Managing land information

How to achieve the above goal

Achieve National Connectivity

Survey of India has already undertaken the work of establishing 300 precise GPS stations in India which will be about 100 km apart. Using these points as base, Survey of India will provide GPS stations at about 5km apart ensuring 2 points for each village, which will be prominent points (Tri junctions of village). These points will further be used for establishing dense control by Total station traverse or GPS for plot level survey.

High Resolution satellite imagery will be used to prepare geo-referenced ortho rectifi ed Image maps for plain areas. Aerial Photographs on scale 1:20,000 will be used for undulating terrain. This will be done by using the 5km apart GPS control points for rectifi cation of the satellite image or aerial photographs. The available village maps, digital or otherwise, will be superimposed on the Image maps. This Image map will be digitized to create Line Maps with topographical features, and plot boundaries as existing in the village map records, to form First Level LIS. The measurements recorded in creating the old records will be linked to the digital records in a GIS environment. This will be completed by Survey of India in two years time.

Achieve measurement accuracy by Resurvey of plots using local resources and update the records

Survey of India will help State Government to further densify the control by GPS/ Total Station to facilitate village boundary and plot boundary survey. Required Training as Capacity Building Measure can also be imparted. However, Survey of India does not wish to carry out the job of building further cadastral records by ground measurement of plots. This needs to be done by respective state Land records personnel using the GPS points and Line Maps already prepared, to meet legal requirements. Survey of India can render supervision efforts/ technical know how to build the computerized LIS. In a coordinated effort, this process should be completed in 3 years time, as a National Movement.

Collection of other attribute Information required for land management

A suitable data base form should be devised to collect and record the land information and demographic information which will help assessment of tax and economic status of each plot owner. Information should be collected for each plot and ownership on a well designed format, with a key fi eld which can be used as link between different thematic information for that ownership. This work could be outsourced to some extent, by dividing the forms to different categories of information, so that information required as per statutory requirements could be collected by the Land Records offi cials and other information could be collected by out sourcing. Certain information regarding water source and soil classifi cation can be obtained from the respective organization and incorporated in the data base.

Analysis and output

The collected information on control, topography and cadastral details can be processed in the computer using a suitable software for getting plot, grid and village map outputs. Other data collected will help in assessment of tax and economic status of the families. Land use information collected will help analysis from local level to national level. By a suitable generalization technique, the integration of topographical maps on small scale may be done using the same information so that the data on cadastral records and topographical maps will be compatible. This will help integration of Natural resources data in the context of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).

Proposal

Survey of India will take up the project using any of the above mentioned methods/ approach depending on the requirement of the states. It will only extend necessary help in training of persons at state level or technology to the industry, to help creation of a LIMS as follows:

PHASE I

* GPS Control for National Connectivity in two stages( 100 km apart in stage I and 2 points per village in II Stage): This will be done by Survey of India.
* Generation of Image Maps using Aerial Photo, and creating Line Maps superimposed with village maps : (1:1,000 scale for towns/cities, 1:5,000 scale for rural areas and 1:10,000 scale for forest and hilly areas): This will be done using industry and resources of state governments. However, because of the security and restricted use of aerial photo, the premises of Survey of India will be provided to carry out the work under Survey of India supervision.
* Generation of First Level LIS: Line maps will be generated from aerial photos using digital methods. On this the available land records can be superimposed as attributes and used till accurate records are built.

PHASE II

Achieving measurement accuracy, revision survey and correction of records:

The existing line maps generated in Phase I will be used for deriving coordinates and positions of plot boundary as identifi ed on ground and marked on line maps. This will save lot of time and cost of resurvey. Most of the plot boundaries could be identifi ed on the line maps as they are created from the image maps. With training to local level offi cials, this job can be done by Land records offi cials, within their own resources. The measurements so obtained, could be used to correct and update the records. As each village would have properly geo referenced GPS points, there will not be much error in the data so gathered. Minor errors will be adjusted within the village and hence records will match with adjoining plot maps without any diffi culty. Same data will be used to prepare the village, Taluk and small scale maps at higher levels by data integration.

Advantages of GPS/Total Station/ Photogrammetric survey and ground checking procedure:

This approach will help in :-

1. The existing records in measurement can be used as attribute and first level data can be electronically generated and used. This will take about 2 years for the entire country.
2. The photographs will give ground information at the time of photography and become all time proof and record.
3. Many persons can be employed simultaneously on multi layered tasks and will time and cost by about 40% in general, about 60% cost and time saving in rural areas and about 40% in cities.
4. Local level offi cials/ industry will be fully involved in the process and they will actually be doing the ground data collection.
5. Each village can be given an orthorectifi ed photo image of the village. Capacity can be built at village level for incorporating information on this ortho-rectifi ed photographs, so that villagers will be involved in the process of updating records, with facility for scrutiny/ verifi cation. On-line transmission of data can be achieved for on line fl ow of information from local to national level.

Conclusion Survey of India will adopt procedures and technology depending on the need of each state and help in transfer of technology, supervision of work, and build capacity among states and industry to do this gigantic task. It will provide facility in it’s premises for tasks which are of classifi ed nature, like use of photogrammetric techniques. It will also strive to build capacity at local level among people to have a system for systematic and continuous upgradation of information.