Supporting Sustainable Land Management in Bhutan through Enhanced Geospatial Capacities: A UNOSAT Success Story

The Thimphu Urban Planning Division has streamlined its zoning processes through GIS tools and web applications. A notable achievement was processing 1,300 street signs into a database within three months, improving postal delivery services. 

Moreover, the Division implemented a heat mapping analysis to understand urban heat patterns in the mountain-enclosed capital, where 15 per cent of Bhutan's population resides. Building on earlier UNOSAT capacity development initiatives that set the foundation for this project, GIS capabilities proved crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency response. 

GIS helped inform the zones and ensure people had access to supplies within their zones,

explains Mr. Sonam Tobgay, Chief Survey Engineer at the Land Record & Survey Division, who worked in the Incident Command Centre to formulate emergency measures.

The integration of GIS technologies has transformed inter-departmental coordination. 

The GIS support allowed us to create layers for urban planning, which improved coordination between departments. We now visualize projects in realtime.

notes Sonam. 

His team utilizes open-source web-mapping systems to maintain their spatial database, enabling efficient data sharing across departments and supporting key decisions in road development and urban resilience planning. This practical application has increased not only the speed and efficiency of operations but also enhanced data credibility for evidence-based decision making.