and decision making with more technical and information-based manner. The overall purpose of GIS Unit is to provide platform of Geo-spatial database and technology for planning of a wide range of development activities, not only for LGED, but for other local and national level development program also.

Development of Spatial Database

GIS Unit of LGED has completed digitization of Upazila Base Maps at 1:50000 scale in early 90s for the whole country which comprises of various layers including administrative boundaries, physical infrastructure, educational institutions, settlement pattern and other agriculture and socio-economic infrastructure. The basic spatial data were captured for Upazila Base Map with the help of 1961’s topographic maps of Survey of Bangladesh (SoB), old (1942) thana maps of Department of Land Revenue and Survey (DLRS), aerial photograph of SoB (1983-84), SPOT Satellite Image of 1989-90 and also Global Positioning System (GPS) survey & ground truthing with the help of Upazila level technical staff.

For digitization of Upazila maps, following steps were carried out:

• Digitization of features by using digitizing Board
• Editing and Edge matching
• Topology development
• Geo-referencing.
• Projection (LCC)
• Datum (Everest 84)

Geo-Spatial database development

• Database structure (ArcInfo coverage- Arc, Tic, PAT, AAT)
• Attribute data
• Data layer

Projection System : Lambert Coniformal Conic (LCC)

Projection parameters :

• Input
• Projection geographic
• units dd
• parameters
• output
• projection Lambert
• spheroid everest
• units meters
• parameters
• 23 09 00
• 28 48 00
• 90 00 00
• 26 00 00
• 2743185.699
• 914395.233
• end

Information Content :

In the PAT/AAT of each coverage a fieldname “TYPE” has been included and various features are classified according to the ID (identity) number stated in TYPE field.

Coverage Name	Features name	ID No. in Type	Features type
Adb23103	International boundary Divisional boundary District boundary Thana boundary Mouza boundary Municipal boundary	10 20 30 40 60 70	arc arc arc arc arc arc
RDS 23103	National Highway Regional highway(RHD) Zila Road Upazila Road Union Road Village Road-Type A Village Road-Type B	1 21/51 1001-1005 2001-3000 3001-4000 4001-5000 5001-6000	arc arc arc arc arc arc arc
POF 23103	Capital Divisional HQ District HQ Thana HQ Union HQ Growth Centre Small Hat/Bazar Police Station Hospital Family Welfare Centre Post Office University College High School Primary School Madrasa Deep Tubewell Shalow Tubewell Low Lift Pump Tank/pond Cyclone Shelter Exist. Cyclone Shelter Proposed Cyclone Shelter Under Const Cy. Centre Mosque/Eidgah/Church Launch Ghat Ferry Ghat Air Port Helipad Bank Telegraph Office Mill/factory/Industry Cottage Industry Cold Storage Rice/Oil/Grain Mill Food Godown Vocational Institute Historical Place Steamer Ghat Sea Port Graveyeard Gasfield Cluster Village Power Station	10 20 30 40 50 70 80 105 110 120 130 205 210 215 220 225 320 325 330 335 340 340 342 341 405 510 515 522 523 125 135 140 145 150 155 160 230 410e 520 521 524 550 560 570	point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point

Task done by GIS Unit

With the introduction of GIS technology in Bangladesh during early 1990, its use and application has widened considerably. It has opened a new horizon for the planners, decision makers for a comprehensive and perspective planning. The major application areas of GIS in infrastructure development activities under LGED can be summarized as follows:

• Rural Accessibility and Transport Planning
• Prioritization and selection of development schemes
• Local level disaster management
• Mapping for Infrastructure development planning

Functions

Major on-going activities of GIS unit are as follows:

• Updating of Road maps followed by road reclassification for all Upazilas of the country.
• Dynamic Segmentation of road networks for all Upazilas of the country
• Updating of different features (physical infrastructure, educational institutions, settlement data, river data etc) by field survey and using Satellite images
• Updating of Upazila map
• Preparation of District map
• Rural Infrastructure disaster damage mapping
• Preparation of Municipality map for secondary towns.
• Mapping of Infrastructure concern for different project of LGED.
• Customization of maps for different particular purpose.

(i) Study & Piloting Works

Major research activities of GIS unit are as follows:

• Analyzing & Mapping physical accessibility in Bangladesh with IRRI , Philippine.2003
• Indicator mapping of CHT districts in collaboration with ICIMOD, Nepal. 2004
• Spatial Poverty Mapping of Dhaka Metropolitan Area, 2005
• Preparation of Off-Grid mapping for Sustainable Rural Energy under Sustainable Environment Management Programme ,UNDP
• Preparation of School Maps and database for different districts.
• Application of Remote Sensing and GIS for Cyclone Disaster Management in Coastal Area: a case study at Barguna District, Bangladesh.
• Preparation of maps for ecologically sensitive area in Bangladesh.