GIS

Based Assessment of Selected Urban Facilities and Utilities Planning:

A Case of Nekemte Town, Oromia Region, Ethiopia




Tadele Feyissa


Paper Submitted to
Global Geospatial Conference 2013
UNECA Conference Center



Addis Ababa, Ethiopia


November 4-8, 2013

ABSTRACT
GIS Based Assessment in Urban Facilities and Utilities Planning: A Case of Nekemte Town, Oromia
Region, Ethiopia
Tadele Feyissa
Addis Ababa University, 2013
This project is mainly concerned on GIS based assessment in urban facilities and utilities planning in Nekemte
town, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Application of GIS technology in urban facilities and utilities planning has
recently absorbed attention and has a power of assessing already installed urban physical settings in harmony
with demographic, spatial, local development plan and service demand directives. Keeping in the view of
importance of GIS in urban planning, the study was conducted in Nekemte town where road transportation,
water supply and consumption for domestics use and accessibility to fixed line telephone are characterized by
shortfalls. The general objectives of the study is to create geodatabase for urban transport facilities, water
supply lines and fixed telephone lines utilities, and to show their spatial arrangement by employing GIS
technology. Specifically, the study is designed to create GIS database for road transportation network that
enable to evaluate the existing network system in the study area, to show applications of GIS in urban utilities
planning, to evaluate accessibility of water supply distribution using GIS in the study area and to analyze the
spatial arrangement of fixed line telephone accessibility. Data for this project were obtained from CSA,
Nekemte municipality, Ethio-telecom, and Oromia Water, Mineral and Energy Bureau. Documents attached to
geospatial data as an attribute were obtained from East Wallaga zone Finance and Economic Development
office, and Nekemte town Water, Mineral and Energy office. The collected data in CAD feature and raster
image were georeferenced in ArcGIS environment and documents used throughout the analysis were adjusted
to .dbf format to fit ArcGIS 10.1. Global Mapper 14.1 was used to indicate terrain patterns of the study area.
The project revealed that GIS is a powerful tool to create geospatial database that help to address where
shortages of urban facilities are prevailing. Accordingly, shortages of road networking in different corners of
the town particularly away from the center flushed. The spatial distribution of water supply pipe lines was
evaluated in terms of serviceability and significant parts of the town remained uncovered. The study also
showed the outlying residential areas of the town have no access to fixed line telephone convenience.
Therefore, the Nekemte municipality and other stake holders can use GIS technology for better utility
management and planning. There is a need to construct road including Arterial Street, Collector Street and
paved street. Extra water supply pipes and fixed telephone line expansion to distant new residential areas is
also recommended to satisfy the existing demand.
Key words: GIS, Urban Planning, assessment, road network, water supply, fixed line telephone.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am heartily thankful to AfricaGIS who gave me a chance to present this document on
Global Geospatial Conference UNECA Conference Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

It is a pleasure for me to thank Negesu Tita and Jira Kusa for their humor and cheery
encouragement, and unlimited cooperation that made this project possible. They have
been marvelous. My warmest appreciation also goes to Lamesa Amante for his constant
wise encouragement and faithful support.

My gratitude overflows to Nekemte Municipality, ethio-telecom and Oromia Water,

Mineral and Energy Bureau for their providing various data used in the project.

Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to Tarik Asaye and Fisaha Semaw who supported
me in sharing ideas.













ii

Table of contents
Contents
Pages
List of Figures...............................................................................................................................v
List of Tables.............................................................................................................................. vi
Acronyms ................................................................................................................................. vii
Definition of Terms .................................................................................................................. viii
Chapter 1

Introduction...........................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the Study ................................................................................1
1.2 Statement of the Problem ...............................................................................2
1.3 Objectives of the Project ................................................................................4
1.4 Project Questions............................................................................................4
1.5 Significance of the Study................................................................................4
1.6 Scope of the Project........................................................................................5
1.7 Structure of the Project...................................................................................5
1.8 Limitation of the Study...................................................................................5

Chapter 2 Review Of Related Literature ..............................................................................6

2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................6
2.2 GIS and Transportation ..................................................................................7
2.3 Application of GIS In Water Supply Utilization............................................8
2.4 Application Of GIS In Telecommunication ...................................................9
Chapter 3

Description of the Study Area and Research Methodology................................11

3.1 Description of the Study Area ......................................................................11
3.1.1 Location.....................................................................................................11
3.1.2 Historical Background of Nekemte Town.................................................12

3.1.3 Relief .................................................................................................................13

3.1.4 Climate ...............................................................................................................14

3.1.5 Land Land Cover of Nekemte Town.........................................................15

3.1.6 Population and Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Town ..................15

3.1.6.1 Population.......................................................................................................16

3.1.6.2 Age Composition ...........................................................................................17

3.1.7 Transportation............................................................................................18
iii

3.1.8 Water Utility..............................................................................................19

3.1.10 Electric Power .........................................................................................20
3.1.11 Telephone ................................................................................................20
3.1.10 Education.................................................................................................20
3.1.11 Health Services........................................................................................21
3.2 Research Methodology.................................................................................21
3.2.1 Data Source ...............................................................................................21

3.2.2 Software Used in the Analysis ........................................................................22

3.2.3 Georeferencing and Changing Format ...........................................................23

3.2.4 Network Analyses ............................................................................................25

Chapter 4

Results and Discussion......................................................................................27

4.1 Road Network Analysis................................................................................27
4.1.1 Setting Up Street Geodatabase ..................................................................27
4.1.2 Best Route Analysis ..................................................................................28
4.1.3 Closest Facility Analysis ...........................................................................30
4.1.4 Service Area Analysis ...............................................................................32
4.1.5 Proximity to Road Network Analysis........................................................36
4.1.6 Evaluation of Road Network in Nekemte Town .......................................37
4.2 Nekemte Water Supply Network Coverage .................................................44
4.2.1 Source of Water Supply.............................................................................44
4.2.2 Nekemte Water Supply..............................................................................45
4.2.3 Water Production, Distribution and Consumption in Nekemte .................46

4.2.4 Water Meter Connection to Households ...................................................47

4.3 Nekemte Fixed Line Telephone Distribution ...................................................50

Chapter 5

Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations.................................................55

5.1 Summary.......................................................................................................55
5.2 Conclusion....................................................................................................56
5.3 Recommendations ........................................................................................57

References
Appendices

iv

List of Figures
Fig 3.1 Administrative Units of Nekemte Town ........................................................................11
Fig. 3.2 Terrain patterns of Nekemte town (a) and distribution of surface slope(b)..................14
Fig 3.3 Dense forests following roads........................................................................................15
Fig. 3.4 3D Mapping of pop. number and pop. density based on 2007 Pop. Census................16
Fig. 3.5 Population pyramid of Nekemte town ..........................................................................18
Fig. 3.6 Partial view of traffic congestion in Nekemte town......................................................19
Fig. 3.7 The road-map of georeferencing process......................................................................23
Fig. 3.8 Conceptual framework ..................................................................................................23
Fig. 4.1 Network Modeling ........................................................................................................29
Fig 4.2 Best route analysis by considering different origins and destinations. ..........................30
Fig. 4.3 Closest major hotel facilities mapping to selected areas...............................................31
Fig. 4.4 Education closest facility mapping ...............................................................................32
Fig.4.5 Service area analysis of Nekemte hospital shown by concentric zones.........................33
Fig. 4.6 Major health service area analysis with different cutoff cost. ......................................34
Fig. 4.7 Recreation service area analysis with different time cutoff cost...................................36
Fig. 4.8 proximity analysis .........................................................................................................37
Fig. 4.9. Nekemtes street pattern...............................................................................................38
Fig. 4.10 Land use type populated following transportation route.............................................39
Fig. 4.11 High concentration of services and facilities following the main route......................40
Fig.4.12 Partial view of Nekemte street problem captured during field observation.................40
Fig.4.13 Nekemte Road network system...................................................................................41
Fig. 4.14 Triangulated Irregular Network (a) and slope (b) of Netemte town ...........................43
Fig. 4.15 Discrepancies of water supply coverage and areas require water utility. ...................44
Fig.4.16 sources of drinking water for Nekemte town...............................................................45
Fig. 4.17 Suspended impurities in the water ..............................................................................46
Fig. 4.18 Private water meter connections in each sub city .......................................................47
Fig. 4.19 Number of households obtain water from a various sources by each sub city ...........48
Fig. 4.20 Number of water meter connections per number of households per sub city.............49
Fig. 4.21 Number shared water connection to household by each sub city ...............................49
Fig. 4.22 Distribution of Multi-service access gateway and optical fiber cable installations ...51
Fig.4.23 fixed telephone network distribution in 3D environment ............................................52
Fig. 4.24 Distribution of terminal points (a) and CCC (b) ........................................................52
Fig 4.25 Modeling line fixed telephone coverage for identifying areas require attention .........53
Fig 4.26 Fixed line telephone network coverage for identifying areas require attention...........54
v

