Present application in Bangladesh

Now GIS is being used in Bangladesh in planning and development purposes both in public and private sectors. At present there are more than 30 installations in the country and about half of them are operational (Rashid and Ali, 1997). Most of the GIS installations here are donor assisted and still operated by foreign experts with limited home personnel. Yet, recently a number of government and private institutions have installed GIS with their own finance and are utilising it for various purposes including resource management, research, policy and decision making etc.

GIS is now being used to generate readily accessible information on the land resources of the country for researchers, extension workers and decision-makers on land and agricultural resources management as well as agricultural development planning. This database constitutes the foundation for a new effort to develop a comprehensive multi scale GIS based Land Resources Information System (LRIS).

GIS based flood forecast models (MIKE-II) have recently been developed in Bangladesh. MIKE-II and its GIS interfaces are suitable for application at the planning, design, implementation and operation levels. The MIKE-II system is a valuable tool for determining flood control and drainage structure operation rules and providing inputs to flood preparedness programmes.

Arsenic researchers of the country are also applying GIS technology for detailed arsenic contamination mapping, modelling and related physical processes of arsenic contamination.