Today on November 20, 2024, we join global community in celebrating the 25thAnniversary of GIS Day under the theme “Mapping Minds, Shaping the World”. This theme highlights how human creativity and technological advancements come together to transform our world.
Our World by ESRI
We at City Pulse (Pvt.) Ltd. are excited to be part of this global movement. Inspired by the visionary Ralph Nader, who motivated the creation of GIS Day in 1999, we are committed to integrating and building GIS based solutions in key thematic areas of habitat planning, agro-informatics, socio-economic studies, environment, disaster management, water solutions etc. Our goal is to better understand, navigate, and shape communities at rural, urban and regional scale.
Through GIS, we tend to change the traditions, uncover trends, empower informed & smart decision-making and contribute to sustainable development of individuals and communities; our people and the planet, now and into the future.
In line with our efforts, we are also driving the #PakistanGIS initiative—a voluntary movement aimed at building a strong, connected network of GIS professionals, map enthusiasts, students, and researchers. Together, we can innovate, share knowledge, and contribute to society’s growth through the power of geospatial technology.
Surveying and Mapping Act, 2014 of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) received the assent of the President on 12th May, 2024. It’s an act to provide for constitution and regulation of Survey of Pakistan, which is the National Surveying and Mapping Organization of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The main parts of the Surveying and Mapping Act, 2014 include:
Part I: Preliminary
Part II: Constitution of Survey of Pakistan
Part III: Management of Geospatial Data
Part IV: Supply and Security of Geospatial Data
Part V: Use of Survey Markers
Part VI: National and International Initiatives
Part VII: Offences and Penalties
Part VIII: Miscellaneous
The said act has been amended in 2020, and it’s recognized as Surveying and Mapping (Amendment) Act, 2020. Both the acts can be downloaded from PakistanGIS Geonode:
National Drought Monitoring Centre (NDMC), Islamabad is serving the nation as a hub for the collection, consolidation and analysis of drought related data from all possible sources in the country; preparing and disseminating monthly drought bulletins & moisture stresses based on various indices; advising government agencies on drought related matters including drought declaration, and conducting research on drought related issues and development of statistical models for improved drought prediction.
Drought Watch corner displays outlook maps and graphs on following important parameters, at national and regional level as appropriate:
Drought Monitor
Precipitation
Standardized Precipitation Index
Soil Moisture Outlook
Rain Percentage Anomaly Change
Percentage Departure Of Rainfall
Cumulative Precipitation Anomaly
Soil Moisture Anomaly
Water Availability Forecast
Rainfall Analysis
Length Of Dry Period
Drought Hazard Map
Drought Frequency Map
Few of these data products are being illustrated here:
NDMC leverages Land surface temperature (°C), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index: NDVI) and Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index as powerful satellite driven indices for monitoring Earth’s surface, overcoming limitations associated with traditional weather station data. These indices enhance understanding of environmental processes and improve resilience. The estimates are made available on NDMC website link: https://ndmc.pmd.gov.pk/new/satellite-indices.php
The availability of weekly, monthly, and quarterly drought bulletins issued by the NDMC is also a valuable resource for monitoring and managing drought conditions. These bulletins provide essential information to stakeholders, policymakers, and the public. By offering insights into drought severity, trends, and potential impacts, they contribute to informed decision-making and preparedness efforts. Once you locate the bulletins, you can download them in pdf format.
As we commemorate World Environment Day 2024 with the theme Land restoration, desertification and drought resilience; it is important to acknowledge the existence and contribution of NDMC Pakistan. However, it is suggested to enhance the outreach of multiple drought related products. It is envisaged that provision of spatio-temporal map products and their statistics in user friendly formats (like *.csv, *.jason, *.geotiff, *.shp etc.) is vital. It would help students and researchers to easily integrate diverse interrelated and interdependent geospatial datasets; develop dynamic data driven products and models, holistic drought monitoring and hazard assessment tools, and drought resilience index calculator etc. at local, national, regional and global scales.
GIS Municipal Services Maps serve as powerful tools for enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of urban governance and service delivery. They enable evidence-based decision-making, promote civic engagement, and contribute to the overall quality of life in cities and municipalities.
With this realization, Punjab Municipal Development Fund Company (PMDFC), Government of Punjab has harnessed GIS technology to meet their goal “Help Build Healthy Cities”. The GIS-based service maps are regularly developed and disseminated under the Punjab Cities Program (PCP) to support planning officers of 16 municipal corporations/committees within Punjab province namely: Bahawalnagar, Burewala, Daska, Gojra, Hafizabad, Jaranwala, Jhang, Jhelum, Kamalia, Kamoke, Khanewal, KotAddu, Muridke, Okara, Vehari and Wazirabad. Here are few screenshots of the original website:
To date GIS thematic maps including base map, roads and chowks; solid waste management; sewerage; street lights; parks, water supply, approved schemes of these targeted MCs are available online for time period 2023-2024, 2022-2023 and 2021-2022 in pdf format (Source: https://pmdfc.punjab.gov.pk/gis-map-16_cities-pcp).
It is noteworthy that Local Government & Community Development (LG & CD) Department also has representation in Board of Directors (BoDs) of PMDFC.
It’s great to have these detailed maps that cover such diverse thematic nature from connectivity to water works to solid waste management to approved future developments etc. within municipality. However, it would be great if such donor funded projects make the GIS data available in open domain to support researchers and stakeholders. In some cases, there is a significant need to improve the cartographic and vector data quality. PakistanGIS user may use the data as provided. These maps will be available at http://geonode.pakistangis.org/ as well.
Dear Members, Volunteers and Supporters of Pakistan GIS!
ASalam o Alaikum!
It gives us immense pleasure to share that by the grace of Allah and support of friends, we have finally set up the Geonode for PakistanGIS; a completely open source geospatial data repository (https://www.geonode.pakistangis.org/). We are in the process of uploading datasets which we have got in the last 10 years. You are also most welcomed to join and share your wonderful works and experiences.I, once again want to thank my friends who helped us in setting up the system and gave their valuable time to facilitate the process.
Best of luck to Pakistan.
May Allah accept our small contribution for the betterment of society.
This map is based on the data of patients admitted to the following hospital and represent the cases till 30 March 2020: Bahria Hospital, Childern Hospital Ganga Ram Hospital General Hospital Jinnah Hospital Mayo Hospital National Hospital PKLI Hospital Services Hospital Shahdara Teaching Hospital Sheikh Zaid Hospital Social Security Hospital
Junaid Hussain has created this map of Kachi Abadis in Lahore. Image attached contains list and Location of Declared and Un-Declared Kachi Abadis in Lahore with approximate number of units.
The maps shows the declared and un-declared katachi abadis as per LDA record 2011-2012.
Every census defines Urban areas in its own way. Recently, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has issue the latest listing and map of the declared urban areas in Pakistan. As per the new list, there are 624 urban areas all over the country.
PBS has prepared and shared some addtional maps as well. Their high quality versions may be obtained from the links below:
As per the official website of QGIS , updated version QGIS 2.8 has been released and is ready for download in the QGIS download page.
The Official Changelog for QGIS page says:
This is a special release since it is designated an ‘LTR’ (Long Term Release). It will be supported with backported bug fixes for one year, and will be in permanent feature freeze (i.e. no new features will be added, only bug fixes and trivial updates).
The purpose of this releases is to provide a stable and less frequently changing platform for enterprises and organisations that do not want to deal with updating user skills, training materials etc. more than once per year.
QGIS 2.8 is also a special release because it includes so many great new features, tweaks and enhancements to make the most popular Free desktop GIS even more feature filled and useful.
