Development of Census-GIS methodology for Pakistan

The importance of a reliable and efficient methodology for data collection at the national level cannot be overemphasized. Conducted at decennial intervals, census plays an essential role in the collection of a wide range of data in Pakistan. It is of prime importance for national planning as it is the main source of information for the study of various aspects of the population who are the beneficiaries or otherwise of any governmental policies. Census exercises thus need to be efficiently performed to safeguard data accuracy. In this context, censuses conducted by manual methods have become obsolete and are being increasingly replaced by automated methods such as the Census GIS. This paper presents a model for the implementation of GIs for census enumeration in Pakistan so as to overcome the inordinate delays often encountered in the country’s previous census exercises. It is believed that this new mode of census management would enable the streamlining of not only national, local and regional planning but also that of fool-proof disaster management.