List of Tables
Table 3.1 Trends of population size and growth rate of the study area ................................... 16
Table 3.2 Population distributions by administrative units, 2007.......................................... 17
Table 3.3 Availability of transportation in the town .......................................................... 19
Table 3. Schools /Education centers in Nekemte .............................................................. 20
Table 3.4 shows the type of data used in the project. ......................................................... 22
Table 4.1 Production and Consumption of water in Nekemte Town. ..................................... 47
Table 4.2 Demand and services of fixed telephone line in Nekemte Town ............................. 50

vi

List of Acronyms

CAD

Computer Aided Drafting

CCC

Cross Connection Cabinet

CSA

Central Statistical Authority

CSV

Character Separated Value

dbf

database format

EPRDF

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

ESRI

Environmental Sciences Research Institute

GIS

Geographic Information Systems

GPS

Geographic Positioning Systems

IWRA

International Water Resources Association

MDG

Millennium Development Goal

MoFED

Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

MSAG

Multi-Service Access Gateway

NULGSP

Nekemte Urban Local Government Strategic Plan

OFED

Oromia Finance and Economic Development

tiff

tagged image file format

UTM

Universal Transverse Mercator

WGS

World Geodetic System

wld

world file for CAD

vii

Definition of Terms

Kebele is the smallest administrative unit of local government in Ethiopia
Sefer is the Amaharic word equivalent to quarter
Sefer shume is Amaharic word to mean person appointed to lead quarter

viii

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
GIS technology has reached maturity. The world has a long history of GIS application in
planning and resource management dating back to the mid-1960s. The diffusion of GIS into
the planning sphere has continued at remarkable rate (Sutton etal, 2007). This is because GIS
manage large spatial and non-spatial data with a unique valuable application for policy makers
in area of urban planners. The application of GIS in spatial planning support tools have an
important advantage through changing the valuation standards to visually illustrate and depict
where the implications of different spatial decisions and alternatives are convenient. The
capabilities needed for decision making readily available in a single system make GIS a great
tool for integrating in planning processes (ESRI, 2011).
Thematic mapping of various utilities and facilities of urban areas through overlay analysis of
different data layers can involve synthesizing and manipulating of spatial layers one to each
other and structured query of the data often leading to new layers of data. These cultivate
fertile grounds for planners to use GIS technology to research, develop, implement and assess
the progress of their plans. GIS is being used as a platform to help planners reach their goals of
creating livable communities and improving the overall quality of life while protecting the
environment and promoting economic development (Robert, 2009).
GIS provides planners, surveyors and engineers with the tools they need to design their
cities/towns. Urban utility and facility planners as a technical expertise in fiscal understanding
to transform a vision of tomorrow into strategic action plan for today, they have to use GIS
just before facilitate the decision making process (Anavberokhai, 2008). Integrated GIS model
can also be used by planners for the design of telecommunication line, water supply line and
transportation routing as part of the service providing. In addition GIS offers opportunity to
assess these utilities planning and automate time-consuming processes with especial ability of
optimizing the output in terms of quality, documentation, visualization and time (Kaousias,
2004).

Given the longevity and rate of growth of GIS in planning sphere, the field is not sufficiently
well established in Ethiopia to allow meaningful trends, assessment, evaluation and direction to
be reviewed. Meaning working with the technology of GIS at the local level particularly at less
developed nations like Ethiopia is not shining. Even though using GIS benefits local
government in the area of increasing efficiency, improving accuracy, automating tasks, and
increasing access to government, there was no considerable room set to GIS for managing
urban utilities in Ethiopia in general and Nekemte town in particular.
It is on this ground that the study employed GIS technology to improve public access to
information and facilitate GIS based assessment in urban facilities and utilities planning in
Nekemte town which may contribute for policy making process.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Among main challenges facing urban centers particularly those in the developing countries is
how to provide adequate level of public infrastructure and services for growing urban
population. Many problems prevailing in urban areas are linked to lack and unsustainable use
of one or more urban utilities (MWehe, 2011). The recommendations of the MDG Africa
Steering Group in 2008 clearly indicated that the sub-Saharan Africa is not only characterized
by lack of transport, power, communication networks, water, and other infrastructural services
but also not carefully installed programs that poses ever constraints on economic growth and
expansion of poverty (MDG, 2008). Likewise sources indicate that there is poor access to safe
drinking water supplies and other utilities in Ethiopia (MoFED, 2005).
Multifaceted problems are attributed to weak urban planning, inefficient urban management,
and possibly ignorance of service consumers by the local authorities. Attaining urban utilities
sustainability for the urban population is therefore a major challenge for urban managers and
indeed a top agenda and priority set to meet needs of the society. The problem can be fixed by
digital computing technologies like GIS that has a tremendous force on revolution of urban
utility planning. GIS is powerful to create spatial visualization and assess the area's urban built
conditions and social networks and it is proved to be essential in creating a sustainable
planning tool (strategy) and for designing a development that fit both constructions and social
needs within specified site (Su, 2003).
2

Urban utilities and facilities planners require solutions that address day-to-day work needs
while also fostering the ability to effectively predict and respond to chronic urban problems.
The success of planners in combating chronic urban problems is largely determined by their
ability to utilize effective tools and planning support systems that allow them to make informed
decisions based on actionable intelligence. Nowadays, urban planners make use of GIS in a
variety of applications. GIS tools provide the necessary planning platform for visualization,
modeling, analysis, and making relationship (ESRI, 2011).
The first step for most communities in planning for urban utilities is assessment that usually
seeks to determine the extent of existing urban utilities and infrastructure, and the location of
potential customers. GIS based assessment can therefore reveal a deficiency in supply relative
to the predictable demand for urban utilities and can be used to design scenarios for bridging
the gap (Peery, 2004).
On this ground GIS based assessment of urban utilities and facilities survey is exceedingly
important since it deliver grant access to valuable information for evidence based policy
making as well as planning, monitoring and evaluating programs. Many cities/towns in
Ethiopia face immense challenges in its land-use planning that stem from the fact that almost
many thousands of people live and work within slums, congested areas, lacking of basic urban
utilities and facilities. Given its unfavorable working and life conditions, it is important to
carefully plan for the economic growth and future development of towns. That's why urban
renewal program repeatedly counseled municipalities to rely on GIS to find new ways to
minimize development constraints (Mathewos etal, 2011). These problems have been deeprooted in Nekemte town for long period of time (OFED, 2010) and the problems attached to
the issue should be addressed quickly. Besides the town lacks geographic databases that help
for planning. Therefore, there is an urgent need to carry research on the existing problem
compatible to GIS environment, which are considered to be useful for better planning and
management. If not the competitiveness of the town is remains under question and a bottleneck
for local managers. To tackle the prevailing problems, this project developed spatial and nonspatial database in GIS environment and showed where shortage of utilities and poor public
transport system need immediate interventions.
3

In fitting together with this, it is recovering for urban facilities planners to use GIS so as to
manage geographic data about lacking utilities and facilities to show relationships and other
attributes that affect urban community. This will greatly enhance efficiency and facilitate urban
utilities planning operation of public facilities within the town.

1.3 Objectives of the project

The general objective of the project is to develop geodatabase for urban transport facilities,
water supply lines and fixed line telephone utilities, and to show their spatial arrangement by
employing GIS technology.
The specific objectives of the project are:
to create GIS database for road transportation network that enable to evaluate the
existing network system in the study area.
to show applications of GIS in urban utilities planning.
to evaluate accessibility of water supply distribution using GIS in the study area
to analyze and map the spatial arrangement of fixed line telephone accessibility.

1.4 Project questions

Is there well developed and connected transportation network system in the study area?
Is the distribution of water pipelines in the town accessible to every households?
How the GIS environment can be used to analyze spatial arrangement of urban
utilities?

How can the GIS techniques be involved in the process of fixed line telephone
distribution assessment?

1.5 Significance of the study

GIS now supports various basic and advanced spatial analytic approaches in public facilities
planning. GIS can be used even more than to generate maps showing where various urban
facilities exist, but also with extensive use of GIS technology in the field of water pipeline and
telecommunication distribution environment simulation, and integration of data operation and
spatial analysis, becoming important basis for urban infrastructure planning. Planners and
engineers can use this spatial information to make decisions about zoning designations and
4

building documents. The installation and operation of public facilities, like waterline,
transportation and telephone line involve important amounts of spending, and therefore need to
be carefully planned. It must be recognized, however, in Ethiopia that the practical impact of
the efforts made up to now is pathetic. Therefore this project presented an interactive, userfriendly decision-support tool for urban facilities planning where the capabilities of GIS and
AutoCAD data are put together. This can contributed to bridge the gap between research and
practice that characterizes the way urban services and facilities planning is made at present.

1.6 Scope of the project

This project work was concentrated on mapping, analysis and management of urban
transportation facilities, telephone lines and water supply in GIS environment, in Nekemte
town. The time horizon of the data used for the study was in touch to 2007 to 2012. Other
aspects of the aforementioned utilities are not the concern of the researcher because these are
not economically and timely feasible as per the academic year.

1.7 Structure of the Project

This project is organized into five chapters. Chapter one dedicated to Introduction. Chapter two
is Review of Related Literature. Chapter three contains Description of the Study Area and
research Methodology. Chapter four dedicated to Analysis and finally chapter five contains
Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations which bring all the arguments together.

1.8 Limitation of the study

Although this research was carefully prepared, it is still need to aware of its limitations. There were
unavoidable limitations. Because of time limit the study only confined to the analysis of three
entities of the town services including road network, water supply and fixed line
telecommunication coverage. This may not reflect the overall picture of assessment of urban
facilities and utilities situation of the study area. Second the fixed line telephone data variables
were crude to carry accessibility assessment against households. This made difficult to identify the
number connection made to households and consequently limited the study to proximity analysis.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Introduction
It is wise to have a brief overview of GIS before exploring its applications. Accordingly, many
scholars considered the definitions, components and historical development of GIS. In 1950s
GIS was developed to produce maps. Currently GIS technology has evolved and grown its
objectives are expanding. As the result different definitions of GIS have been pop up.

