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Regional geographic information infrastructure in the Hindu Kush – Himalayan Region
Bridging the data
gap
MENRIS has been able to compile various bio-physical and
socio-economic datasets at local and, to some extent, at national levels in
close collaboration with the national institutions in the region. National
institutions have felt the need to standardise data and information exchange.
Efforts and initiatives are being made to develop various standards at local,
national, and regional levels and to advocate for an open data policy.
Recognition as a Resource Centre
MENRIS has been playing a
catalytic role as a regional coordinator resulting in the development of a
mechanism to ensure non-duplication of efforts and information exchange among
the institutions through a network approach. As a resource centre. MENRIS has
one of the most advanced 3-S technology establishments in the region, a strong
network of like-minded institutions within the region, and a host of
international key partners and vendors.
Growth in user base and
introduction of University level GIS courses
The GIS user base has grown
considerably in the HKH over the past five years through prioritised MENRIS
training programmes. Universities and educational sectors are getting attracted
towards developing geo-informatics as a part of their curricula which will
eventually contribute to sound human resources’ development in the region on a
continuous basis.
Improved Institutional capacity and
Network
Through its programme, MENRIS has been able to build the
capabilities of national institutions in utilising geo-information technologies
for sustainable mountain development. The region now consists of moderate
capability to utilise modern technologies. The network formed by MENRIS is
serving as a mechanism to bridge the gap between users, end-users and data
providers.
Application of 3s-technologies in mountain-specific
research and development
Under the collaboration with various other
institutions, MENRIS has been able to develop mountain specific 3-s technology
applications, which has clearly demonstrated the usefulness of these modern
technologies. The applications thus developed are being replicated in other
parts of the region.
Excellent linkages with global partners and
vendors
Over the past several years, MENRIS has built up excellent
linkages with external partners engaged in the generation of environmental and
natural resources data and involved in geo- informatics technology. Some of the
partners are UNEP, CSSTPE, ESRI, ERDAS, SPAND, ITC, NRSA, NASDA, AIT, UNIGIS,
IDRC, etc.
Status of Geographic Information in the HKH
region
Present status
Comparatively little has been
achieved by MENRIS and others to date in terms of a comprehensive geographic
database of the region . The many case studies were confined to particular
project areas and the resulting datasets remained essentially patchwork. The few
bits and pieces that actually are available are often not comparable from one
country to another, or they are extracts from global datasets like the Digital
Chart of the World or IGBP’s Global Land Cover [3] data. These datasets are
typically of a 1:1 mio scale and have limited suitability for mountain areas
with their high variability of conditions.
Considering the political
situation, it is not surprising that data on territory and natural resources,
like mapsor hydrological records have traditionally been highly sensitive
material in most of ICIMOD‘s Regional Member Countries. In some off them, large
and medium scale maps are still completely off limits despite the fact that we
have been down the age of reconnaissance satellite for quite some time.
Further, the mountain areas are marginal border zones of the bigger
countries like China, India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, and consequently enjoy a
relatively low priority on the agenda of the National Mapping Agencies.
But there are some rays of hope: Since Nepal has adopted an open data
policy earlier, MENRIS has been able to build an extensive digital database of
Nepal at 1:250,000 scale. Bangladesh and Bhutan have joined this open data
policy recently and it seems that MENERIS will be able to populate the regional
spatial data base with the from those countries as well.
Significant are
also the very encouraging news that have come from India recently: The
Government has set up a national task force on information technology which
recommended, inter alia, that the Survey of India makes the existing digital
topographic data at 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 scales available to the public at no
cost and without copyright restrictions. However, the Defence Ministry still has
to overcome its reservations [4].
Standards
Standards, being essentially agreements on how things should
be, guarantee a certain quality to the user (or buyer) of a dataset. They thus
save the user from blindly trusting what he receives or investing lots of time
into cumbersome quality assessments. For standards to be effective to that
point, it is essential that they are widely recognised, and that claims of
compliance are checked by independent bodies. Therefore the setting of standards
requires the involvement of all major stakeholders. While National Mapping
Agencies, being the only stakeholders, have long used standards in conventional
mapping, the mushrooming of GIS projects and the diversity of data source has so
far hindered the establishment of universally recognised standards for digital
geospatial data. However, it is understood that the International Standards
Organisation (ISO) has appointed a technical committee (TC211) to develop those
standards. Standards on geospatial data should regulate at least:
- The semantic data definition, e.g. what is a forest in a land cover
map
- The accuracy, both positional and thematic
- The updatedness. i.e. the maximum age of the information
- The data exchange formats, i.e. the technical description of the interface
between different platforms.
- The Data Documentation, i.e. the format and contents of Metadata
- Institutions with trained staff
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