An IDP brings all stakeholders on board to have a comprehenasive area that is being planned for. In Zambia, these plans will be shortly formalized through the provisions of the Urban and Regional Bill which will repeal and replace the existing Town and Country Planning Act and Housing Statutory and Improvement Area Act. When the legislation is enacted, councils will be required to prepare IDPs for their area, and to submit these for approval to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH).
Some district councils (such as Mazabuka, Siavonga, Kazungula and Choma) have initiated early preparation of IDPs in advance of it becoming a statutory instrument.
PCGIS has been involved with IDPs of Mazabuka and Siavonga, from the inception. Mazabuka’s IDP process has reached the Spatial Framework Stage of which GIS is most cardinal at this stage. With the satellite imagery and the collection of GPS points the centre was able to establish the extents of the townships of Mazabuka Urban Area; furthermore the centre was able to map Landuse housing density, infrastructure and social facilities and produce some maps of it. For the Siavonga IDP maps, the centre scanned a 1:5000 map and digitized it, as such currently the centre has the land use map plan as per 1988 plan.