Potential of Urban Land Management Using
Geographic Information Systems – A Study
of Thimbirigasyaya Ward, Colombo
Leelanada, H. H. , Wijesekera, N.T.S. and Peiris, T.A.
Leelanada, H. H. , Wijesekera, N.T.S. and Peiris, T.A. (2008), Potential of Urban Land
Management Using Geographic Information Systems – A Study of Thimbirigasyaya Ward,
Colombo, “Engineer”, Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, Vol: XXXXI, No 05,
ISSN-1800-1122., pp 95-104
ENGINEER - Vol. XXXXI, No. 05, pp. 95-104, 2008
© The Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka
Potential of Urban Land Management using
Geographic Information Systems
A Study of Thimbirigasyaya Ward Colombo
H. H. Leelananda, N. T. S. Wijesekera, and T. A. Peiris
Abstract : With the population growth and associated high levels of urbanization, sustainable urban
development has become a critical issue in Sri Lanka. A land information management tool was
developed for the Thimbirigasyaya ward of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) Sri Lanka using a
Geographic Information System incorporating multi layer analysis. The layers incorporated contained
the spatial distribution of land parcels, buildings along with zoning details established by the Urban
Development Authority. This paper presents the potential of the GIS based system for rational land
parcel management by considering various scenario with respect to the presently available zoning,
zoning regulations combining with land parcel and building information. Potential use of GIS for Land
Management in the Colombo city including real estate development and also drainage improvement is
discussed. Proposals are made for the decision makers to take into consideration when executing
responsible action. In the analysis it was identified that the Primary Residential Zone meant for high
rises is mostly of low rises and there is a significant potential for development. Overlay operations
enable a manager to identify amalgamation options to suit the land development policy of the UDA.
The tool also demonstrates the identification of old buildings that may be worthy of demolition to make
room for planned development. The tool also enabled the identification of main user types within
identified zones so that a decision maker could propose better economic use of land through means of
relocation. This casestudy presents not only the importance of land clearance management but also
the vast potential for policy making and rational management.
1. Introduction
Master Plan project for the Colombo
Metropolitan Region prepared two interrelated
documents, namely the Colombo Metropolitan
Regional Structure Plan and the Colombo Urban
Area Plan Establishment of the Urban
Development Authority (UDA) as a planning
organization was also a direct outcome of the
Colombo Master Plan. Colombo population on
average consists of 41% Sinhalese, 29% Tamil
24% Moor and Others(City 2008). The City of
Colombo Development Plan was prepared and
gazetted by the UDA in 1985 and this enabled
the UDA to carry out zoning and building
regulations.
Almost all major urban centers in Sri Lanka face
a population explosion and as a result, cities
constantly change in size and scale, type of
housing, land-use patterns, street layout and
architectural style. These features have a
significant influence on the appearance of the
city, its character and identity. Colombo the
commercial Capital of Sri Lanka has been
experiencing the same and as a result the land
management in the Colombo Municipal area
has been a very challenging task.
Physical plans had been prepared for Colombo
since colonial times. The first attempt had been
made by Sir Patrick Geddes in 1921. The main
concept of the plan had been to make the City of
Colombo “The Garden City of the East”. In 1948
Patrick Abercrombie had developed a plan
which was approved by the Central Planning
Commission in March 1949. This plan had
focused on the City of Colombo and the
surrounding region covering nearly 220 sq.
miles. Decentralization of activities was one of
the main objectives of this plan. In 1978 the
The city of Colombo development plan which
was revised and gazetted by the UDA in 1999
H. H. Leelananda, B. Sc. (EMV) Mgt. (Special) (SJ), PG Dip (Computer
Technology) (Col), M. Sc. (GIS) (Moratuwa). Graduated in 1999,
Presently Hulhumale Development Corporattion, Hulhumale, Maldives.
