In a developing Country like Sri Lanka, it is very important to plan and manage its land development programmes to attract investments to develop land resources. In this context special emphasis should be given to urban areas.The prevailing systems of issuing preliminary land development clearance by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) which is based on a manual filing system consumes significant time and is unable to provide alternative solutions to prospective developers. Most of the countries use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for similar land management work.A study was carried out, selecting Thimbirigasyaya ward of Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) to develop a GIS based lajid data management system in order to carry out the management of the land clearances in an efficient manner.Land parcel information obtained from CMC and UDA were scanned, spatial data were georeferenced and a mosaic was constructed. Input data were subjected to accuracy checks and were verified. Accuracies of data duplication, length, extent etc., were found satisfactory and adequate for UDA land clearance work. The database also incorporates the UDA conditions stipulated for location, zone and regulations enabling the checking of applications. The developed land information system was designed to include all functional aspects in the previous systems and additional capability to provide alternative solutions. The system developed using GIS was verified for computational accuracy using manual calculations. Adequacy checks were done with respect to the approved regulations.

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.

In a developing country like Sri Lanka, its very important to plan and manage it is development programmes in a rational manner ensuring optimum use of resources. Therefore, a decision maker has to carryout spatial prioritization to manage the scarcity of resources, while identifying the desires of the rural community. In this context GIS provides a tool for the managers to identify the spatial distribution of requirements and then to make a comparison of presently deployed resources to make rational decisions through Environmental Development Needs Assessment Programmes. The present work is on the development of a GIS for the Pollonnaruwa District to identify the spatial distribution of Environmental Development Needs. A household survey was conducted including approximately 31,000 households out of a total of 91000. The survey assessed the desirable environmental development needs for self development and also for the village development. A vector based GIS model was developed to compute the spatially aggregated priority GN and the DS divisions. Survey responses for development needs were analysed considering the number of responses and the associated stakeholder priorities. GIS data layers were prepared to reflect the priority needs for the district. Ratio Estimation Procedure was used to compute the weights for the aggregation of development need options for the identified spatial extents. For individual family development, the top priority was the need of a housing unit whereas in case of needs to develop one's own village the topmost request was to obtain electricity supply. The study indicates the potential of GIS to identify the spatial distribution of EDN based on each GND thereby facilitating a resource manager to carryout rational management of development assistance.Key Words: Sri Lanka, Polonnaruwa, GIS, Model, Environmental, Development, Overlay, Stakeholder Assessment, Planning, Management IntroductionIn a developing country like Sri Lanka, its very important to plan and execute it is development programmes in order to suitably manage valuable resources to ensure the fulfilment of public aspirations. Sri Lanka being a developing country has significant room for enhancement of living standards of its nationals and this is more so in the case of rural areas. There are critiques who indicate that insufficient attention had been given to the needs of rural area community when launching and executing rural development projects. In this backdrop, a decision maker has to carryout prioritization to suitably utilize the scarce resources, while identifying the desires of the rural community. Prioritisation of resources allocation requires spatial assessments. Therefore, to identify the spatial resource mobilization needs, it is necessary to carryout a stakeholder needs assessment at a suitable spatial resolution.Though the spatial unit of assessment can be as fine as household level, the location identification with household coordinates would require an enormous amount of time and financial resources. The ...