The

major definition given to GIS is organized collection of computer hardware, software,

geographic data, and personnel designed to efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate,
analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced data (ESRI, 2010). Generally GIS
can be considered as an integrated system of computer hardware, software, and trained
personnel linking topographic, demographic, socio-economic, utility, facility, image and other
resource data that is geographically referenced. Its objective is to improve overall decision
making by visualizing data and seeing new patterns. GIS technology integrates common
database operations such as query and statistical analysis with the unique visualization and
geographic analysis benefits offered by maps (Haywood et al, 1998). Therefore, GIS has
become to symbolize a technology, an industry, a way of doing spatial work. It has come to
promise a new world of disciplinary and professional integration. GIS allows mapping,
modeling, and displaying large quantities of diverse data, all held together within a single
database. Its power and appeal stem from its ability to integrate quantities of spatial
information and non-spatial information about the environment and the wide repertoire of tools
it provides to explore the diverse data (Chrisman, 1999).
Generally, GIS is all about the organized activity by which people measure aspects of
geographic phenomena and processes; represent computer database to establish spatial themes,
entities and relationships; operate upon feature representations to produce more measurements
and to discover existing relationships by integrating different sources; and transform these
representations to confirm other frameworks of entities and relationship. Therefore the
components of GIS include software, hardware, technology, people and data (Haywood et al,
1998).

2.2 GIS and Transportation

The urban road network plays a key function in the urban spatial structure. Currently many
researches are interested to look into road network analysis. However one of the most
significant problems attributed to urban spatial analysis is how to evaluate the accessibility of
road network. It is good news that GIS takes care of spatial analysis method on road network
assessment with GIS inbuilt algorithms technology. In the last decade, the GIS have brought
tremendous advances and development on the basis of technological software, methods and
data models. Among these applications that have attracted much attention in the use of GIS is
transportation sector mainly for planning, public transport routing, management and operation
(Robert, 2009). GIS is highly suitable means of technology for processing transportation
information and can examine planning and management (Maria and Ruiz, 2003). Yao (2006)
ratify that GIS has come to stay and there is no doubt that it is an efficient and effective tool in
the transportation infrastructure planning of the transport industry. This led for drafting of
unified or universal GIS for transportation standard data models in the sphere of transportation
application.
GIS fits the need for efficient spatial data handling and analytical capability in both micro and
macro level of urban transportation planning. Choosing sites, targeting market segments,
planning distribution networks and responding to emergencies are all problems that involve
questions of geography and are all relevant to businesses and the government. The extent to
which GIS is transforming planning is paramount for the prime reason that it revolutionizing
the traditional method of spatial data handling and manipulation (Harris and Elmes, 1993;
Sarkar, 2007).

The most important and familiar implementations of network analysis models in GIS
environment are those used to represent the networks with which much of the population
interacts every day includes transportation, water distribution and communications networks.
Currently, implemented network GIS tools are largely dominated by routing functions. Routing
is the act of measuring a course of travel, and it is possibly the most fundamental logistical
operation in network analysis. The main objectives in routing across networks are to minimize
the cost of the route that can be measured in a function of distance, time, or impedance in
crossing the network. Shortest path routing has been fully integrated into GIS software
7

packages. Current standard network analysis package has four fundamental functions that can
be performed route finding algorithms. These functions incorporate finding a route between
point locations, determining the service area for a facility, finding the closest facility across the
network and creating an origindestination matrix (Maria and Ruiz, 2003). Consequently the
determination of a service area for a facility can be done by finding the shortest path from the
facility to the demand points on the network, and allocating demand points or the associated
network locations to their nearest facility (Curtin, 2007).

2.3 Application of GIS in Water Supply Utilization

Drinking water supply assessment in urban and suburban regions is one of the key issues of
sustainable economic development. Many

of

the

urban utilities like water mains, streets,

sewer lines, were planned and constructed based on the population distribution and economic
development at the time of establishment. Consequently, the infrastructures and utilities may
encounter stress or potential stress as the impact of spatial patterns of population distribution
and economic development changes with time. GIS is now opening the window to manage the
things holistically. GIS is used in water line planning (instead of CAD formerly the preferred
software) for many reasons including: mainly it has ability to store many attributes which can
be used for analysis or labeling; the spatial context of each feature, ease of including data from
many sources and modeling capabilities. Data sources can be CAD, GIS, paper maps and
drawings, reports, hydraulic models, tables, databases, work order systems, and imagery. Data
forms can be raster (images) and vector (point, line, and polygon). GIS is compatible with
different software including CAD, Excel, Access, and SPSS. A list of addresses can be
geocoded, assigning points at each address location, to provide a spatial context for the data
available in work orders, lab data, and other reports (Sheldon etal, 2008). Integrating GIS
database can provide utility managers reliable and scientific support decision making on water
distribution network management and rehabilitation (Soakodan et al., 2011).
Water distribution systems are considered looped networks because they are designed to
provide a continuous flow of pressurized water throughout the network. Urban drinking water
supply network is made of over ground and underground intake, pumping, improving the
quality of the water, storage and transport to the users connections in GIS environment
(Pandure, 2006). The GIS water utilities modeling is designed for water that manages different
complex systems like ability to service many thousands to many millions of people. By
8

providing a geographically referenced view of water network analysis, GIS software

particularly ArcGIS aids in visualizing and understanding real-world engineering and business
problems. Built using object component technology, ArcGIS provides a powerful new platform
for water utility solutions. The object technology at the center of ArcGIS integrates data and
application characteristics of modeling. As a result, the model not only includes an essential set
of water object classes and properties, it also includes rules and relationships that define object
behaviors. The core object technology and applied water model result in significantly less
configuration and customization effort for overall implementation per site (Grise et al., 2001).
Population explosion and resulting demand of appropriate infrastructure facilities are posing
serious challenges for the administrators and planners. Technology has emerged with solution
of sustaining data on existing utilities. Obviously, effective management and planning requires
updated maps and information and recent developments in the area of Science and Technology
like GIS, GPS and remote sensing have come up with powerful tools. These advanced
technologies can very effectively be used to handle the present day complex problems related
to optimum utilization of available resources and infrastructure. Today it is possible to produce
accurate

mapping

of

the

underground

infrastructure

facilities

like

electrical

&

telecommunication cables and water pipelines (Rana, 2011).

GIS is applied in the entire lifespan of water supply systems from planning to implementation
operation and maintenance to replacement for the prime reason that GIS provides a variety of
support in asset inventory (Keeping record of pipes, valves fittings, and meters together with
their characteristics and status); determining and prioritizing repair and replacement works;
and closing valves to redirect water flow (Soakodan etal., 2011). It has been proved that GIS is
a competent and effective tool for managing networks (Zhang, 2006).

2.4 Application of GIS in Telecommunication

ESRI Software Company developed ArcGIS software to provide a common platform for
integrating spatial data with information from existing support software. Network providers
become more efficient when they use ArcGIS to analyze infrastructure and operations. Using
ArcGIS, companies can analyze large portions of data when there is a direct correlation
between capital costs and distance. The spatial perspective offers new ways to understand
service areas and satisfy customers. In the worldwide telecommunications industry is moving
9

rapidly, resulting in tough competition and an ever-increasing scope of services offered to

customers. On the other side our world is changing rapidly. The problem of understanding the
true picture of places even localities has been elevated from time to time. Likewise solving
problems of a telecommunications company requires a good understanding of where their
customers and facilities exist and information about those locations. A GIS can integrate
location-based data from databases all over the world to help people resolve and streamline
everyday business issues. GIS is a plat form for exploring and describing our geography. An
efficient, accessible telephone line network inventory system has been implemented using
ArcGIS database and GIS based solution deliver a comprehensive management and reporting
system as well as powerful business intelligence tools. The technology allows
telecommunication to generate the maps and integrate detailed community information to
create a picture of communication and local development potential (ESRI, 2009).
GIS is a spatial analytical tool that allows the assessment of the telecommunications
infrastructure for policy and investment analysis. Telecommunication networks are inherently
spatial systems (Hepworth, 1987). The application of GIS in the domain of telecommunication
is an evolving technology compared with traditional information collecting and evaluating
database systems which is sorting, analyzing and also illustrating. The assignment of designing
and planning the blueprint of a telecommunications network may fall to existing
telecommunications providers, third-party consultants, or the community itself. At large GIS
offers the network planner a powerful solution for simultaneously managing the physical
location of the infrastructure, the attribute data associated with infrastructure components, and
the cost of such components in a single environment (Imamoglu-TAN, 2009).
Telecommunications infrastructure development is a process of spatial interaction and mutual
growth between infrastructure and demands. Geographical information systems with their
powerful data handling and spatial analysis capabilities are ideal for meeting the information
needs of telecommunications infrastructure development. Telecommunication is the most
profound and important spatial structure opting large spatial data integration and management.
Successful network expansion and the available network management require significant GIS
analysis and modeling (Cai, 2002).

10

CHAPTER THREE

DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Description of the Study Area

3.1.1 Location

Nekemte town is found in Oromia national regional state, Ethiopia. The geographical location of
the town is extended over 900247N to 900656 N latitudes and 3602853E to 3603640E
longitudes. It is located at a distance of 331 km west of Addis Ababa city, 293.7 km southwest of
Bahir Dar town, 110 km northeast of Gimbi town and 250 km northwest of Jima town. Nekemte
is circumscribed by Jiregna, Kitesa, Fayinera, Dune Kane, Nagasa and Gari kebeles of Guto Gida
district in the north, west, south and northeast side and Gute and Dalo Komto kebeles of Wayu
Tuka district in east sides. Nekemte town is now administratively divided into six sub units: Kaso,
Bakanisa Kese, Chalalaki, Burqa Jato, Darge and Bake Jama. The town linearly stretches over
14.2 km from east to west, mainly along the Addis Ababa to Assosa highway and 7.7 km from
north to south.