Eng. (Prof.) N.T. Sohan Wijesekera B.Sc.Eng. Hons.(Sri Lanka),
PG.Dip (Moratuwa), M.Eng.(Tokyo),D.Eng. (Tokyo), MICE(UK),
FIE(Sri Lanka), Chartered Civil Engineer, Department of Civil
Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka,
Eng. (Dr.) T. A. Peiris, BSc Eng.(Hons), DIC, MSc(London),
D.Eng.(Tokyo), C. Eng., MIE(Sri Lanka), Senior Lecturer of the
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa
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(UDA 1999) indicates a population of 638,000 in
the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) for the
year 1994 where as according to a census figure
of 2001, the population in CMC has reportedly
risen to 647,100 (City 2008). The present average
population density is 174 persons per ha.
though the databases are prepared and verified
by resource persons, the lack of application
examples as to how maps and databases could
be used interactively, has been the main reason
for the top management to delay the effective
use of this vastly potential tool. Therefore it is
very important to present several example
applications of GIS data and outputs so that the
managerial and decision making personnel
could base such examples to widen their
leadership and managerial skills to carryout
activities in a very effective manner. This paper
presents the potential use of an already
developed and accurately checked GIS database
for the presentation of examples of applications
that could be used for the effective planning and
management of urban land.
In Colombo Sri Lanka, Land information
management becomes an integral part of urban
development and urban land management
because of the pressure on land exerted by the
increasing population and associated activities.
UDA (1999) indicates many land issues as
constraints in the core area of Colombo. A
major shortcoming that had been cited is the
inadequate coordination of the need or urban
land for other than residential activities and uses
such as commercial, business, banking &
finance, transportation and storage. It has also
indicated that the declaration of the area north
of Colombo as mixed and primary residential
zone had limited many development activities
in the area. The report continues to mention
many issues related to the land ownership/
tenure, encumbrances of buildable land, issues
related to horizontal expansion, unplanned
distribution of residential, commercial and other
activities. There is a great potential to manage
land and its information using geographic
information systems and many examples can be
seen in literature (Leelananda, Wijesekara and
Peiris 2005). However the lack of a well
structured GIS based land information system
for urban areas of Sri Lanka has been noted and
this could be a reason for many difficulties that
arise in urban land management. It is therefore
very important to develop a structured and an
accurate land information GIS and demonstrate
the potential uses so that decision makers of Sri
Lanka could be better convinced to commence
on the development of an appropriate system.
A system for land development and approval
management using GIS was completed
(Leelananda, Wijesekera and Peiris 2005) and it
was indicated that using the GIS with
appropriate changes would reduce the time
taken for the process of land clearance to five
days from the presently estimated duration of
40 days. Geographic Information Systems are
new to most of the people and they deal with
maps which are usually not treated as
information friendly material by many persons
(Albert and Yeung 2005). As GIS and its
capabilities are not known for many, even
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2.0 Objective
The main objective of the work is to analyze the
present situation of the land resources in a
selected case-study area with respect to the
development plans and to assess suitable land
management options so that the potential and
the benefits of using a GIS database for land
resource management is suitably demonstrated.
3.0 Study Area
Sri Lanka has an approximate land area of
65,610 sq. km. Out of the 9 provinces in Sri
Lanka the Western province is treated as the
most important province since the
administrative capital Sri Jayawardenapura and
the commercial capital Colombo are both
located in this province. The city of Colombo
has been named as the most complex urban
center of the Western Region. The CMC covers
an area of approximately 3729 ha and consists of
47 municipal wards. The present work opted to
select the study area as the Thimbirigasyaya
municipal ward (Ward No 40) covering 161 ha
(Map 1) and having a population of about 13,800
at a density of 86 persons per ha. It was
identified that the Thimbirigasyaya ward has
approximately 1404 land parcels, possess the
maximum density of vacant lots, the minimum
plot coverage, minimum floor area ratio,
minimum density of slums & shanty and
minimum population density. The comparison
of these parameters indicated that the
Thimbirigasyaya ward had the maximum
development potential and as a result an
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indicated as a threat to street and square
silhouette and organic texture which in turn
would lead to incompatibilities with the
principles of conservation (Ulu, Aksoylu and
Cabuk (2005)). Urban land management
improvement had been recognized as an
important element in Sri Lanka. Mendis (1998)
indicates the attempts made to develop a
Geographic Management Information System
(GMIS) to overcome the problems with regards
to effective land management and also to
carryout systematic monitoring of the changes
to land boundaries. It also indicates that Tax
mapping has not been practiced in any of the
urban local authorities in Sri Lanka, though the
urban planners have been using land value
information for the preparation of urban
development plans.
