Identification of Suitable Areas for Concentrated Development in Colombo Municipal Council Area, Using GIS Based Multi-Criteria Evaluation

More than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, which are becoming increasingly congested because of uncontrollable population growth. Zoning is an essential tool in successful urban planning which is a method used to regulate the land use and making concentrated development zones. Defining this concentrated area need to follow some scientific method, because urban areas are connected with complex activity system and different indicators are used to find out those activity systems. Hence different indicators are needed to find the concentrated development zone. GIS based Multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) method can be used to identify the different suitability in urban planning perspective. Colombo is one of the emerging cities in South Asia as well as it is the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. Even though there are under- utilized lands available, it is difficult to get the highest and best use from present use. On the other hand, city need to address the demand for commercial and other developments. This study aims to identify most suitable areas for concentrated development within Colombo Municipal Council area. A GIS based multi­criteria analysis was used to identify the most suitable areas for concentrated development with the criteria of Roads, Population density, Building density, Railway stations, Underserved settlement and Sewer network. The outcome shows that several areas within Colombo Municipal Council area have the potential for concentrated development, yet some areas of concentrated development zone does not. Further four criteria were used for urban growth evaluation which includes: Slope, land fertility, distance to urban center, and distance to road. The final suitability map identified four levels for suitability as Very High, High, Moderate and Low. Keywords: Suitability analysis, Multi Criteria Evaluation, Zoning Plan, Concentrated zon