Open Source Web GIS Application for Decentralized Planning: A Case Study of Devikulam Taluk

The widespread access to the Internet, the ubiquity of browsers and the explosion of commoditized geographic information has made it possible to develop Web GIS, it is a form of multimedia geo- representations on the Web. Geographic Information Systems for the web (Web GIS) are being implemented for different purposes. In this context, one of the greatest challenges is to integrate different sources of geographic data, as well as the visualization of this information using maps in an interactive environment. In this study, web GIS framework has explored to provide a practical solution for the sharing of dispersed geospatial data and visualization of vector geospatial data on the web. A vector spatial data management and visualization system was designed and constructed based on the framework using open source software such as Geoserver, Geoexplorer, QGIS etc. These geographical data hosted in the open source web server namely Geoserver and Geoexplorer web interface will help to take best decision by government sectors, stakeholders, entrepreneurships and scientist in this ecologically sensitive regions. The study area is basically a rugged hilly terrain with lack of amenities. According to Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) and High Level Working Group (HLWG) also known as Kasturirangan Committee named this area as natural landscape, needs to be considered for conservation while the rest of the area, referred to as cultural landscape, is opened for any kind of development. Infrastructure facility is poor in this area and 38564 peoples are MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act) card holders. Annual work plan can be done on the basis of available resource and number of MGNREGS card holder. More over anyone can access these data, view, measure, identify, overlay, query and connect with Google street map and satellite map directly.