Fig 3.1 Administrative Units of Nekemte Town

11

3.1.2 Historical Background of Nekemte Town

Nekemte town is one of the old towns in Ethiopia, established in the mid-19th century. Now a
days Nekemte is zonal town established as separate administration town in western Ethiopia.
It is one of urban reform centers. Following the enactment of the Oromiya urban local
government proclamation no. 65/1995, Nekemte is designated as grade II urban center and
given urban local government status. It is located in East Wallaga Zone of Oromia region at a
distance of 331 km west of Addis Ababa (Oromia, 1997).
The town first emerged as administrative capital of Leqa Nekemte Empire in 1865, and then
continued to serve as political, cultural, social and economic center of Wallaga in its history
(Alemu, 2002). Since its establishment the town has showed significant socio-economic and
spatial changes. Emergence of modern systems in education, health and other urban services
can be considered as tangible evidence.

Furthermore construction of stone paved roads,

expansion of modern schools, health facilities and introduction of telecommunication, postal

and motorized transport services in the first half of the 20th century laid important foundation
for Nekemte town growth. More importantly, the construction of the first Nekemte hospital in
1932 and Addis Ababa to Nekemte primary road had promoted Nekemte into an important
urban center (OFED, 2010).

Following the restoration of the Ethiopian government in 1941(i.e. after Italian occupation),
Nekemte appeared as capital of Wallaga province and as the result new administrative
system was installed. Consequently, the town was divided into three major quarters (i.e
sefer). Each section of administrative unit was administered by Sefer Shum who is accountable
for a chief administrative of the town called yemazegaja bet Shum. When Derge takeover
power in 1974, Nekemte restructured its governance system as any other urban centers in
Ethiopia did. While continuing to appoint chief administrators for the municipality, the new
government required that the old Sefer Shum system of administration was replaced by a new
level of administration system called the kebele, at local level. At that time each sections of
administrative unit was ruled by kebele system. The other reformation observed in the Derg
regime was the opening of several large scale state farms in the immediate hinterland of
Nekemte town that considerably elevated Nekemtes economy. These schemes did not only
create a lot of job opportunities for Nekemtes population but also they facilitated the growth of
12

trade and various forms of urban catering facilities. These conditions attracted many people to
Nekemte and continuously accelerated population growth that result spatial expansion came to
realistic ( Endalkachew, 2008; Shumet, 1988). After the EPRDF, current ruling party of
Ethiopia, seizure of power in 1991 Nekemte also experienced speedy population growth even
up to 5.07% and spatial sprawl (CSA, 1996).
In general, in its history, Nekemte has gone through spontaneous development paths.
Although it had got its first master plan in 1967, this plan was hardly implemented until
detail percolation was prepared by the then Ministry of Urban Development and Housing in
1980 (NULGSP, 1996). This means, Nekemte has sprawled to its current size without
proper planning guides and consequently, major parts of the town are built without basic
urban amenities such as access to road, drainage & sewerage facilities, open public spaces,
water, telephone, electricity and others. The town now possesses a university, 8 colleges
including nongovernmental, 1 3 banks, and 4 insurance companies, numerous health
facilities and considerable number of business establishments. Currently one can see
construction boom on the sides of its major streets being increasingly flanked by several
modern buildings. Besides, Wallaga International Stadium and Nekemte referral hospital
projects are underway.

3.1.3 Relief

Nekemte has been built up on rugged terrain that its elevation ranges from 1960 to 2190 masl
dominated by steep slope and low lying areas. Gentle slope with 0-2% ranges accounts only
for 3.4% area coverage while slope of greater than 20% covers about 25% of total land
coverage of the study area. Comprehensive terrain patterns of the study area are portrayed in
Figure 3.2.






13

(a)

(b)

Fig. 3.2 Terrain patterns of Nekemte town in 3D (a) and distribution of surface slope(b)

As it is clearly visualized from Figure 3.2 (a) Nekemte has fragmented topographic
morphology. Uniform slopes hardly exist. Small pockets of plain lands are found here and
there along with steep or rugged landscape. Thus, every neighborhood of the places within the
boundary is characterized by a typical feature of broken landscape which is inconvenient for
different construction including road network construction.

3.1.4 Climate

Based on local climatic classification, Nekemte is grouped under semi-humid climatic zones.
As meteorological data has shown that the annual mean average temperature of the town
f or consecutive for five years is around 200c and the maximum temperature reaches up to
31.50c in February. The amount of rainfall recorded in the town varies from one month to
other. Generally, June, July, August and September are months which receive high rainfall in
a year. See the following graph.

14

3.1.5 Land use land cover of Nekemte town

Nekemte experiences the concentration and mix of many land use zones at one point. The
traditional zoning, street network, market and related function and the unprotected urban green
system are the commonly observed urban land uses types. The central area of Nekemte is
predominantly covered by commercial activities that range from retailing small items up to
providing commercial function like banks, insurances and offices. Inefficient utilization of land
use has been also observed in many parts of the town. Large and in some cases dense trees are
found following roads in many parts of the study area. There was no consistency arrangement
of land use in the town. As shown in Figures 3.3 very dense forests found in between houses
and around 20 meters from highway roads near Wollega University area.

Fig 3.3 Dense forests following roads

The distribution of land use and land cover classification of the study area indicated that
about 50% of the total area was covered by forest followed by built up areas which was
accounted for 25%. The least land use types of the study area was water bodies which is
nearly 0.3% of the total land cover of the town.

3.1.6 Population and socio-economic characteristics of the Nekemte town

Important activities of a given society are governed by socio-economic and demographic
characteristics.

Therefore having good insight about socio-economic and demographic

character is highly relevant for the study. It is useful for formulating various development
plans and evaluating purpose.

15

3.1.6.1 Population

The three population and housing censuses conducted at national level in 1984, 1994 and 2007
have resulted in population size of 28703, 47100 and 75219, respectively. The current (2013)
population projection of the town is calculated to be 96,280. The inter-censal population
growth rates ranges from 4.1% to 5.07% while the overall population growth rate is calculated
to be 4.27%, using GR% = tPopulation of 1984Population of 20071 X100%
Where GR Growth rate
t- the time interval between 1984 and 2007 population Census
Table 3.1 Trends of population size and growth rate of the study area
Year
Population size
Growth rate (%)
4.1
1984
28,703
5.07
1994
47, 100
2007
75,219
4.2
2013*
96,280

* Projection
Source: CSA, 1984; 1994; 2007

Fig. 3.4 3D mapping of pop. number and population density by sub city based on 2007 Pop. Census

16

The 3D cored stepped statistical surface shows variation in population density while erected
cylindrical bar stands for total population of each administrative division of the town. The
study area as it is indicated in above administratively subdivided into six units, namely Bake
Jama, Darge, Keso, Bakanisa Kese, Chalalaki and Burqa Jato. When the enumeration made in
2007 results is presented by sub city shows that there are significant variations in the
distribution of population by these administrative units. As revealed on the 3D environment in
Figure 3.4, large portions of the towns population number was found in Darge sub city
followed by Bakanisa Kese and Chalalaki. The lowest proportion (i.e 8063 population) was
found in Bake Jama sub city. However, as can be seen from the above map the population
density of Nekemte town ranges from 467 person per sq. km for Bake Jama the least
population density to 4665 person per sq. km for Bakanisa Kese which is the most densely
populated (see Table 3.2).
Table 3.2 Population distributions by administrative units, 2007

S.No Sub city

1 Bake Jama
2 Darge
3 Burqa Jato
4 Bakanisa Kese
5 Keso
6 Chalalaki
Total
Source: CSA, 2008

Population
8063
14967
13274
14793
10387
13735
75,219

Density
(Population
House
House
Area(in
2
Hold
unit
km )
per km2)
3997
3859
17.269
466.906
3887
3723
6.096
2455.217
3695
3601
17.403
762.742
2779
2681
3.171
4665.090
1160
1145
3.976
2612.425
4271
4141
5.704
2407.959
19789
19150
53.62
1402.84

3.1.6.2 Age Composition

The age composition of Nekemte town is almost similar to national age composition. It is
broader at the base indicating large number of population is below age 25 and narrows at the
tip indicating small number of older population proportion. In fact large portion of population
for both sexes lie between 15-24 ages (see Figure 3.5). Computed age dependency ratio
resulted 41.62%, which implies there is almost one dependent on every two working age
population.

17

Age Group
90 -94
80-84

Male

Female

70-74
60-64
50-54
40-44
30-34
20-24
10_14
0 - 4
10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000
2,000
2,000 4,000
6,000 8,000 10,000
Number
of P0 opulaFon

Fig. 3.5 Population pyramid of Nekemte town

3.1.7 Transportation

The urban transport modalities in the town include motorized road, animal powered
transport and walking. Known animal powered transport in the town is cart while walking
and bicycle is the important mode of human powered transport observed in the town. For
mobility there is limited availability of road infrastructure in the town.

This made

service limited to small number of routes and caused traffic congestion particularly
from roundabout Nekemte (i.e second square) to Wollega University route. (see Figure
3.6). Customers are waiting large time to access public transportation primarily associated
to lacking of alternative route that can help connect many places and secondly insufficient
number of availability of public transportation infrastructure. The congestion becomes
untellable in many taxi and bus stops.

18

Fig. 3.6 Partial view of traffic congestion in Nekemte town

Absence of pedestrian roads and indiscriminate and mixing the use of the roads for
motorized and non-motorized means of transport also made mobility difficult in the
town.
Table 3.3 Availability of transportation in the town
No.

