The value and role of GIS to planned urban management and development in cities in developing countries

A need exists within urban planning for techniques to promote sustainable policies and developments for this to become possible, we need to enhance and facilitate stakeholder understanding and involvement in decision making and in monitoring the impacts of management policies. GIS (Geographical Information Systems) are commonly used as planning and analysis tools in developing countries, while parallel work has been investigating sustainable development and the future of cities. GIS-P (GIS-Participation) combines GIS and other methodologies of social and environmental assessment in a new set of techniques that meet the aims of sustainability. The methodology includes developing a spatial database of environmental and social information to assist in the formulation of available options and jointly holding citizen inquiry groups with stakeholders from within the community and statutory and non-statutory organisations to provide input in the formulation of options. Examples of GIS-P in developing countries are hard to find and are often the subject of research papers rather than application. However, examples presented here illustrate how GIS-P has been used effectively for sustainable developments. Urban management and development is shown to work best with participative and inclusive methods which GIS-P can provide and thus a suitable framework for its inclusion in city planning in developing countries