Web-based GIS for Government Land Property Assessment using
GeoDjango Framework: A Case in Butuan City, Philippines
Alexander DEMETILLO, Michelle JAPITANA and Charis Joy MAYO, Philippines
Key words: GeoDjango Framework, PostgreSQL, OpenLayer
SUMMARY
This paper utilized the ability of a GeoDjango Framework written in Python programming
language to handle spatial datasets for analysis and be able to display them on web maps and das
h boards to provide the City Government of Butuan an aid in decision making and real property t
ax collection management system. The datasets used for this study are the soil type, hazard maps,
and real property units or parcel map for analysis. The GeoDjango Framework is geared with Op
enlayer, Bootstrap, Ajax, and jQuery for the front-end environment and client-side processing to
make the data processing efficient and to make the design user-friendly. GeoDjango is also synch
ronized to PostgreSQL database for the back-end and server-side processing. The Bootstrap handl
es the front-end design through its CSS and HTML libraries, with its JavaScript’s extensions, in
which JavaScript has its cross-platform libraries namely: the Ajax, jQuery, and Openlayers. Ajax
and jQuery scripts both makes the data processing faster because it is designed for easy navigatio
n of document, select DOM elements, create animations, and handle events. The spatial data is ha
ndled by the Openlayer API that provides the necessary tools needed for every spatial data overla
id in the map. With these plug-ins installed and integrated in the GeoDjango Framework, the syst
em were able to develop web-based GIS maps that caters the needs of the City Government of Bu
tuan. The system handles three types of users, the government, the investors, and the public users
or the RPU owners. As the users were navigated to its corresponding pages they can see the parce
ls and access other relevant information according to the type of user. The authorized government
personnel has a wider scope of visualizing the Butuan Parcel Map, while the investors will only s
ee the government lands that are potential for development and investment, and the public users c
an only visualize their own properties or RPUs. The users will also know the hazard that might af
fect a certain RPU through the hazard maps that includes erosion, flood, landslide and earthquake
.
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13th South East Asian Survey Congress
Expanding the Geospatial Future
28th – 31st July 2015
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Web-based GIS for Government Land Property Assessment using
GeoDjango Framework: A Case in Butuan City, Philippines
Alexander DEMETILLO, Michelle JAPITANA and Charis Joy MAYO, Philippines
1. BACKGROUND
The City Government of Butuan (CGB), desires to utilized technology in running transactions
and formulate sound decisions based on available spatial data pertaining to the utilization of gov
ernment land properties. GeoDjango is a framework written in Python programming language tha
t has capability in handling spatial data dynamically and display it to the web. This has became a
significant tool in assessing the government land property in terms of its vulnerability to hazards
using the available datasets. With the use of the developed application for the CGB, the investors
can immediately identify the property that is ideal for investment and those that are less potential
due to its susceptibility to hazards. This study therefore aims to provide the CGB an aid in decisio
n making by developing an application that will allow map viewing and efficient report generatio
n based from the spatial datasets available.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study used the erosion map, soil map, and parcel map of Butuan City. The programming
tools used in this study are GeoDjango Framework 1.6, Openlayer 3, Bootstrap 3, Ajax, jQuery 1.
8 and PostgreSQL 9.2. The soil map is used in identifying the type of soil within the area while th
e hazard map considered for this study was the erosion map of Butuan.
Figure 1 shows the methodological framework of the study. As the spatial data were gathered
, it will then be stored into the PostgreSQL database. The GeoDjango was synced to the PostgreS
QL database using a python script. The GeoDjango will handle the queries of the data from the da
tabase. Then the data will be displayed in the OpenLayer or onto the GUI which Ajax and jQuery
handles the transmission of data, and then the Bootstrap will display the data.
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28th – 31st July 2015
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Figure 1 Methodological Framework
3. PREPARATION OF SPATIAL DATASETS
The Butuan Parcel Map, Erosion Map and the Soil type Map has been digitized using the
reference data gathered from the City Government of Butuan. The tax maps shown in Figure 2
are from the City Assesor’s Office that serves as the basis for making a parcel map and was georeferenced to the Butuan QuickBird Image with WGS 1984-N 51 projection .
Figure 2 Tax Map
The tax maps of the 13 districts are digitized and are consolidated as a whole butuan parcel
map shown in Figure 3, consisting of thousands of parcels with the corresponding PINS and tax
declaration which Government lands are extracted from it.
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Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Figure 3 Butuan Parcel Map
The soil type and erosion map are also geo-reference to WGS 1984-N 51 projection, so that it
can be intersected to the butuan parcel map for a parcel analysis. The erosion map and the soil
type map have a standard color coding for each type as shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5.