Means of transportation

Ownerships

1 Taxy
2 Mini bus
3 City bus
4 Bajaj
5 Cart (horse)
6 Motor cycle
7 Bicycle
Source: Compiled based on data from East Wallaga

Number

Private
27
Private
35
Government
2
Private
276
Private
396
Private
63
Private
776
Zone Finance and Economic Development Office

3.1.8 Water utility

Nekemte water supply is significantly underdeveloped in terms of both quality and
quantity. The most significant sources of water for the town are tap water, springs, rivers,
well and pond. The coverage of water consumption in Nekemte town is poor and falls short
of the national and regional level. Generally, it is reported that 68.3% of the towns
households have access to water sources regarded as safe in 2008. The national level
coverage of safe water for urban centers is 92.4% and that of Oromiya urban center is
91.03%. This shows that Nekemtes safe water coverage (68.3%) is less than the national
and regional level (OFED, 2010).

19

3.1.10 Electric power

Since 1992, Nekemte has got hydroelectric supply system with the generating capacity of
40MW. As data obtained from Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation Nekemte branch office
indicates, there are 14,190 client of electric meter connection with 49km length in the town.
There are 92 transformers with various capacities ranging from 25 kilo volt ampere (KVA) to
1250KVA. The town has no electric installation plan at all. The system of installation has been
developed in the town by experience and sometimes done by agreement with customer.

3.1.11 Telephone
Nekemte is served by digital telephone system that has a capacity of 10,240 lines and
7,132 bands. In general, the system has 6000 internet capacity with 195 bands. At present
only 736 terminal points which has a capacity of serving 7360 lines has been established
for the town. This connection made to household, different services and offices. The fixed
line telephones services include basic telecom facilities voice and data connectivity.
Mobile telephone is access all over the areal coverage of the town.

3.1.10 Education

Provision of educational service in Nekemte town has been carried out i n many levels of
schools or education centers. Accordingly the town has 16 kindergarten, 37 primary school, 9
secondary school, 4 preparatory school, 7 TVET, 8 college and 1 University, the number
include NGOs.
Table 3. Schools or Education centers in Nekemte
No Type of schools
Government NGO
Total
1 Kindergarten
16
16
2 Primary school (1-8)
10
27
37
3 Senior secondary (9-10)
4
5
9
4 Preparatory(11-12)
1
4
5
5 Technical and Vocational Education
3
4
7
Training (TVET)
6 Colleges
1
7
8
7 Universities
1
1
Source: Finance and Economic Development Office of East Wallaga Zone, 2012

20

3.1.11 Health services

Nekemte town has many health institutions which are currently providing health
services that ranges from higher level of health institution (hospital and health centers)
to the lower level institutions such as pharmacies and rural drug vendors. Numerically,
there is 1 Hospital, 3 health centers, 51 clinics, 8 pharmacies, 3 drug whole sales, 28 drug
shops and 4 rural drug vendor providing health services to the population of Nekemte
town and nearby areas.

3.2 Research Methodology

This part includes data sources, software used through the development of the project and
methods used in analyses of images.

3.2.1 Data source

Data used for this project was obtained from CSA, Nekemte municipality, Ethio-telecom,
Oromia Water, Mineral and Energy Bureau, and online searching (i.e. http://landsat.usgs.gov).
Supplementary (non-spatial) data was obtained from East Wallaga zone Finance and Economic
Development Office, and Nekemte town Water, Mineral and Energy office and through
unstructured interview. Field survey by using GPS was also used to identify location of
different facilities. Digital camera was used to capture photographs. Moreover Table 3.4 clarify
sources of data coupled with their format and time of data preparation.

21

Table 3.4 shows the type of data used in the project.

S.n
o.

Name of layers

Type of
features

Sources

Time

1
2

Street network
Water pipelines

CAD
CAD

Nekemte Municipality
Oromia Water, Mineral and
Energy Bureau

2008
2000

DEM 2m resolution

Raster

Generated from Master plan

GPS points

2008

Fixed
Telephone
network

line vector

Ethio-telecom Head Office

2011

Demography

CSA

2007 and
projection

Nekemte
administrative CAD
unit boundary

Nekemte Municipality

2008

7
8

GPS data
Number of Water meter
connection

Nekemte
town
Water,
Mineral and Energy office

2013

2013
2012

3.2.2 Software used in the Analysis

ArcGIS 10.1 advanced (ArcInfo) concurrent use with Network Analyst extension was used for
georeferencing CAD features, network analysis, proximity analysis and producing maps and
graphics. It is also used for statistical manipulation and report generation. Global Mapper 14.1
was used to show the terrain pattern of the study area in 3D because it has inbuilt functionality
for advanced capabilities in terrain layer comparison, and triangulation and gridding of 3D
point data.

Erdas Imagine 2010 was used to produce land use land cover map of the study

area.

Data preparation
After collecting all the necessary data the next step was tracked to preparation of the data for
analysis. This required changing of data formats, georeferencing, building the road network
database, digitizing fixed line telephone terminal points, connecting demographic and socialeconomic data to each administrative unit to manipulate statistics, editing and joining attribute
data and adding missing attributes.

22

3.2.3 Georeferencing and changing format

This section outlines the procedures used in georeferencing AutoCAD feature datasets,
including Nekemte town street network, boundary, existing land use and water supply pipe line
network, and scanned images of fixed line telephone network. Georeferencing is the process of
assigning a coordinate system and applying a transformation to raster and CAD datasets. The
process used to rectify the CAD feature is not an easy task and it requires careful action.
Accordingly, Nekemte town street network feature in AutoCAD format was added to
ArcCatalog 10.1 environment to set spatial reference properties for CAD feature dataset in
preferred coordinate system (i.e. WGS 1984 UTM zone 37). This coordinate system was
chosen since the tangential point used for the geometric transformation is closer to the study
area that help to reduce the distortion created by projection to XY coordinate system. Spatial
reference property was established to the specified projection type and the AutoCAD features
were directly imported to ArcMap 10.1 to commit georeferencing process. Fit to display
command was used to a little bit closer zoom in just to identify features clearly;
instantaneously Georeferencing toolbars was activated to add control points. After adding
control points georeferncing had updated and the system generated universal world file format
(with extensions .wld) that applies identical transformation of all CAD files in a work space.
This universal world file generated in the course of georeferencing processes tells ArcMap
where in the world this image is now located and more importantly it fixes the transformation
permanently. Hence whenever the dataset is loaded in a work space, the system checks itself
and no need of georeferencing so many times. Accordingly, generated world file with .wld
extension was saved in work space to keep the rectification permanent.
The same processes were applied to rectify Nekemte town water supply connection network,
Nekemte boundary and existing land use types in CAD features datasets. This made the spatial
data viewed, queried, overlaid and analyzed and joined with other spatial data in a GIS
environment.
Add AutoCAD
feature to
ArcCatalog
10.1

Assignin
g
cordinat
e
system

Add the
feature
to
ArcMAp

Fit the
feature
to
display

Fig. 3.7 The road-map of georeferencing process

23

Add
Control
Points

Commit
Georefe
ncing

Update
Georefer
encing

Fixed line telephone network covering the study area were found in analogue form, printed on
fourteen A1 size maps. To take these spatial data in GIS environment and carry analyses, the
analogue maps converted to digital format. Therefore the possible means to convert the
analogues to digital data were using scanning machines. As a result, 14 maps were scanned and
produced digital image in .tiff format. Finally, image to image georeferencing system was
applied in ArcGIS 10.1 environment in order to establishing its location in terms of projection.
Data sources

Waterline Network in
CAD

Nekemte Master plan and Street

Network in CAD

Telephone distribuFon network

in Analogue

Georeferencing

Georeferencing

Scan

ConnecFng to
aMribute table

Road ExtracFon

Georeferencing

TransportaFon network
creaFon

DigiFzing

AMribute creaFng and connecFng

to transportaFon route network

Dierent telephone line and

point layer extracFon

Indexing

Database
establishment

Develop and connect

aMribute to the layers

Compute

Mapping

Fig. 3.8 Conceptual framework
24

After all georefrencing process was completed and the AutoCAD features and raster images
were rectified based on WGS 1984 UTM zone 37. Fixed line telephone terminal points and
distribution of cables were digitized from scanned sheets. This circumstances made datasets
were ready for extraction to required format; they were converted to shape files. To make
collected documents computable to GIS environment and for further statistical manipulation
they were imported to Excel and then converted to database (dbf format) by using SPSS 20 and
Excel 2013 CSV format. Subsequently, all attribute data obtained from different sources were
attached to the boundaries of Nekemte sub city and street network to map accessibility to road
network, water supply condition and fixed telephone terminal points.
Process of building Geodatabase
When working with datasets storing geospatial data in geodatabases particularly file
geodatabase optimizes the use in ArcGIS environment. Hence file geodatabase which offer
structural, performance, and data management advantages over simple shapefiles was created
to store data. Street networks, fixed telephone line distribution networks and water supply
pipeline network were extracted and exported to shape file and stored geodatabase to sustain
for future use, enable to assess their accessibility and to create network and proximity analysis.
Finally, all datasets created before the processing and generated during processing were stored
in file geodatabase.

