Geo-enabled e-Democracy Tools and Services for Smart Cities

Abstract

In the recent past, an overwhelming growth in geo-enabled open source data and tools through web services and data repositories is witnessed. Internet technology has significantly enhanced the utility of geo-enabled data and applications by making them more accessible to a wider range of users, planners and decision makers through geoportals, mobile Apps and Cloud GIS. The Cloud Computing Architecture (CCA), Internet of Things (IoT) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) represent new technological development which allow them to send and receive data without requiring user interaction and enhance interoperability in data and information services. The geospatial information available through geoportals and online data repositories have immense scope for its utilisation in smart city planning with many success stories world over. Geo-enabled data and tools can go a long way in creating a range of smart city applications where citizen participation is one of the key objectives. These tools and services have immense application potential for public participation, grievance management and to address many more aspects of e-democracy and e-governance such as Tourism GIS, Municipal GIS and so on. These citizen-centric Apps and web services facilitate faster information dissemination and improve the efficiency and management of infrastructure, which is essential to enhance the quality of life of urban dwellers and one of the key objectives of the smart city movement. In India, the “Bhuvan” geoportal developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) provides a milieu of data sets which can be used for building smart city applications. Bhuvan portal hosts high-resolution data (~1 m resolution) of more than 350 Indian cities till date and planning to cover other cities in near future. It also offers thematic maps useful for Master Plan formulation for 152 towns prepared under National Urban Information System (NUIS). Effort is on to use high-resolution satellite images for the overlay and fine-tuning of Urban Framework Survey. It also hosts many other data sets, e.g., land use/land cover, road network, soil, geomorphology, etc. which can be used to plan and manage the smart cities effectively.