Building a GIS Platform for Sustainable Land Management: A Case Study of the City of Čačak, Serbia

Abstract

The general aim of this research is to contribute to sustainable land management and urban planning practices. An approach for building an urban planning-oriented information platform that could support a sustainable (i.e. environmentally sustainable), socially responsible and economically efficient decision-making process in the future at the municipal level is proposed. The proposed information platform approach relies on and is built for the Geographic Information System (GIS) but includes basic data management principles and the standards of the Spatial Data Information (SDI) concept, namely, INSPIRE. Thus, a model with the two following technical elements for building land management and urban planning based on a general platform or database is proposed in this article: (1) a conceptual Unified Modeling Language (UML) data model for urban planning metadata and data for different types of urban plans and (2) lists of land-use classes and types at the municipal level (included in the UML data model). The proposed approach includes a land-use model and the standardization of urban planning data to build a GIS platform to better integrate various types of data (social, economic, environmental, etc.) and is based on general and detailed urban regulation plans and land governance practices in the City of Čačak, Republic of Serbia. Once implemented, the proposed approach is expected to create preconditions for decision making regarding future sustainable land development in Čačak and other municipalities in Serbia.

Keywords:

• Sustainable land management
• urban planning
• UML model
• standard land use
• spatial data infrastructure (SDI)

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Ljiljana Živković, Republic Agency for Spatial Planning, Kralja Milutina 10a, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.

Aleksandar Đorđević, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Geography, Studentski trg 3/III, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.

ORCiD

Aleksandar Đorđević http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8050-9258

Notes

1. Municipality of Cajetina: http://www.giscajetina.org/gis

2. City of Kragujevac: http://gis.kragujevac.org.rs/

3. Municipality of Pirot: http://gis.pirot.rs/

4. Municipality of Zvezdara: http://www.gis.zvezdara.rs/

5. Municipality of Palilula: http://www.palilula.org.rs/gis/GIS.htm

6. Municipality of Indjija: http://indjija.net/Page.aspx?id=42

7. City of Zrenjanin, Municipality of Novi Becej: http://gis.zrenjanin.rs/novibecej/

8. City of Subotica: http://www.suboticagis.rs/

9. City of Novi Sad: http://www.mapanovisad.rs/mapserver2015/nsmaps/

10. Municipality of Vladicin Han: gis.vladicinhan.org.rs:8080/industrijskaZona/map_full.jsf?width=1366&height=677

11. Municipality of Kovacica: http://212.62.35.195:8086/

12. Municipality of Nova Crnja: http://109.94.224.226/novacrnja/

13. Municipality of Trstenik: http://82.117.212.102:8585/trstenik/qgiswebclient.html?format=image/png;%20mode=8bit&visibleLayers=Ortofoto,Granice%20katastarskih%20opstina,Projektovana%20trasa%20autoputa,Granice%20katastarske%20opstine&map=/var/www/projects/Trstenik/Trstenik%20autoput/parcele.qgs

14. Due to a long transition process and the general development lag of Serbia, the concept of sustainability was introduced in urban planning practices rather recently; thus, municipalities are experiencing significant challenges in the domains of planning and sustainable urban development. Generally, a low level of understanding and knowledge exists regarding methods and techniques for achieving sustainable solutions. Consequently, it is necessary for Serbia to identify creative methods for accelerating planning and the transition towards the European sustainability concept (from physical planning to integrated sustainable territorial development) to create a Serbian urban planning model that is compatible with current socioeconomic changes. Lalović and Mrdjenović (2010) identified one instrument that could make this happen to influence and foster the needed transition planning approach in municipalities in Serbia, which is called the Territorial Information System. This system is aimed at building municipal capacities for integrated strategic planning and governance using GIS solutions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia [grant number 176017].