Map 1 : Study Area Location
GIS enables the planners to ensure the
environmental balance by identifying the
presence of associated components in a given
urban area. Mapping of environmental
components along with property details also
enables the formulation of policy and action
plans to ensure intra-city environmental
stability. Therefore, environmental mapping for
integrated urban infrastructure planning and
management plays a very important role in
urban area governance (Mehta, Ragupathi, and
Sharma 1996).
Map 2 : The Designated Landuse
Zones in the Study Area
important area in terms of land development.
Thimbirigasyaya Ward consists mainly of four
land use zones (Map 2) and each has different
regulations in order to maintain the
developments. The database preparation,
selection of study area have been justified in
Leelananda, Wijesekara and Peiris (2005)
In countries such as Singapore where land is a
critically limited resource, it is very important to
strike an optimal balance of land use
considering the growing requirements to
accommodate industries with an appropriate
value creation for the real estates (Ming and Hin
2006). In this a Geographic Information System
incorporating a real estate valuation model has
shown effective in the analysis of the spatial
distribution of urban industrial real estate asset
values. This study which has considered the
industrial estates individually has divided each
estate to specific spatial units and used ArcView
software to carryout the spatial distribution
analysis. The relevant datasets had been
subjected to non-parametric statistical tests
enabling the value turnover time to be modelled
over an identified period.
4.0 Literature Review
4.1. GIS for Land Information Management
In a city the most important characteristic is the
availability of a development plan that has been
formulated with proper authority. The
Colombo city development plan has been in
place for some time and it is therefore important
to identify the present scenario with the
development plan. Though the importance of
having a development plan and adhering to the
guidelines has been identified by many
literature, some have actually been critical about
some plans which do not provide sufficient
considerations to the conservation aspects. The
development of multi-storey buildings in areas
mainly with two storey buildings have been
A system for land development approval
management using Geographic Information
Systems (Leelananda, Wijesekara and Peiris
2005), for the Thimbirigasyaya ward emphasizes
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Table 1: Selected Land Use Development Zones
Item
Zone Description
1
Special Primary
Residential Zone (SPRZ)
2
Primary Residential
Zone (PRZ)
3
Mixed Development
Zone (MDZ)
Important considerations from explanatory notes on
permissible activities as in the Colombo City
Development Plan (UDA(1999))
This zone is mainly for residential development and having housing units
ranging from a single floor to a maximum of 3 floors including the ground
floor (Vol.1, pp 49).
For plot sizes less than 10 perch in extent, the uses and heights of buildings
permitted are only those permitted in special primary residential zone. There
are 10 activities for extents more than 10 perch (Vol. 1, pp 51).
The mixed development zone is intended to serve as a transitional area
between the primary residential and commercial zones (Vol. 1, pp 51).
the extremely important aspects of Land GIS
development. This work presents the factors
that have to be taken into consideration with
regards to the accuracy, structure, layers etc.
