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year( 2016-17).
The initiative is keen on building a Decision Support System for City governance in GIS platform. This is technically complex and requires a lot of manpower and time. The concept is to create a decision support system by incorporating geo-spatial data as much as possible and modelling the impact of various factors into it. The DSS is supposed to be interactive and should be capable of analysing the environmental, physical and social impact of any proposal on the ground. The idea is in a nascent stage and need further development before formulating a concrete project.
During this period, a team of post graduate students in planning from Government Engineering College, Thrissur has done internship in the office for two months. They were engaged in working out the“ Happiness Index” of Kozhikode city. The team has come out with a methodology( which needs further refinement considering the short time they got for formulating the methodology and absence of very wide consultations in the matter) and studied a small sample of 500 people in the city to work out the happiness index. The then District Collector, Sri. Prasanth N, IAS and Professor Deepak Dayanidhi of IIM-Kozhikode has actively participated in the deliberations and positively contributed. This needs to be taken up further by refining the methodology and increasing the sample size considerably. If periodically worked out, this can be a good indicator of the quality of city governance. A real time evaluation through a net based application can also be thought of in this regard.
The above mentioned are some of the projects and activities being taken up by the Regional Town & Country Planning Office, Kozhikode at present in view of the new paradigm of development planning. The expected outcomes of these projects are:-
• A cultural shift from being a regulatory authority to a facilitator of spatial development.
• Planning intervention through proactive means to ensure implementation of development plans / projects.
• Involvement with the academic institutions and academic activity for updating on the subject.
• Capacity building of the staff of the Department by engagement in multidisciplinary projects.
• Involvement of staff according to ability and will for their own skill upgradation for inculcating a positive and broader outlook.
• More transparency in the activities of the Department, better utility to the Local Self Governments and to the community as whole and thus better public acceptability.
The experience gained from these initiatives are expected to contribute towards the evolution of a development planning process responding to the present day needs, which is amenable to midcourse corrections based on meaningful dialogues. <
( The views expressed in this article are the Author’ s only and the Town & Country Planning Department, Government of Kerala or any of its functionaries may not share any of these views)