Assessing the Compliance of Physical Plans using GIS and Remote Sensing: A Case of Olkalou Town

Abstract

Compliance assessment is a component of physical planning concerned with the instigative inquiry as to whether an ap-proved physical plan is implemented and guidelines followed as stipulated. The aim of the study is to assess the compliance of a physi-cal plan using the Geospatial information system and remote sensing technologies and propose a framework to be used for the assess-ment. The study area was Olkalou Township in Nyandarua county of Kenya. Recent high resolution satellite imagery of the study area was used together with the approved physical plans as data sources to extract the information which was cross referenced with informa-tion gathered during the field study. Remote sensing was used to extract information from the satellite imagery which was later used as input into GIS system as a data source. Subsequently, GIS analysis was carried out and the compliance level was computed. From the results zones such as the transportation zone exhibited a compliance of 89.47% whereas the public utility zone showed a 0% non-compliance. Non-compliance observed in the various zones was represented by the difference in the existing land use from the proposed land use. It is evident that the responsible authorities do not emphasize the need for compliance assessment of the developments taking place and have to rely on the paper based system which is time and labour consuming and is easily marred by corruption.