Africa-Press – Mauritius. Certificates were awarded, today, to Head Planners of Local Authorities who have followed a training on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) by the Land Drainage Authority (LDA), in the presence of the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Local Government and Disaster Risk Management, Dr Mohammad Anwar Husnoo, and the Minister of National Infrastructure and Community Development, Mr Mahendranuth Sharma Hurreeram.
The award ceremony was held at the University of Mauritius (UoM), in Réduit. The short professional course on GIS, dispensed by the UoM, aimed at providing training to those working in land use planning.
At the end of the training, the Head Planners will be certified to be user-friendly with the GIS Software. The participants will be able to locate a site on the Flood Map of the LDA, create shape files and buffers, and Maps.
In his address, Dr Husnoo highlighted that most countries in the developed and developing world are facing a range of major challenges such as rapid urbanisation, traffic congestion and climate change adding that Mauritius is no exception as regards rapid urbanisation.
He indicated that the number of applications for a Building and Land Use Permit (BLUP) has considerably increased at the level of Councils. For the past 10 months of this year, our local authorities have processed 22,523 BLUP compared to 24,942 in 2021 and 19,798 in 2020, he stated.
He further pointed out that among the BLUP that have been treated by the local authorities features those which are found in flood prone areas and which may have been processed “without complete information” on the area in which they are located.
He therefore affirmed that the short professional course on GIS in the context of the Land Drainage Masterplan comes at an opportune time as it will enable Land Use Planners to use the GIS to better deal with development occurring in flood prone areas.
Dr Husnoo dwelt on the importance of the GIS System which, he said, will help Land Use Planners to capture, store, retrieve, update and analyse spatial data as well as allow them to present spatial information on a digital map.
The GIS System will be a very efficient tool for our Land Use Planners to be able to accurately locate the sites where more flooding tends to happen, document sites every year where landslides or flood occurs and can reveal important new information that leads to better understanding of complex circumstances and thus improves decision making of the different councils, he added.
He further observed that climatic change is the root cause of unprecedented natural events and hence the need to be prepared and revisit the way applications for BLUPs are dwelt with so as to minimise the damages linked to flooding.
He reiterated Government’s vision to address the issue of constructions which may compromise people’s safety. Addressing the participants, Minister Hurreeram underlined the importance of their role not only in delivering BLUPs but in the combat against the effects of climate change.
He recalled that the LDA is arming itself with latest technology to protect the population from flashfloods such as the Digital Elevated Model and state-of-the-art drone with 4 K imagery adding that it will soon publish the Land Drainage Masterplan.
He also underlined the need to build more responsibly and that the comprehension and usage of the GIS System is vital. According to him, once Land Use Planners are capable of interpreting those maps correctly, they will be the first barriers against haphazard construction such as structures that tamper with our natural water courses.
Geographical Information Systems GIS is a tool which finds application in many fields such as land use planning. The LDA has commissioned a Land Drainage Masterplan and derived planning tools on the GIS platform so as to enhance our urban planning.
The GIS platform is geared towards building resilience to flooding and to specific conditions that may be prescribed to attenuate any risk of inundation and for future construction.
The UoM has been approached to offer the training in line with the Memorandum of Understanding between the LDA and UoM. The training was scheduled on 25, 27, 29 and 31 October 2022 and 03 November 2022.
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