Mapping out County Development Projects Through Geographic Information System Spatial Planning

December 10, 2018

--- Image caption ---

The County Government of Makueni is among the few counties in Kenya that have complied with Section 107 of the County Government Acts, 2012, that requires Counties to prepare a 10-year Geographic Information System based spatial plan. It provides a vision and common direction for policies and programs that guides long term development plans.

The high rate of urbanization being witnessed in most of the counties is impacting negatively on other complementary land uses. Consequently, there is need to use spatial planning as a means of integrating adaptation and mitigation to climate change and disaster risk reduction in all the 47 Counties. By mapping out the counties, it becomes easier to manage land allocation and enhance various social amenities such as schools, hospitals, markets and public recreational areas

United Nations Development Program (UNDP), through the Kenya Devolution Support, in collaboration with the council of Governors (CoG) is spearheading the institutionalization of the County Spatial Plan Framework. Through this program, UNDP is supporting Makueni County develop its County Spatial Plan.

Makueni Governor Prof. Kivutha Kibwana showcased the GIS Mapping Center during the peer learning conference held in May 2018, where Governors came for bench marking to learn from each other on County best practices.

“This digitization process has become a major development tool, with a click of a button, as anyone can see where there are gaps or concentration of services and spread them better to ensure balance and equal distribution of resources.” anyone can see the development spaces available

Vihiga governor Dr. Wilber Ottichilo, who is also a GIS expert and has also implemented the GIS mapping, says

a space technologies and GIS expert, implemented the technology

The need to support for counties to develop their County spatial plans also was highlighted severally during the conference.

The Council of Governors has received requests from 7 counties of Siaya, Migori, Bungoma, Kilifi, Wajir, Lamu and Machakos to technically support them in various stages of their county spatial planning work. In this regard the Council of Governors through UNDP has recruited five technical experts to support counties on their County Spatial plan development process. This technical experts include 2 Registered physical planners, 2 Climate change, PWDs, Age and Gender experts and 1 GIS (Geographic Information Systems) expert. It’s through this support that counties will develop their County Spatial Plans