By Morkporkpor Anku
Accra, Feb. 19, GNA – The Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA), has redeveloped a new database known as the Land Use Planning and Management Information System (LUPMIS) to improve land management and land use planning.
LUPMIS is a database system that provides information to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), academia, professional bodies, and the public to effectively engage in their spatial planning and development management.
During an engagement with stakeholders across the country on Wednesday, Mr Chapman Owusu-Sekyere, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, LUSPA, said the redevelopment had become imperative because the current LUPMIS had inadequate storage capacity to handle the huge datasets generated by the MMDAs.
He said one of the most informative aspects of the initiative was to enhance the redevelopment process of permitting systems within the MMDAs.
‘When one applies for a development permit for the development of a residential or commercial building, it takes years for one to get his permit but with the redevelopment of LUPMIS and the fact that our law says it should not go beyond 30 days, the person should get the permit,” Mr Owusu-Sekyere said.
The redevelopment, which is being sponsored by the GIZ Paired Programme and REACH Project, will give LUPMIS a central storage system to store data in a structured manner, which would be available to the generators of the data and the public.
LUPMIS, in its current state, is not web-based, however, it is being redeveloped by GOPA Consultancy into a web-based and would be capable of accessing other relevant global datasets for spatial planning.
Mr Ekkehardf Roth, Team Lead for the redevelopment, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the new LUPMIS would be multi purposeful with more technological innovations where other agencies could use it as guidelines for development processes.
“It has a very crucial focus on how all the districts are developing and so they need to have up to date information, plans and tools to make development, permitting and other processes seamless,” he said.
Madam Leticia Ervy, Component Manager, GIZ PAIReD Programme, said the LUPMIS was a data repository to help redevelop the system and “we see it as a crucial element to improve land management and land use planning.”
“Our support is to co-finance GOPA, the consultants that develop the systems. We are also supporting LUSPA in the preparation of some plans to partner MMDAs and working with them on the review of the zoning and planning guidelines,” she added.
GNA