Improving Land Use Management of Naga City Local Government through GIS

Rizalino Cruz, University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Diliman, Philippines

Under the Local Government Code of 1991, local government in the Philippines has
increasingly shaped land policies as it plans and manages land resources within its
jurisdiction. Like any major cities in the Philippines, Naga City is facing many
development constraints, such as land use conversion, deforestation, flooding, pollution,
and incompatible uses of land. These issues pose real challenge to the carrying
capacity of existing land use and to the future direction of land use changes. The paper
analyzes land use processes inside Naga City local government. It takes a critical look
at how the local government practices land use planning and monitoring, and how it
applies technology to support such functions. It defines opportunities to improve land
use management through the application of an integrated database system and
Geographic Information System (GIS). Applying the Use Case Diagram of the Unified
Modeling Language (UML), the paper defines the various functionalities of a land use
information system for Naga City local government. It then proposes improvements in
the processing and issuance of zoning clearances and certificates for site zoning
classification as represented in the Activity Diagram of UML. A Class Diagram is
formulated to support land use management inside Naga City local government. It
builds new relationships on existing datasets and incorporates new classes. The data
model is populated to test three functionalities identified in the Use Case Diagram,
namely: providing immediate access to data, facilitating decision-making, and
conducting spatial analysis for land use planning. GIS is used as prototype to
demonstrate these system functionalities, to identify problems in implementation, and to
highlight the potential benefits of GIS as a tool for local governments in managing land
use plans and policies. Published Before: ITC, the Netherlands (based on the author's
Master's thesis)