Use of Geographic Information Systems in Spatial Planning: A Case Study of an Institute Campus

To represent location-based information of existing and planned facilities in the campus spatial planning, traditional two-dimensional (2D) drawings, three-dimensional (3D) solid models, and virtual models are used. In addition, other information like what they represent, their neighborhood, natural topography, and associated attributes are also important. In practice, it is difficult to deal with such information together in the CAD or virtual reality (VR) based systems. These systems represent 3D virtual campuses without topology, attributes, and its consequences on the surroundings. In reality, any new facility addition will have an effect on the existing facilities; therefore, consideration must be given to the surroundings, and any new facility addition should not be planned as an isolated entity. The pesent study explores the use of geographic information systems (GIS) for campus spatial planning with help of location-based analysis, attributes management, modeling topography, building topology, and spatial and nonspatial analyses on a single platform. The virtual campus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Hamirpur, India, was developed as a case study along with the database of all existing facilities. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.