The work directly deals with the data of the
Colombo city and therefore, provides the land
managers with detailed information pertaining
to GIS model development for land resource
planning. This work also cites a number of
important literature on the model development,
planning etc.
attribute data. Accuracy of digital database was
checked for errors during photocopying and
scanning. The errors were checked in
comparison with the present regulations and
also comparisons were done with field
measurements (Leelananda, Wijesekera and
Peiris 2005). GIS database was developed by
incorporating properly developed digital map
layers consisting of data pertaining to
Assessment Number, Access Road Name, Parcel
Extent, Zone Name, Minimum Lot Sizes,
Minimum no of Floors, Maximum no of Floors,
Usage, Building Heights, Age of Building,
Number of Floors, Tenancy Types, Ground
Floor Area, Total Floor Area, Road Name, Road
Type, Road Width, and Road Length. The
ArcView GIS software was used for the spatial
database development. Attribute accuracy was
tested for the accuracy of map and dataset
linkage corresponding to a specific spatial entity
and also for the accuracy of data entry. Data
entry accuracy was tested with random sample
data. GIS database was founded on three map
layers and corresponding attribute tables. The
three map layers are, 1) Land parcel layer, 2)
Building Layer, and UDA Zoning Layer. The
Map 3 shows the Land parcel map and its
4.2. Land Zoning System
The plan for City of Colombo had been
prepared with the incorporation of land use
zoning. The zoning regulations (UDA 1999) has
identified eight distinct zones for Colombo city
and they are 1) Special Primary Residential 2)
Primary Residential 3) Commercial 4) Mixed
Development 5) Concentrated Development 6)
Port Related Activity 7) Recreational Zone and
8) Environmental Conservation Zone. The
study area consists of several designated use
area and three identified zones namely the
Mixed Development, Primary Residential and
Special Primary Residential. As such, the
present work analyses land data in connection
with these three zones. Details of the considered
zones are in Table 1.
5.0 Methodology
The Land Parcel information available at the
assessment department of the CMC were
scanned and taken for database preparation.
These spatial data were georeferenced and a
mosaic was constructed using 24 images, which
were then scanned in TIFF image format. Screen
digitizing and attribute data table entries were
done to develop the GIS. Field inspections were
carried out to check the accuracy of map and
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Map 3: A Typical Data Layer in the Database - Land
Parcel Layer and Attribute Table
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Table 2: Building Type, Floor Disribution Plot Area Coverage in Thimbirigasyaya Ward
the study area is 33.3 ha, which is 20.4% of the
total area of the ward. Building distribution and
the plot size, building occupation, and the floor
area distribution along with the UDA
classification is shown in the Table 2
attribute table as an example of the format of
GIS database. Checking of data accuracy was
important because any substantial differences in
the stored and actual data would not be
acceptable to the authorities and also would not
receive public confidence. This was very
important in case of the study area where the
land prices were already high, fetching over Rs.
1,000,000.00 per perch (25 m2) and indicating an
approximately 67% rate of increase during 20056 period (Kapruka 2008). Considering the
requirements of the UDA (1999) and high value
of lands, the errors when preparing the database
were assessed and were found very low
(Leelananda, Wijesekera and Peiris 2005).
6.1. Primary Residential Zone
The present status of the zone indicates that the
existing buildings are mainly up to three floors
and consisting of 411 units (99.8%). Also the
present usage distribution indicates that the plot
area used for other than residential buildings
are approximately 196,000 m2 which is 58.8% of
the zone and the vacant plots in the area is about
20,500m2 (6%) of the Zone. The Residential
buildings which are 60.58% of the total in the
PRZ, have an average land coverage percentage
of 37.27% in their present allotments. The age of
the buildings show that 60.6% are less than 20
years old. 37.7 % of the total are older than 20
years but newer than 40 years.
An
approximately 6.6% of the land in this zone
consists of plots having an area less than 250 m2
(10 perch) where the total number of plots are
149 with 139 building units are on these plots.
Overlay of land parcels with buildings,
indicated an existence of 57 land parcels having
buildings older than 20 years on land parcels
less than 250 m2 (10p).
Primary Residential Zone (PRZ) is mainly for
residential development and this area is
permitted to have housing units up to a
maximum of 10 floors including the ground floor
and commercial establishments are limited to
small extents. The total PRZ area that falls within
Building regulations do not permit lands with
less than 250 m2 of area to be sub divided (UDA
1999). The spatial distribution of these land
parcels indicate that there are over 100 adjacent
land parcels that can be merged with one
another to fall into the group which can be
Data layers were geoprocessed to capture the
land parcels, building, uses etc., within each
land use zone as gazetted (Gazette 1999).
