MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: The New Straits Times (page 29)

Zainuddin, who is the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) director-general, said the NSP (which is expected to take two years to complete), would effectively identify "every square inch of land" in this country.

This, he explained, would enable the authorities to "specifically outline the areas in which development is forbidden and will tell the kinds of development each square inch of land" in this country.

This, he explained, would enable the authorities to "specifically outline the areas in which development is forbidden and will tell the kinds of development each square inch of land is planned for".

For the general public, the NSP would also be a boon, as we would immediately know if and when our local or state projects in the forbidden zones.

Zainuddin said the NSP would "merge all of Malaysia's various policies" (such as the Industrialisation Policy and the National Agricultural Policy) into a "single map", thereby translating them into "the actual landscape of our country".

He added that the use of high technology such as satellite imaging and computerised geographical and land information system would speed up the preparation of the NSP.

When asked if its implementation would in turn make project approvals faster and more transparent, Zainuddin said the TCPD is working towards that direction.

He pointed out that in Terengganu and Pahang, applications for approvals are already being submitted via diskette, thereby minimising paperwork.

In the future, it would also enable almost immediate processing and analysing of applications so decisions can be known much faster.

Another statement by the director-general that I particularly welcome is his assurance of public participation in the "feedback gathering process".

Zainuddin said his department is "aggressively moving" into cyberspace to publicly display development plans and to gather input from the people affected by any proposed development project.

Whether the cyberspace presence would be replaced or be in addition to the current (and traditional) practice of having such plans put on display at certain locations for public viewing and feedback is an open question. However, since not all Malaysians are on the Net, the current practice will probably still be maintained.

Although spatial planning might be regarded by some people as something quite "new", it had in fact gripped the attention of urban planners in some countries (especially those in the western hemisphere) some time ago.

I had been wondering when spatial planning would catch on here, and now I have my answer.

The proposal by the TCPD to display development plans on the Net reminds me of what was done in Amsterdam some years ago.

In 1995, the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture produced a map showing all its existing spatial plans. The map showed for the first time the development picture of the entire region, something which no one had seen before.

The map was subsequently digitised and is now accessible on the Internet. As a result, not only is the entire map capable of being updated constantly, but plans can be "visualised" in detail by means of video, animation and sound.

Consequently, any debate about Amsterdam's future is accessible to a much wider public.

In the US, spatial planning caught the attention of the Clinton Administration in 1994 when the government passed Executive Order 12906, calling for the establishment of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.

In a speech delivered at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, Vice-President Al Gore said stronger efforts are necessary to "enhance the livability and economic competitiveness" of the American communities.

Gore added that increased public access and sharing of geographic data would in turn put "more control, more information, more decision-making power into the hands of families, communities and regions". In short, the information would give Americans "the freedom and flexibility they need to reclaim their own unique place in the world".

Mutatis mutandis. We could say the same thing about our own NSP and what it can do for the country and the public in the next millennium.