3.2.4 Network Analysis

The project utilized ArcGIS Network Analyst to model realistic street network conditions,
including street routing, closest facility analysis and service area analysis. Attribute data
containing length and time limit field was geometrically calculated while speed of traversing
was assigned in line with road type to make ready for network analysis. Since the system
required ArcGIS Network Analyst extension, it was activated and therefore provided complete
set of tools to create, maintain, and perform analysis on network datasets.
Accordingly, ArcCatalog 10.1 was used to create and build a network dataset from feature
classes stored within a geodatabase. The connectivity rules and network attributes for the

25

network dataset was defined. Edge connectivity of the roads was set to Network Analyst to any
vertex which tells the system to consider smallest possible impedances.
Finding the best route was produced through creating the route analysis layer in ArcGIS
environment. Closest Facility analysis was done by adding different facilities and incidents.
Creating the service area analysis layer was also done through adding the location of facilities
(i.e. like health services, education centers and known recreational areas) into active network
analysis class to generate a series of polygons representing the distance that can be reached
from a facility within a specified amount of time. Given the transportation network these
analyses helped to identify areas of easily accessible and inaccessible. Next the parameters
such as accumulation attributes, analysis setting impedances, changing default breaks to
different time and distance, and the direction from which traveling is done for the analysis
were set. Finally service area analysis were computed to produce different concentric zones
polygon and mapped with careful utilization of cartographic principles.
















26

CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Road Network Analysis
The urban road network plays a key role in the overall urban spatial structure. It is the main
social economic activities and transportation carrier. Network analysis enables to solve problems,
such as finding the most efficient travel route, generating travel directions, finding the closest
facility, defining service areas based on travel time. Hence building geodatabase where these
spatial data are stored and sustained is highly important urban development plan.

4.1.1 Setting up Street Geodatabase

One of the most important parts of assessing road network is credited to create geographic
database, technically termed as geodatabase. For any form of evaluation or assessment in GIS
environment, building geodatabase is a primary method used to organize and use geographic
information in ArcGIS products. Therefore, it is essential to create Nekemte road network
geodatabase to apply any inbuilt Network Analyst algorithm in ArcGIS 10.1. The Network
Analyst toolbox contains tools that perform network analysis and network dataset maintenance
as well. With the toolbox, one can maintain network datasets that model transportation networks
and perform route, closest facility, service area, and other network analyses on transportation
networks.

27

Process of building Geodatabase

Extraction of street feature from Nekemte Master Plan

Dissolve the entire road feature to a single object to
reduce unnecessary segments breakdown

Convert feature to line to break the features at their intersections or any junction

and calculate
Create
Fields

Create different fields like Time, Speed

limit, elevation, direction and others used to
compute best route, closest facility and
service area

length of each segment

Create Geodatabase

Import feature classes

to Geodatabase

Compute

Modeling

Result (map)

4.1.2 Best Route Analysis

Network Analyst keeps a running total of the length of the segments as it compares various
alternative routes between locations when finding the shortest route. Finding the best route is
important to minimize travel cost through a series of stops. When finding the best route from
built geodatabase one has fully privileged to set different conditions the algorithms must
consider. The systems of computation also allow deriving directions that generate a series of
direction based on the best route created by route or closest facility solver. The direction
indicator has expandable map, unit reporting, cost attribute and preview options.

Cost

attribute can be time, distance or cumulate of the two.

The demonstration of what is discussed is serially illustrated on the produced maps. Based on
network modeling depicted in Figure 4.1, the best route from Wollega University area buss top
28

to Nekemte Bus station indicated in Figure 4.2. Even though the best route is highlighted by
the system critical analysis may show a series of shortage of road network around university
area to New Generation University College. It is only one street that connects these two areas.
That is why the system identified the route as the shortest path.
accessibility of road facility is detected from spatial point of view.

Fig. 4.1 Network Modeling

29

Here the problem of

Fig. 4.3 shortest route from Sorga to Hospital.

Fig 4.2 Shortest route analysis by considering different origins and destinations.

4.1.3 Closest Facility Analysis

The closest facility solver finds the cost of travelling between incidents (i.e. specified points/
locations) and facilities and determines which are nearest to the other. The output includes a
ranking of facilities by least impedance to or from incidents, along tracking directions between
them. The closest facility solver displays the best routes between incidents and facilities,
reports their travel costs, and returns driving directions. Here is an example of closest three
known hotels that considered as facilities accessed within 7 minute from Wollega University,
Kumsa Moreda, Chalalaki and Sorga area along the shortest path. Accordingly, the selection of
closest known hotel and best route is highlighted (see Figure 4.3)

30

Fig. 4.3 Closest major hotel facilities mapping to selected areas.

When finding the closest facility it is also possible to specify constraints, like a cutoff cost and
put restriction beyond which Network Analyst will not search for facilities. For instance, the
writer set up a closest facility problem to search for 5 schools within a 10 minute drive from
First Square (roundabout Nekemte) and Chalalaki. Any schools that take longer than 10
minutes to reach are not included in the results. This can be visualized in the Figure 4.4.

31

Fig. 4.4 Education closest facility mapping

4.1.4 Service Area Analysis

The service area solver generates polygons or lines that cover all edges within a given distance,
travel time or other impedance unit from the predefined facility/facilities. A network service
area is a region that encompasses all accessible streets (i.e. streets which are found within
specified impedance). As it is shown in Figure 4.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 15 and 20 minute service
area for Nekemte hospital on a network includes all the streets that can be reached within
specified minutes from Nekemte hospital.
Service areas created by Network Analyst also help to evaluate accessibility. Concentric
service zones show how accessibility varies with impedance. Once service areas are created,
we can use them to identify how much land is within the neighborhood or region. Based on
service area analysis made from the hospital facility 1 would represent a polygon that covers
all traversable edges within one minute by considering available facility from the hospital,
which is 0.0048 sq. km. The service areas polygon feature class represented by 20 on the
other hand specifies the regions of the network that can be reached within the given 20 minute
covering about 17.78 sq. km. This service area is considered to be the geographic area
surrounding the hospital from which it pulls the majority of its customers/patients. It is
delimitated by well-defined geographic borders. This implies that serviceability of the hospital
32

has been affected by road arrangement within the town. As it observed in the map the southern
and eastern the hospital even if they are geographically closer to the hospital, customer cannot
reach the hospital up to 20 minute due to unavailability of routes. The people who are in east,
south and northwest are forced to round large distance to visit Nekemte hospital that cost time
and money. This shows the shortage of transportation network development in the town.

(a)

b
Fig.4.5 Service area analysis of Nekemte hospital shown by (a) concentric zones and (b) area coverage
33

When eight major health services location were loaded into active network analysis class and
given equal weight, the condition was immediately updated to other polygon regions (i.e.
service areas) as shown in the Figure 4.6.

Fig. 4.6 Major health service area analysis with different cutoff cost.

34

The map clearly shows that least accessible areas of the town are outskirt areas while town
center and part of the town all along functional roads accessible with different distance cost.
The service area analysis validated that for 1.75 km distance impedance a large part of the
town had bad accessibility. The accessibility not only affected by distance but also by lack of
transportation route in many areas of the study area. The above analysis made in GIS
environment verified road network problem away from the center of the study area. On other
hand functionality of built database and powerfulness of GIS in making decision was
illuminated.

Above all it is better to test database applicability in different scenarios. Accordingly, Nekemte
town recreational service area with a series of time cutoff was also computed to show
applicability of created database in different domain of service provider and it is proved to be
functional in a different circumstances (see Figure 4.7). This proved that created geodatasase in
GIS environment is becoming essential in understanding what is happening and gives an
opportunity to prescribe action. GIS-based analysis and visualizations therefore greatly assist in
understanding different situations in a way that can be used as a type of language that improves
communication between different organizations and the public. Areas covered within 2 to 25
minute derive along the shortest path is clearly visualized from the map which implies most parts
of the town is not traversable major recreational centers of the town. This happened because of
lack of possible shortest route and arrangement of the recreational centers themselves in the town
also.

35

Fig. 4.7 Recreation service area analysis with different time cutoff cost.

4.1.5 Proximity to Road Network Analysis

One of the parameters that show the availability of transport facility is its proximity to the end
users, which measures how many individuals access the services within a given distance or
time. In spite of its importance, proximity is difficult and too cumbersome to calculate
manually. However, GIS is powerful to calculate proximity and at the same time map within
short period of time.

Just to assess proximity of the existing road network in the town considering to population
distribution, multi-ring buffer algorithm is fitted to the available route. This help to measure
the proximity of population from the available transportation route. Accordingly 47% of the
population have access to road on their gate, while 27.8% and 25.2% population moves up to
50m and more than 500m respectively to access road facility. The situation became worse for
36

Bake Jama administrative unit where 51% of the household need to walk 500m to 2km to
access road facility. In case of Keso administrative unit

35% of the population required to

walk up 500m to 1km to access road transport. Under natural circumstance any household in
urban centers have at least access to paved road. What is serious here is that many households
have no paved road at all. The pattern can be depicted from Figure 4.8

Fig. 4.8 Road Transport proximity analysis of the study area

4.1.6 Evaluation of Road Network in Nekemte Town

The street patterns of Nekemte town are radial in nature. As it is shown in Figure 4.9 the
arterial streets radiate from the central part of the town to Bure, Gimbi, Sasiga and Addis
Ababa directions. Bulks of the administrative, commercial, business and cultural functions
occur along this axis.

37

Fig. 4.9. Nekemtes street pattern

The other existing street system other than the radial could be grouped as organic. The
connection is almost inconsistent and restricted to serve only local areas. M a n y streets end
without connecting to other nodes. Besides, streets are rarely large enough or direct enough to
serve the existing population. Irregularities in networking system are observed in the town. The
streets are damaged and not comfortable in many parts of the study area. The organization of
these streets also lacks hierarchical arrangement and proper fitting. Furthermore there are
considerable portion of the study area that are not covered by street system. Many of the
neighborhoods in the town are inaccessible for vehicular roads; where access roads exist, they
are poor in quality, not maintained and difficult to use during rainy season. The street pattern is
usually chaotic.
For the sake of accessing transportation route, most commercial activities are concentrated on
specific area. Hotels, bars and restaurants, boutiques, retail and wholesale shops, government
offices, financial institutions like banks and insurances even gullets and informal sector
operators, micro and small scale development and many other formal and informal business
and workshops activities exist at the center of the town by following along developed
transportation route. Consequently, the concentration of all urban functions in the center
attracts many people and traffic from all corners of the town. As a result streets in the area are
38

thick throughout the day.