Existing scenario of buildings, area use, free
spaces, etc were summarized to summarize a
situation analysis. These results were critically
evaluated to identify developments that may be
effected in future.
6.0 Computations and Discussion
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Map 4: Land Extents less than 250m2 with Buildings of less than 2 Floors - Primary Residential Zone
indicate that non-residential activities are
discouraged in this zone. Only three activities,
i) Petrol filling stations, ii) Groceries not
exceeding 50 sqm and iii) Places of public
worship can be continued until such time they
are relocated to a suitable place-Regulations
specifically indicate that architectural character
of the buildings of this area should be
residential and should follow the traditional
architecture of the original building that existed
on the site. Table 4 shows the usage of buildings
in this area and the spatial distribution is shown
in Map 6. According to the available data, all
residential units in the Zone are less than three
stories except for one commercial building with
four stories. The average plot coverage by the
buildings is 26.27% and residential plot
developed as high-rises up to 10 floor. The land
extents with an area of less than 250 m2 and
having less than 2 floors (Map 4) can be
identified easily with the spatial statistics and
building parameters so that development
alternatives can be identified.
In the Primary Residential Zone the number of
houses more than 20 years old counts to 163
which is approximately 40% (Table 3). Out of
this there are not any preserved units as
identified by the CMC. GIS database indicated
that 57 non preserved number of houses greater
than 20 years old are on land plots less than 10
perch. Since there are many houses greater than
20years old, in adjacent land allotments, it is
possible to consider the number of floors,
present occupation etc., and then amalgamate
for real estate development to achieve the most
benefits by constructing residential units up to
10 floors, as permitted in the UDA regulations.
The Map 5 indicates the spatial distribution of
housing units in the PRZ classified according to
their age.
6.2. Special Primary Residential Zone
Special Primary Residential Zone (SPRZ) is
mainly for residential developments and is
proposed to have housing units ranging from a
single floor to a maximum of 3 floors including
the ground floor. The regulations clearly
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Map 5: Spatial Distribution of Housing Units in the
PRZ according to the Age of Building
100
Table 3 : Buildings more than 20 years Old
Table 4 : Buildings Usage of the Thimbirigasyaya Ward
coverage is 34.05%. (Once the individual plot
coverage is computed then this has to be
addressed with the frequency distribution and
mean, standard deviation)
category described as Public Offices,
Institutions, Bank offices, with an extent
exceeding 1000 sqm. (UDA 1999).
The
occupation of land in the residential area by
different agencies can be effectively analyzed
along with the spatial distribution details of the
concerned units of interest provided by the GIS.
The defense occupation of land in this prime
residential zone of Colombo is approximately 9
hectares with a total value of about Rs. 81
billion. Considering the security of the defense
persons, defense security provision costs, risk of
residing and moving from one place to another,
The distribution of land in the SPRZ indicated
that an approximately 9 hectares have been
allocated to the Defense Ministry (Map 7, Table
5). The Bandaranaike Memorial International
Conference Hall (BMICH) (area 121,058 m2),
The irrigation Department (6885 m2), Sathosa of
Trade Ministry (4262 m2) are some of the larger
public offices which are permitted under the
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Table 5: Defense Uses located in Special Primary Residential Zone and Land Values
risk of other residents, the land prices etc., a
land manager equipped with a GIS would be
able to provide several alternative plans for
having a clustered demarcation for defense or
even a relocation to a suitable area with
appropriate facility consideration.
of the present scenario. The GIS calculated plot
area to ground floor area ratio are indicated for
each building usage and also for each build type
(Table 2 and 4). These values enable a drainage
manager to identify the impact of land
development and land cover modifications on
the surface runoff increase due to developments.
