Dec 23, 2007 (LBO) – A mapping programme using satellite pictures will
help Sri Lanka’s government do better planning and rebuilding in the
tsunami-hit eastern and southern provinces, officials said. The French-funded Geographical Information System (GIS) project using
high resolution satellite imagery costs almost a billion rupees.
The detailed digital maps that can be prepared will also help local
authorities in their work and eventually be available to the public,
said L H Indrasiri, Director GIS at the Urban Development Authority
(UDA), which is implementing the project.
“We’re preparing maps of the southern and eastern provinces covering
an area of 20,000 square kilometres,” he told LBO.
“The images will be in colour and also digital so we can make maps on
the computer using GPS (Global Positioning System) co-ordinates. We
can make it the base and use it to provide layered information to
users such as on land use, roads and streams.”
“It can be used for planning purposes and even help local authorities
identify premises by assessment number and categorise the road
networks.”
Eventually, when the maps are made available to the public, people can
make use of the