This is mainly dictated by meager accessibility to transportation

network as any movement from the Centre. This is illuminated in the Figure 4.10 and Figure
4.11

Fig. 4.10 Land use type populated following transportation route

39


Fig. 4.11 High concentration of services and facilities following the main route

Nekemte remained with shortage of basic urban transport networks. Almost all parts of
existing urban transport facilities in Nekemte are broken-down due to long age and
absence of proper maintenance. This can verified from photograph indicated in Figure 4.12
which was collected during field observation.

Fig.4.12 Partial view of Nekemte street problem captured during field observation

In addition as one move from the two squares (roundabout Nekemte), which is considered as
the center of the own, accessibility to transport become worse (see Figure 4.13). What are
inscrutabilities here is that the rapid population growth that accelerated spatial expansion to
no paved road and other mode of transport facility at all. The rapid paces of population
40

expansion combined with existing infrastructure bottlenecks made

the

tasks

of

transportation and other infrastructure provision difficult to Nekemte town.

Fig.4.13 Nekemte Road network system

The problems of street network in the town are numerous. Street width is quite below the
standard. The standards of arterial and collector streets in urban Ethiopia have relatively
moderate width 15m. But in case of Nekemte arterial streets have only 10m width while
collectors constructed haphazardly.

The other challenge clearly observed on the construction of street is mainly on pedestrian
mobility. Nekemte could be considered as one of the urban centers in Ethiopia that depends
largely on walking as means of urban mobility. However, the existing streets are not
constructed in a way that it suits for walking purpose. Most streets do not have acknowledged
lanes for pedestrians. Even in areas where the pedestrian lane is provided, mobility is
congested by dumped construction materials like gravel, sand or stone, poles, street side shops
and parking functions. From various parameters like safety, security, convenience and
attractiveness, the existing pedestrian lane not fulfill the beauty of the town.
The above problems are largely man made and possibly curbed by re-engineering the system.
Unquestionably, this can cost many things to develop en route for standard. Moreover,
Nekemte is threatened by natural settings of surface morphology. It has rugged topography
41

and characterized by steep slope which is difficult for road construction. This can be visualized
from Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) in Figure 4.14 which was generated from digital
elevation model (DEM) of Nekemte town. TIN have been used by the GIS expertise and
geographers to represent surface morphology since it gives clear visualization of relief
features. TINs are a form of vector-based digital geographic data and are constructed by
triangulating a set of vertices (elevation points). The vertices are connected with a series of
edges to form a network of triangles to enable easy identification of terrain pattern. As it can be
depicted from triangulation of irregular network the surface morphology of the study area
remained with full of ups and down, and fragmentations which is immediately occurring. The
slope of the study area as resulted in chapter 3 is high and largely uneven.

42

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4.14 Triangulated Irregular Network (a) and slope (b) of Netemte town

43

4.2 Nekemte Water Supply Network Coverage

The distribution of water supply pipelines network in Nekemte town covers 10.9 square km.
Conversely, the town extends over 53.62 square km. Then again land use that require water
utility (i.e. land use type under residence or different service areas) covers 12.5 sq km. This
variation indicate 1.6 sq. km. These are the areas of land uses that require water utility but not
currently covered by the water supply pipeline network system. However, apart from this water
supply network connection, large institutions like Wollega University use drilled holes as
source of water supply. The inconsistences of water supply network coverage and areas require
water utility is illustrated in the following map.

Fig. 4.15 Discrepancies of water supply coverage and areas require water utility.

4.2.1 Source of Water Supply

Currently the town gets tab water form Adiya River which is 7 km far from the center and
three bore holes found at 10km from the center of the town. As to data obtained from the
population and housing census 2007 higher percentage, 37.3%, of the town households
obtained drinking water from tab outside their compound. On the other side 3.72% of the
44

households of the town obtained drinking water from unprotected well and spring while 2.9 %
of households of the study area were fetched drinking water from unprotected rivers/ponds. It
is clear that rivers flow nearby town is affected by different wastes come out from the town.
Incontestably consuming water from this source for domestic purpose adversely affects their
health and psychology. They are worrying about their health whenever they consumed from
unprotected sources of water. Detailed percentage sharing of drinking water consumed by the
society is indicated on Figure 4.14.
Percentage of Households Obtain Drinking Water
From tap outside compound

37.3%

From tap inside compound

30.14%

From other sources

17.84%

From protected well

8.1%

From unprotected well or spring

3.72%

From river,lake or pond

2.9%
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Fig.4.16 sources of drinking water for Nekemte town

4.2.2 Nekemte Water Supply
Water is a pre-requisite for socio-economic development, healthy and satisfaction of any
society and seeks attention. Possibly, water is the most important and the corner stone of
life on earth. Despite the importance the prevailing water supply situation in Nekemte is
worrying because Nekemte water supply is significantly underdeveloped in terms of both
quantity and quality as well. The town

is not fortunate to enjoy well connected water

supply systems that provide clean and reliable water source to the population. Water
supplied for the population carries different suspended impurities like dirt, sand, dust and
soils. This impurities sometimes make the color of the water cloudy. During data collection
different images that can be considered as a witness was captured and appended to this
document as follows (see Figure 4.17).

45

Fig. 4.17 Suspended impurities observed in Nekemte drinking water

As has been noted in chapter 3 a n d visualized from the above photograph water supply for
the town is not fair in terms of quality and quantity. When quantity is considered it was
reported that only 68.3% of the towns households have access to water sources regarded as
safe in 2008 (OFED, 2010). The condition is serious and fascinating ones attention. According
to International Water Resources Association standard set for human needs is 50 liters per
person per day (IWRA, 1996). However the average consumption of water in Nekemte is 16.3
liters per day per person which is lower than three times the set standard. In addition, water
supply for the town is not continuous and reliable. As information obtained from the end
users interruption of water supply is a common phenomenon in the town. This failure to meet
population water demand causes large scale human dissatisfaction, misery and suffering.

4.2.3 Water Production, Distribution and Consumption in Nekemte

As it indicated in Table 4.1 the annual water production capacity for the town has shown
significant increment from 2007 to 2012. Simultaneously, annual water consumption has also
increased to 576,916 m3 in 2012. Leakage of water also showed rapid increment and reach
44% in 2012. The loss of water is attributed to the aging of pipe lines (because most of the
pipe lines served for 38 years), different construction that break pipe lines and lack of
maintenance.

46

Table 4.1 Production and Consumption of water in Nekemte Town.

S.
N
1

Item

Annual water production

Annual water consumption

Leakage

Water production capacity

Per capita water supply

Unit

2006/07

2007/08

2010/11

2011/12

000 m3

579

630

681

1596

352

383

394

576.9

39

39

42

44

1120

198

11197

11197

19-21

45

000 m
%

Million
in m3
L/person

Per capita water

L/person
13-14
consumption
Source: Compiled based on data from Nekemte town Water, Mineral a nd Energy Office

16

4.2.4.1 Water Meter Connection to Households

According to data obtained from Water, Mineral and Energy Office of Nekemte town, there
are 7201 private meter connections, in 2012, to household that significantly vary from Keso
sub city (348 connections) to Chalalaki

sub city which amounts to 2691 meter water

connections. The detailed spatial variation is indicated in the following map and associated
graph (see Figure 4.18).

Fig. 4.18 Private water meter connections in each sub city

Sources of water in Nekemte are unreliable and not continuous in both temporal and spatial
dimension. Following fluctuation of water volume or quantity significant numbers of
households are changing source of water from one source to other. As it is resulted in Figure
4.19 higher instability recorded in Darge sub city and generally more than 65% of the
population of the study area was unable to get private meter connection. In this case
47

households prefer alternative water supply sources such as public tabs, looking for individual
vendors, tabs of neighbors house, natural springs and others.

Fig. 4.19 Number of households obtain water from a various sources by each sub city

Comparative analysis of network density that can be obtained through number of private meter
connection in each sub city by normalizing to number of households in each sub city indicated
that

there is higher network density in Chalalaki sub city, which accounts for 63 meter

connection per 100 households. This implies that for 10 household numbers there is almost 6
water meter connections. The smallest network density is observed in Bake Jama
administrative unit which has 17 meter connection per 100 households (see Figure 4.20). The
overall analysis of water meter connection compared to existing household number in the town
indicated 38% number of meter connection.

48

Fig. 4.20 Number of water meter connections per number of households per sub city

On the other hand significant number of households used shared meter connection to get
domestic water. About 1519 households in Bake Jama sub city used shared meter connection
whereas shared water meter connection was as low as 23 in Keso sub city and detail
representation is shown in Figure 4.21.

