{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.018978761861726163, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005648441030275644, 'mean_word_length': 5.2794326241134755, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
GEO-SPATIAL ANALYSIS: THE IMPACTS OF LAND POLICY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHOLISTAN DESERT REGION, PAKISTAN

The Cholistan desert region has the potential of agro-pastoral husbandry development with limited natural resources. The Government guided this developmental process through land allotment policy which has different implementation modality each time. The land policy has diverse impacts on the arid and semi-arid regions of the Cholistan desert. The impacts of policy on the socioeconomic conditions of the regions are associated with geo-spatial techniques. The sample settlement is geo-coded, and their responses are combined into two regions i.e. Lesser and Greater Cholistan regions. The combined responses are associated through phi coefficient and Cramér's V. The impacts of land policy in the Lesser Cholistan region are encouraging the developmental process while in Greater Cholistan, it discourages the development with poor socioeconomic conditions. The present study provide opportunity for understanding, mode of implementation and modification in land policy to achieve sustainable development. The present study is an attempt to understand the land policies implemented by Government from time to time and their implications on the development of Cholistan Desert. Based on climatic and socioeconomic conditions, Cholistan desert can be detached into two distinctive regions of Greater and Lesser Cholistan (Farooq, Samad et al. 2010, Hameed, Ashraf et al. 2011, Malik and Ali 2017). Most of the land policies are operated in Lesser Cholistan region due to availability of irrigated land in their peripheries. However, the residents of Cholistan “ Cholistani ” considered land and water resources as a collective form of their integrity and sharing these resources with outsource directly affected their socioeconomic conditions. Each and every land policy provides opportunities and threats for their development. These opportunities and threats are Geo-spatially dynamic. Each location perceives the implications of a policy differently and same is with their result on the development. The implications of land policies are studied with Geo-spatial dynamics. Based on the implications of land policy, the share of land, their perception, policy interaction and impacts on socioeconomic condition are analyzed with Geo-spatial technique. The effects of land policy are combined into major regions. The results of impacts and socioeconomic condition are verified through statistical association. In nutshell, the Lesser Cholistan region is prospering and Greater Cholistan region is in depression due to impacts of land policies. The two Cholistan Greater Cholistan which is a hot sandy region and the Lesser Cholistan is a semi-arid region. The pattern of population distribution is almost contrast with least population in Greater Cholistan which are residing mostly in Tobas while more than 70% of the total share of population is absorbed by the Lesser Cholistan. Based on the population distribution, with sample size of 3% of the total population, one thousand semi-structured questionnaire survey was conducted in 30 settlements. Based on the stratified random sampling techniques, 21 settlements from Lesser Cholistan and 09 settlement from Greater Cholistan were selected to represent the population with 70 and 30% proportion of the total selected population, respectively. The primary and secondary data was synchronized for the variables of policy status, land share of each about the role of policy, impacts of land policy on the household and/or settlement, development and socioeconomic conditions. All selected settlements are Geo-coded in Arc GIS and these variables data are attached with the attributes table. Based on the Weighted Overlay tool in ArcGIS, most of the data is converted to percentage share at each location with the equal weightage for all settlements in the analysis. Using the Arc GIS tool of Spatial Analyst, the attributes data was analyzed and converted to graphs and tables. The Arc GIS has the capabilities to convert small region into larger through Geo-processing tools. The Geo-spatial responses of selected settlements are combined into major regions of the study. The results are presented in the form of maps for simplification and better understanding. These results are further verified through statistical techniques of phi coefficient (φr) and Cramér's