Technology
Development of a National Geospatial Data Infrastructure – Theories and Technologies
Brig V. N. Nerikar
Survey of India
Email: sgo@nde.vsnl.net.in
Introduction
Sustained economic growth, balance between development of natural resources and their exploitation in an optimal natural environment requires access to an accurate, consistent and update data on related parameters for planning for sustainable development. Most of the development projects connected with sustainable development are in the realm of Government domain at present. Private sector is also quite keen and ready to involve itself as an equal partner in the management and protection of our natural environment and introducing effective management techniques for development of renewable and non-renewable natural resources as also contributing to infrastructure development projects e.g. transportation, education and healthcare etc. Economic development activities connected with efficient management of natural resources at affordable cost need to have access to the relevant data for finding solutions to problems in the given situations. In today’s information society it implies the creation of an institutional arrangements commonly referred to us infrastructure for generating, storage and sharing of geospatial data with connected attributes. The infrastructure can be viewed as a network of geospatial data which can be accessed at an affordable cost and which yield to the necessity of sharing data on given problem situations. The term Infrastructure has been in use for more than a century in Europe and gained prominence after the Second World War when NATO institutionalised arrangements for sharing of common telecommunication, aviation and transportation etc. facilities.
Geospatial Data
Geospatial Data should be viewed in four dimensions. These are the three dimensions associated with physical location i.e. X,Y,Z coordinates or latitude, longitude and height which define the positions spatially and the fourth dimension of time which defines its temporal aspect. Temporal aspect is important as updatedness of data is a prerequisite. A few of the examples of Geospatial Data could be, the topographic data collected by various mapping organizations, atmospheric data, hydrographic data, property and boundary records as well population data, labour force surveys etc. A vast array of Government and private agencies are engaged in collection of geospatial data for a large spectrum of human activity.
Factors Affecting Development of Infrastructure
While considering the establishment of digital data infrastructure it is necessary to consider the impact of the multidimensional factors which influence planning for development projects. It is also best to realize that in viewing development process in its totality we are faced with the fact that there are a number of points of entry in the multidimensional, social, economic, cultural, environmental and ethical fields which have bearing on the planning process. All these fields are bound by linkages which act as checks and balances to ensure that no field of human activity accelerates or degrades too fast. It is, therefore, necessary that specific laws, legal provisions, individual enthusiasm and constraints of the Government policies are taken into consideration while developing such an Infrastructure.
Geospatial Data Infrastructure
The concept of national data infrastructure as such is not new. In all nations the major road and telecommunication network and basic health and education facilities are funded by the Government The rationale is that it is a legitimate role of the Government, on behalf of community to provide a common and consistent infrastructure upon which a variety of Government, private sector and community activities can take place. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de janeiro, in 1992, took steps to reverse environmental deterioration and establish the basis for a sustainable way of life into the 21st century. Agenda 21 of this conference sets out measures for many things, among them, protecting atmosphere, deforestation, preventing pollution, halting of depletion of fish stocks and safely managing toxic wastes. The Rio conference acknowledged that the availability of Geoinformation is critical for environmental decision making. The special seminar of the United Nations General Assembly to Review and Appraise the Implementation of Agenda 21 held in June 1997, reaffirmed the importance of geospatial data for sustainable global development. As a result of this development a number of countries have created their own infrastructure to cater to their needs of geospatial data.
First Geospatial Data Infrastructure was conceived in Canada in the early 1980s. Many countries including USA, UK, Holland, Australia and Malaysia also undertook to develop their own National Geospatial Data Infrastructures. The infrastructure encompasses within itself the creation of common hardware and software facilities which are open for sharing by a large number of participants working towards achievement of a common goal. As stated earlier, the concept of infrastructure as such is not new and a large infrastructure already exists in terms of airport locations, telecommunication, pipe lines ports etc. which can be used by institutions sharing the same political ideology.
National Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI)
The Indian National Geospatial Data Infrastructure envisages the creation of a network of geospatial data bases and handling facilities that are capable of interacting with each other as also the design, implementation, maintenance, mechanisms facilitating the sharing, access to, and responsible use of geospatial data at an affordable cost for specific applications. The NGDI will cater to the sharing of data in the national context by means of a set of standards such as national spatial reference systems, a national topographic datum, a national elevation model as well as standard spatial data sets such as geographical names, administrative boundaries and information related to some specific data sets e.g. hydrology, vegetation, population etc. At the same time it will also lay down the meta data standard for various data sets and databases to describe them in a consistent manner as a repository of NGDI holdings.