DEVELOPMENT OF A DIGITAL WEB-BASED EXCAVATED SOIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM CASE STUDY LILONGWE CITY

The rapid urbanization of Lilongwe City has led to an increase of construction and excavation activities in Lilongwe city, generating high volumes of excess soil that are often mismanaged, which lead to environmental degradation and inefficient resource use. To address the lack of an integrated system for soil resource management, this study was aimed to design and develop a web-based Digital excavated soil management System that will enables efficient reporting, requesting, and maintain excavated soil. The research followed an agile system development methodology, which utilized PHP and MariaDB for backend and database management, and Leaflet.js for interactive geospatial visualization. The resulting system features some distinct modules for citizens to report excess soil and request soil while for city administrators to manage reports and requests. Key functionalities include a polygon-based volume calculator for accurate soil estimation, role-based access control, and a comprehensive audit trail. The system was successfully tested, including user acceptance testing with both citizen and administrative users, who validated its usability and potential for increasing accountability. The study has demonstrated that a web-GIS platform can effectively bridge the gap between soil supply and demand, promote a circular economy for soil resources, and enhance transparency in urban management for Lilongwe City Council.

The rapid urbanization of Lilongwe City has led to an increase of construction and excavation activities in Lilongwe city, generating high volumes of excess soil that are often mismanaged, which lead to environmental degradation and inefficient resource use. To address the lack of an integrated system for soil resource management, this study was aimed to design and develop a web-based Digital excavated soil management System that will enables efficient reporting, requesting, and maintain excavated soil. The resulting system features some distinct modules for citizens to report excess soil and request soil while for city administrators to manage reports and requests. The study has demonstrated that a web-GIS platform can effectively bridge the gap between soil supply and demand, promote a circular economy for soil resources, and enhance transparency in urban management for Lilongwe City Council.

This study was conducted within Lilongwe City, which is the capital and largest city of Malawi. Lilongwe is located in the central region of Malawi and city covers an estimated area of 392 square kilometers (Brown, Manda, & Mwalyambwile, 2014). Administratively, Lilongwe is divided into numbered areas (Areas 1 through 57 and beyond), which are each managed under the jurisdiction of the Lilongwe City Council (LCC), the principal local government authority responsible for urban planning. The city has undergone rapid population growth and urbanization, with estimates placing the population at over 1.1 million people, making it the most densely populated urban center in Malawi (Brown, Manda, & Mwalyambwile, 2014).

Traditional authority: Lilongwe City

District: Lilongwe

Coordinates: -13.9065, 33.7532