Fig. 4.21 Number shared water connection to household by each sub city

49

4.3 Nekemte fixed Line Telephone Distribution

Typically, the first step for most urban planning in areas of telecommunications is hunting for
potential areas of customers that can resulted from analysis of different variables like land use
assessment. Because it is logical to invest in areas where built-up areas are standing. Therefore
the assessments seek to define the extent of existing fixed line telecommunications coverage, and
the location of potential customers in the vicinity. The assessment reveals a deficiency in supply
relative to the estimated demand for fixed line telecommunications services in the study area.
Henceforth GIS can be used to design scenarios for bridging the gap. In some circumstances
fixed line telephone is preferable way of communication for the following reasons. Fixed line
telephone is advantageous over mobile telephone at first place it is less cost for making
international calls. Secondly, in terms cost and management it is difficult to buy a mobile cell
phone for all members of family and therefore a single fixed line cell phone is needed to
communicate families found in house and offices. Thirdly, payment is made monthly and billed
by accepted receipt to require release of budget if any sponsoring body is available. Fourthly
since it is fixed to a certain place, it is not easily dropped and therefore durable. These all
circumstances increased the demand of fixed line telephone in the town. This does not mean that
fixed line telephone is all in all preferable than mobile telephone system rather mobile cell
phones are more convenient to carry them with us and using cell phones means that no new
telephone cables and wires need to be laid.
Based on series of annual report from 2007/8 to 2009/10 fiscal year made by ethio-telecom
Nekemte district office, the demand for fixed telephone in the town has shown increasing trend
(see Table 4.2). Although it has been continuously expanding since the 2007, fixed-line
telephone network is still absorbs high demand. Teledensity has not reached and marked
disparity between Centre of the town and its outlying areas. In fact there is no recorded data
available since 2010 onwards up to current condition.
Table 4.2 Demand and services of fixed telephone line in Nekemte Town
S.No
2007/08
2008/09 2009/10 Total
2991
3021
7248
2776
2804
6589
Source: Mined from 3 years annual report of ethio-telecom Nekemte district office

1
2

Demand
Number of served

1236
1009

50

Nekemte town fiber optic cable installation has covered 77.25 km. Thirty-four Multi-Service
Access Gateway (MSAG) boxes from where client channels get service have also been installed
in the town (see Figure 4.22).

Fig. 4.22 Distribution of Multi-service access gateway and optical fiber cable installations

Currently there are 736 terminal points that can serve for 7360 lines covering nearly 13.3 sq km;
their distribution over the study area is illustrated in Figure 4.23. These numbers are crude and
difficult to check accessibility to the population against any administrative boundaries of the
town and for which type of the services connections were made. The fixed line telephone
services include connection made to households, government and non-government offices and
other services. However, it is possible to determine the proximity of access points to land use
types. This responds appropriately to any request geographical proximity in respect to different
land use types in a GIS environment. The distribution of terminal points from which connection
is made to each houses has shown in Figures 4.23. Similar to other services such as the
distribution of meter water connection and street network arrangement, the distributions of fixed
line telephone services are also concentrated at the center.

51

Fig.4.23 fixed telephone network distribution in 3D environment

There are 11 Cross connection cabinet (CCC) in the town which is used for cross-connecting
incoming and outgoing optical cables, and carry signals. The distribution patterns of CCC have
shown in Figure 4.24. The number of fixed line telephone connection made in the town is
determined by the capacity of CCC. Accordingly Nekemte CCC has a potential to serve 10240
lines and have to be connected to 1024 terminal points in order to utilize its full capacity. The
CCC has functions of cable termination, as well as fiber distribution, splice, storage and dispatch.

Fig. 4.24 Distribution of terminal points (a) and CCC (b)

52

GIS offers the fixed line telephone network planner a powerful solution for simultaneously
managing the physical location of the infrastructure and non-spatial data components in a single
environment. This process became realistic when spatial distribution of the fixed line terminal
points modeled with the distribution of land uses in the study area (see Figure 4.25).

Fig 4.25 Modeling line fixed telephone coverage for identifying areas require attention

The modeling produced map symbolized in Figure 4.26 which showed the accessible and
inaccessible areas crossways to land use types. Besides distribution of fixed line telephone
network coverage with land use indicates that many areas remained as uncovered by terminal
points from which connection is transferred to houses. Thereupon different pocket areas which
covers about 3.7 sq km were identified as where buildings are available but no connection and
distribution of cables that providing connection function. These areas were identified as
inaccessible to fixed line telephone that demand fixed telephone connection and these areas is
labeled as areas requiring attention for future expansion in the Figure 4.26 and . Inaccessible
areas also verified from the map.

53

Fig 4.26 Fixed line telephone network coverage for identifying areas require attention

54

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary
This project was conducted in Nekemte town, found in Oromia region, 331 km west of Addis
Ababa city. The purpose of the study was to create spatial geodatabase used for Nekemte road
Network, water supply and fixed-line telephone connections, and assessing their accessibility to
population distribution. Hence, the distribution of road network, water supply network and fixed
line telephone was used as a data source, georeferenced and imported into GIS environment to
determine their accessibility. Overlay analysis, extract and proximity analysis toolbox in ArcGIS
10.1 were used for spatial analysis particularly in performing overlays, clip, intersect, create
buffers, calculate statistics and symmetrical difference along with modeling. Throughout the
digital image processing non-spatial data (i.e. attribute data) were also used to indicate existing
realities of the study area. Network analysis like best route identification, closest facility
mapping and service area analyses were done in ArcGIS 10.1 environment. Proximity analysis
through buffering was used to determine which part of the town is easily accessible and
inaccessible to street network. Other GIS software Global Mapper 14.1 and Erdas Imagine 2010
were used to map terrain patterns and land use and land cover classes of the study area
respectively.

Shortage of street network, water supply pipe line connection and accessibility to fixed line
telephone was observed in outskirt parts of the town. Inaccessibility to the transport facility and
water supply become worse in Bake Jama and Burqa Jato administrative units.

Attribute to

insufficient development of street network, there is no many possible ways to visit different
service areas particularly Nekemte Hospital and Wollega University. Water private meter
connection made to the households is varying from one sub city to another sub city and the least
availability is observed in Keso sub city which was 348 while the largest was made 2691 in
Chalalaki sub city. Fixed line telephone network covered 13.3 sq. km while about 3.7 square km
areas were identified as where built up areas are available but coverage of fixed-line telephone is
not yet reached.

55

5.2 Conclusions
The main objective of the project is to build road network, water supply pipeline and fixed line
telephone geospatial database in GIS environment and to assess their spatial arrangement in the
study area. GIS is demonstrated as a powerful tool throughout geodatabase building, managing
large and spatial data analysis. The tools embedded in ArcGIS particularly ArcGIS 10.1 has many
options through which a large spatial dimension is modeled. These help the study to assess the
accessibility of existing road network patterns. The result showed that there is inaccessibility of
transport facility here and there apart from the center (roundabout Nekemte); it is radically reduced
and became extreme in the west (Sorga area) and eastern part around Wollega University. Besides
the possibility to access or reach important facilities like Nekemte hospital and Wollega
University, where a large population is attracted, is made only through single route. This
inaccessibility to different facilities and services including transportation route caused major
conflict during taking taxi and creates congestion in traffic movement.
Availability of adequate quantity and quality of water supply is a key requisite in maintaining a
healthy environment. However, Nekemte is not fortune to satisfy water demand for the needy
population. The requirement of water for domestic purposes including for sanitation and gardening
was obtained from taps, spring, well, river, pond or combined sources. Consumption of water for
different domestic activities was 16.3 liters/person/day. There is mismatch between water supply
and demand in both spatial coverage and quantity. In any angles of water supply analyses made in
the study area flashes red light and clearly indicate critical drinking water supply shortage. The
distribution of fixed line telephone in the town similar to other facilities and utilities concentrated
in the central part of the town. The outlying areas have poorer to the service.
Finally, it was concluded that GIS is a powerful tool to manage spatial data for the reason that it
has a great facility for geographic features and their attributes in a computer database. GIS is also
key to evaluate urban facilities and utilities planning through providing spatial relational
information. Urban facilities and utilities planning have naturally spatial dimension and this is the
most compelling evidence that GIS is exceling in assessing the arrangement of urban services.
The advantage of using a GIS for analysis of Nekemte urban facilities helped the identification of
the accessible and inaccessible areas through pointing areas require attention, visual cross checking
with statistical data, and provides a platform for presenting the analysis on map in a way that
government officials can review their plan.
56

5.3 Recommendations

GIS is a powerful tool that gives an opportunity to update geospatial data at any time. GIS
can store, handle, analyze and retrieve bulky of geospatial data. Therefore, it is here
recommended that to automate Nekemte town facilities and utilities planning, the
Nekemte municipality and other stake holders can use GIS technology for better utility
management and planning.
This project is mainly based on available data. Further investigation can be made through
detail primary data collection. This opens an opportunity for more comprehensive and
robust research work.
Application of GIS in urban planning and simultaneously monitoring inadequate service
areas is indispensable. Therefore, service providers in the town can use GIS technology to
fulfil the needs of the society.
Unavailability of roads observed in different corners of the town. Nevertheless every plot
required to have access road towards its main entrance. It should be sufficiently accessible
for emergency services, fire brigade vehicles, ambulances and latrine sucking trucks. This
calls for reconsiderations of street network planning and additional road constructions in
the town. It is better to give priority for Bake Jama sub city the most inaccessible and then
Burqa Jato administrative unit.
Existing water supply services in the town is not satisfactory, fair and continuous in the
town. Therefore searching alleviation mechanisms (like searching additional sources,
increasing opportunity to have independent

water meter connection and extra water

supply pipes expansion to new residential areas) is now compulsory.

Outlying residential areas of the town have no access to fixed line telecommunication

convenience. The expansions were stopped somewhere far from their vicinity. Therefore,
it is essential to expand fixed line telecommunication in the community.

57

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Proceedings of Global Geospatial Conference 2013
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 4-8 November 2013

Appendices
Appendix-A Nekemte Road Network Database

Appendix-B Unstructured interview

Leading Questions
1. What are the major facility problems in Nekemte town?
2. IS the distribution of water supply is fair? In what context?
3. What is the advantages of fixed line telecommunication over mobile?
4. Would you name the major recessional centers in the Nekemte town?

Appendix-C