The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The National Land Commission Secretariat (NLCS) will soon create a center for Geographical Information Management System (GIMS). This will herald a sustainable geo-information system of land governance.
The NLCS promised that by the 11th Five Year Plan they would mainstream geo-information and provide technical backstopping to government agencies.
GIMS is a term used to describe a collection of related technologies used to manage spatial data. These technologies include geographic information system (GIS), computer-aided design systems, automated and desktop mapping systems, remote sensing and image analysis systems, and their related database management systems.
GIMS would mitigate land issues and challenges faced by people and the government.
Earlier in August 2012, the NLCS Secretary Dasho Sangay Khandu in a conference with all the stakeholders on empowering good land governance said “Creating Land information through sustainable geo-information is there for the first time in Bhutan funded by DANIDA government”.
The goal of the program is to provide natural resources information to the public in a more efficient and effective manner.
At the moment, the NLCS is compiling all the data related to Geographical Information system and national space from the stakeholders.
“National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI) and GIS Department, just after the conference had a one day discussion,” said the Surveyor General Ugyen Takchu.
The NLCS will soon come up with a publication regarding the GIMS.
“But we are still waiting for two stakeholders to submit their data and information,” said Ugyen Takchu.
The publication will specify who are responsible for empowering good land governance, their roles, and the members for GIMS. Through GIMS, agencies can have a very standard kind of database and people can talk to each other and have sustainable development.
The NLCS official said that through this system government’s resources in buying expensive satellite images or by doing the second time survey of the same area will be reduced.
Geo-information would give correct information regarding the land for better decisions.
The NLCS Secretary in an earlier interview said ramification of poor land governance has a direct impact on the overall integrity of the Nation and its socio-economic development. He said “poverty eradication can be addressed and at the same time the goal of the Gross National Happiness will be addressed through efficient land governance”.
Poverty alleviation can be tackled more efficiently with reliable information about land survey, records in rural Bhutan. Similarly, to create dynamic financial sector and attract foreign aid, land procedures should be transparent, reliable and efficient.
NLCS Secretary Sangay Khandu, said simply rendering effective land administration services and ensuring land ownership would not ensure good land governance.
Building spatial data and carrying out detail spatial data is pre-requisite to achieve good land governance. For socio-economic development, efficient use of scarce natural resources, land management and its impact is required.
Previously there was no formal mechanism to share data. But the GIMS program would develop an accurate and uniform data sharing platform for government agencies and other stakeholders.