A hydrologist would be able to identify the flow
quantities and the flow directions thereby
suitable planning can be achieved. The total
plot area and the ground floor areas calculated
from the GIS (Table 3) shows that the total
residential plot area coverage in the ward is
497,924 m2 and the ground floor area is 173,674
m2. The same for commercial usage indicates
values of 92086 m2 and 25037 m2 respectively
for plot area and ground floor area. Assuming
that the ground floor area is the total paved area
in a plot which could be considered as
impervious, and that the reset of the area is soil
which could soak 50% of the water it receives
from rain, then a manager could identify the
quantity of rain water that would reach the
drainage network in the area. It is often seen
that most land owners pave or build on their
additional land extents which were left as
balance area. Though this is quite
understandable with the desire to build or to
have all weather paved access to the lands
which are exponentially increasing in value, an
urban area development manager needs to look
6.3.Mixed Development Zone (MDZ)
Mixed Development Zone is intended to serve
as a transition area between the Primary
Residential and Commercial Zones. This can be
clearly seen from the building usage details in
Table 4. Commercial and Residential Buildings
numbers are 35% and 32% respectively
indicating a balance in the ratio of number of
buildings. However a plot area distribution
shows that the same percentages are
approximately 28% and 5% indicating a
clustering of commercial establishments. The
data base had no information pertaining to 59%
of the MDZ and these should be included to
enable land managers to arrive at rational
management decisions according to the zoning
plans of the Government.
6.4. Geographic Information
The details of the Thimbirigasyaya Ward
pertaining to the land parcel size and the plot
numbers are given in the Table 5. This kind of
summary statistics enabled in the GIS permits a
manager to look at the spatial distribution of
land parcels of interest or the buildings of
interest to perform easy analysis either using
tabular data, visual interactions or with overlay
operations. It is noteworthy (Table 2) that the
residential areas are mostly with low rise
buildings consisting of floor area between 1-3
floors. Though the primary residential area is
open for development of units upto 10 floors,
the recognition of the lack of such units would
enable a decision maker to either review zoning
or promote development actions based on an
accepted policy arrived at after a careful review
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Table 6: Plot Area Coverage and the Number of
Building Units in Each Development Zone
Number of Units in Zone
Plot Area sq meter
0-250
250-400
400-750
750-1000
1000-2000
2000-122000
Total
102
SPRZ
PRZ
MDZ
216
124
248
60
84
102
834
149
99
156
22
24
17
467
67
16
9
4
3
4
103
after several field observations. In case of the
25% value, the managers need to realize that the
change computed would not be evenly spread
over the ward but would be concentrated with
the topography which would eventually lead to
significant flash floods. Therefore, detailed
studies with the incorporation of topographic
spatial data model would lead to identification
of critical depression zones which can be
provided with concentrated efforts by making
rational resource allocations. For such details,
an incorporation of topographic data on a GIS
would enable suitable planning of roads, land
cover changes etc..
Map 6: Building Usage in the
Thimbirigasyaya Ward, Colombo.
The land information GIS systems are extremely
useful applications for building development
and planning, behaviour of zones and the
trends, drainage planning, road condition
planning. Potential of GIS has already been
shown in the area of collection of taxes and
provision of services. Real estate developers
would be able to identify and develop land to
serve the public better with suitable access to
services and provision of facilities. These are
some of the potential area of possessing an
accurate urban land management system.
Map 7: Defense Uses located within the
Special Primary Residential Zone
7.0 Conclusions
at the repercussions especially with respect to
localized flooding of urban area. GIS enables
the computation of increased water load to the
drainages and also to which particular drainage
in case a change of land cover takes place from
non paved to paved. The study looked at the
potential change of water quantity with respect
to a change of paved area with respect to
commercial and residential area only. A trial
scenario having a change of 50% of the
remaining area of a residential plot as paved,
and a paving of 100% of the balance area in case
of a commercial building was considered to
identify the probable increase of surface runoff.