Figure 4 Erosion Map
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13th South East Asian Survey Congress
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Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Figure 5 Soil Map
4. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
The GeoDjango is the selected framework for the development. It will only cater HTML,
Bootstrap, JavaScript and jQuery. GeoDjango is an included contrib module for Django that turns
it into a world-class geographic Web framework. Its features includes: Django model fields
for OGC geometries, Extensions to Django’s ORM for querying and manipulating spatial data,
Loosely-coupled, high-level Python interfaces for GIS geometry operations and data formats,
Editing geometry fields from the admin. Openlayer is also used for handling and displaying
spatial data in the application. Openlayers is an open source (provided under the 2-clause BSD
License) JavaScript library for displaying map data in web browsers. It provides an API for
building rich web-based geographic applications similar to Google Maps and Bing Maps. The
library was originally based on the Prototype JavaScript Framework. OpenLayers
supports GeoRSS, KML (Keyhole
Markup
Language), Geography
Markup
Language (GML), GeoJSON and map data from any source using OGC-standards as Web Map
Service (WMS) or Web Feature Service (WFS). The database used for the development is the
PostgreSQL due to its PostGIS plug-in that supports spatial data storage. PostGIS is
a spatial database extender for PostgreSQL object-relational database. It adds support for
geographic objects allowing location queries to be run in SQL. The jQuery library is also used in
the development that handles the passing of data from the database to the interface. jQuery is
a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.
Without any hassle in user interface design Bootstrap framework was used. Bootstrap is the most
popular HTML, CSS and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the
web. With the combination of such languages and applications, the system becomes easier to
develop.
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13th South East Asian Survey Congress
Expanding the Geospatial Future
28th – 31st July 2015
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
5. RESULTS
This study successfully implemented its methodology and was able to develop the system that
manages the datasets that can provide valuable information on the government-owned land prope
rties of Butuan and the type of soil and possible hazard associated to it.
Figure 6 Web Application Process
The process of the application is shown in the Figure 6. As the user log-in to the system, the
database automatically provides the parcel data owned by the user and display it to the web map a
pplication. The soil type and erosion map that are stored in the database will be displayed in the
web map application to identify the parcel characteristics. Then the user, especially the investor c
an use the information for decision making.
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13th South East Asian Survey Congress
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28th – 31st July 2015
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Figure 7 Parcel Information Display
The web map application provides an interface for the land owner shown in Figure 7. Howev
er, a restriction has been set by the developer, allowing only the user to view all information perta
ining his land properties. On the web map, as the user select a certain parcel, it displays the attrib
utes like land PIN, Area, proximity of the property to the city proper, Tax Declaration, and Baran
gay name.
Figure 8 Measure Tool
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Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
The proximity of the property to the city proper (in kilometers) can be also measured manuall
y using the measure tool shown in Figure 8. By activating the tool, the user can select area A and
area B (which is an area located within city proper), then distance will be automatically measure
d that will help the user or investor identify the distance of the parcel from the city proper.
Figure 9 Parcel soil type Identification
Figure 9 shows the user query results on parcels that has soil type named “Alimodian clay lo
am and fall under "30-50% slope and severely eroded" areas. The system will then display all par
cels and the total number of parcels under these descriptions.
6. REFERENCES
[1] GeoDjango 2005-2014 available at: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/contrib/gis/
[2] Openlayers , available at: http://openlayers.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLayers
[3] Bootstrap, available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_(front-end_framework)
[4] jQuery , available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JQuery
[5] Openlayer, available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLayers
[6] PostGIS, available at: http://postgis.net/
BIOGRAPHY
Engr. Alexander T. Demetillo is the Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technol
ogy of Caraga State University, and also the project leader of CLAIMS-GIS project funded by Cit
y Government of Butuan. He is an associate professor of the Electronics and Communication Eng
ineering Division in the College of Engineering and Information Technology of Caraga State Uni
versity. He finished his degree in Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering and holds a degr
ee in Master of Engineering from Xavier University Cagayan De Oro City.
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Engr. Michelle V. Japitana is the assistant project leader of CLAIMS-GIS and the project leader o
f the Phil-LiDAR 2 Project in Caraga State University funded by the Philippine Council for Indus
try, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) of the Departme
nt of Science and Technology (DOST). She is an associate professor of the Geodetic Engineering
Division in the College of Engineering and Information Technology of Caraga State University.
She finished her degree in Bachelor of Science in Geodetic Engineering in Caraga State Universit
y and holds a degree in Master of Science in Remote Sensing from the University of the Philippin
es, Diliman.
CONTACTS
Project Leader: Alexander T. Demetillo
CLAIMS-GIS, Caraga State University
Ampayon
Butuan City
Philippines
Email: atdemetillo@gmail.com
Asst. Project Leader: Michelle V. Japitana
CLAIMS-GIS, Caraga State University
Ampayon, Butuan City
Philippines
Email: michelle.japitana@gmail.com
Sr. Programmer: Charis Joy Mayo
CLAIMS-GIS, Caraga State University
Ampayon
Butuan City
Philippines
Email: charis.joy.mayo@gmail.com
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13th South East Asian Survey Congress
Expanding the Geospatial Future
28th – 31st July 2015
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore