NLCS ponders GIMS for land management

The National Land Commission Secretariat (NLCS) plans to introduce sustainable geo-information management system of land governance.
Geographic Information Management Systems (GIMS) is a term used to describe a collection of related technologies used to manage spatial data.
These technologies include geographic information systems (GIS), computer-aided design systems, automated and desktop mapping systems, remote sensing and image analysis systems, and their related database management systems.
The goal of the program is to provide natural resource information to the public in a more efficient and effective manner.
The NLCS secretary 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 Gross National Happiness will be addressed through efficient land governance”.
The GIMS would mitigate land issues and challenges faced by people and the government.
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.
However it requires significant resources such as policies, strategies and active participation from all the stake holders.
NLCS aims to enhance good land governance in the Nation.
“Simply rendering the effective land administration services and ensuring of land ownership would not ensure good land governance,” the NLCS secretary said.
Building spatial data and carrying out detail spatial data is pre-requisite to achieve this. However Bhutan does not have proper record and spatial data for infrastructure.
Therefore, he said “lack of National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI) and its policy have severely affected the urban planning and infrastructure development.”
For a socio-economic development, efficient use of scarce natural resources and a look into the land management and its impact is required.
The NLCS secretary said previously there was no formal mechanism to share data.
“With limited resources, data redundancy and duplication must be avoided,” he said. Hence the program would develop an accurate and uniform data sharing platform for government agencies and other stakeholders.
NLCS’s Head of Mapping Division, Shankar Sharma said one of the main motives of the program was to tell people to have a very standard kind of data basis so that they can talk to each other and have sustainable development.
“We don’t want to waste government’s resources in buying expensive satellite images or doing the second time survey of the same area,” he said.
In addition to that Minister for Works and Human settlement said that geo information would give correct information regarding the land for better decisions.
In the 11th Five Year Plan NLCS will mainstream GIMS and provide technical backstopping to government agencies.
The program is funded by DANIDA.