An approximate runoff coefficient of 0.55 for
gardens and considering that impervious area
would contribute 100%, computations were
effected and the results indicated that there
would be a huge 25% increase in water received
at the drainages. The increases of 50% of
balance area for residential buildings and 100%
for commercial buildings are considered
possible due to the reason that the size of plots
are very small in the Colombo City and also
1.0 The Case Study of the Thimbirigasyaya
Ward provided various examples that could
be effectively used for the management of
urban area thereby demonstrating the
potential of GIS for urban land
management.
2.0 GIS enables a manager to identify the spatial
dimensions of management decisions taken
with respect to tabular summarized data
while it also enables a decision maker to
visually analyze and carryout tabular
verifications, thereby exponentially
increasing the effectiveness of decision
making.
3.0 Thimbirigasyaya ward has indicated
potential to rationally manage the land plots
within the available legislation while
keeping to the targets of the zoning
planners. A GIS would elevate real estate
management of Thimbirigasyaya to a new
dimension which will serve the stakeholders
in a better manner.
4.0 The present dataset without the land surface
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and topographic information enabled to
assess the load on the drainage system due
to various landcover types. This showed as
a significant increase even with small
increase of paved area. Therefore the study
enables the managers to identify flooding
potential due to various developments.
Gazette 1999 Gazette Extraordinary 1090/13 of
29.07.1999, The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist
Republic of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Government
Printing Department, Colombo, 1999
5.0 The Database contains gaps in data, careful
and secure updating of shape information
with the use of precision surveying, satellite
imagery etc., and updating of attribute data
could lead to immense benefits with regards
to land planning and management.
Leelananda H.H., Wijesekera N.T.S., Peiris T.A.,
(2005) A System for Land Development Approval
Management Using Geographic Information Systems
- A Case Study of Thimbirigasyaya Ward, Colombo,
Engineer Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri
Lanka, October 2005
6.0 Additional physical data such as Soil,
Topography, Groundwater, and also
services data such as availability of security,
water supply etc., would provide other
options in the area of land management in
urban area
Dinesh B. Mehta., Usha P. Ragupathi, and Rajesh
Sharma, Environmental Mapping for Integrated
Urban Infrastructure Development, Intergrated
Urban Infrastructure Development in Asia, Kulwant
Singh, Florian Steinberg, and Nathaniel von Einsiedel
Editors, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New
Delhi, 1996
Kapruka (2008), Kapruka Information Web Site, Real
Estate Value Trend - Colombo and Suburbs, http://
www.lanka.info/Sri_Lanka/realestate/
propertyValuesReport.jsp, Visited 14th July 2008.
Mehta, Ragupathi, and Sharma (1996)
Mendis (1998) Mendis Willie, Improving Urban Land
Management in Sri Lanka, Urban Land Management;
Improving Policies and Practices in Developing
Countries of Asia, Jamal H. Ansari and Nathaniel von
Einsiedel., Editors, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt.
Ltd., New Delhi, 1998
8.0 Acknowledgement
The present work was carried out as a
continuation of the first author’s work for his
Master of Science Degree from the Deparment of
Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa. The
support given by the Urban Development
Authority and the International Center for
Geoinformatics Applications & Training
(ICGAT) and its staff is gratefully
acknowledged.
Ming and Hin 2006 Yu Shi Ming and Ho Kim Hin,
Planned Urban industrialization and its effect on
Urban Industrial Real Estate Valuation: The
Singapore Experience, Habitat International 30, 509539, Elsevier, 2006
UDA 1999
Urban Development Authority, City of
Colombo Development Plan 1999 (Volume I and II),
Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and
Construction, Sethsiripaya, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka,
1999
9.0 References
Ulu, Aksoylu and Cabuk (2005)
U l u , . A l i ,
Aksoylu, Sevin, and Cabuk, Alpher, GIS for
Albert K.W. Yeung, Concepts and techniques of
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Ontario Police college, Aylmer, Ontario, Canada,
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Urban Conservation, GIM International, Reed
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Municipal and Urban Councils data Table, Colombo,
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visited 15th July 2008
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