The fourth Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) conference was successfully hosted in Cape Town, South Africa with 180 international delegates in attendance.
The three-day conference commenced on 13th March 2000 until the 15th March 2000. The conference programme emphasised on the theme of "Engaging Emerging Economies" with a special plenary session on SDI development in Africa that included two plenary papers on the subject.
The 4th GSDI conference had an unprecedented number of delegates in attendance and many interesting papers were presented. It was the most geographically representative GSDI conference with delegates coming from most continents. To accommodate all the speakers, presentations on the 2nd day were delivered in parallel sessions.
As the closing speaker for the conference, the Minister of Environment in the Government of Columbia Mr. Juan Mayr-Maldonado had his keynote address delivered by the Columbian Ambassador accredited to South Africa. This was followed by the adoption of resolutions and official closing of the conference.
The social programme also had the delegates enthralled by Cape Town and what it has to offer.
A conference dinner was held at a fortress named the Castle of Good Hope on the 1st day of the conference with sumptuous South African cuisine on offer. There was a planned trip to the famed Table Mountains that had to be cancelled on the second day. However, this was substituted by a visit to a small nature reserve in Belville/Durbanville, which is on the outskirts of Cape Town. The delegates got to see a few wild Buck followed by a meal and champagne around a warm campfire.
The Chair of GSDI steering committee passed on to Mr. Derek Clarke of the Chief Director of Surveys and Mapping in South Africa. James Kangethe and Sives Govender of the National Spatial Information Framework of South Africa will take over the responsibility of managing the GSDI secretariat. The immense contribution of the outgoing Chair, Peter Holland who is the General Manager of AUSLIG and David Robertson who tirelessly run the secretariat was gratefully acknowledged.
The summary of actual proceedings is as follows;
Day 1 (13 March 2000) (10h00 - 12h00)
Meeting of the GSDI Steering Committee
Day 1 (13 March 2000), Session 1:
Session Chair: Mr. Derek Clarke (Chief Director, Surveys and Mapping, South Africa).
Derek Clarke (on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Ms. Thoko Didiza) welcomed the delegates to South Africa and emphasised the importance of Africa and especially South Africa hosting the conference. He hoped that delegates would find that there trip to South Africa rewarding.
Peter Holland, The outgoing Chair, GSDI Steering Committee and General Manager, Australian Surveying & Land Information Group delivered the official welcome and preliminary remarks. He described the theme, "Engaging Emerging Economies", has significant because the conference was designed to engage people who have not yet had an opportunity to join in the global GSDI debate. Mr. Holland went on to explain the activities of the GSDI steering committee which had emanated from the resolutions and recommendations made at the 3rd GSDI conference in Canberra, Australia November 1998.
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Activity |
Progress |
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Establish a global umbrella organisation |
This activity was picked up by an operations working group of the GSDI steering committee. At this stage several models of umbrella organisations have been considered and these will be described during the conference |
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Develop a business case for SDI development |
This activity was picked up by a taskforce of the GSDI steering committee. At this stage a scoping study has been prepared by independent consultants and will be described during the conference |
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Support and transitional initiatives, in particular, Permanent Committees for GIS Infrastructure for the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East |
Ongoing support is being provided to initiatives in the Americas and in Africa |
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Submit the following resolution to the United Nations - "Recognising that implementation of the objectives of Agenda 21 requires transnational understanding and analysis of environmental data the ECOSOC urges countries, to the extent possible and consistent with national priorities, to develop national spatial data information systems and co-operate to develop international spatial data standards." |
The resolution was submitted to the UN Statistics Division |
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Hold the next conference in South Africa |
GSDI4 is the outcome of this resolution |
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Establish four Working Groups:
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The technical working groups has developed a set of technical business principles for SDI development, and have produced the first edition of a SDI implementation guide (the GSDI cookbook). The communications working group has established a GSDI home page produced a set of GSDI publicity material and have promoted the GSDI concept widely. The legal and economic working group is considering methods of sharing legal and economic experiences relating to spatial data. The activities of all working groups will be described during the conference |
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Participate in related initiatives |
Steering committee members have been actively involved in initiatives such as the ISCGM and Digital Earth. |
He concluded by encouraging conference delegates to use their time productively in Cape Town by:
A Panel Session, followed with Reports from the GSDI Working Groups on:
Peter Holland, presented the Report on the Scoping Study into the Business Case for SDI Development. The Study was borne out of the decision taken at GSDI 3 in Canberra 1998. The aim of the study was to gain political & financial support for GSDI. The study recommended:
In conclusion, participants of GSDI 4 were asked to comment on these findings and the GSDI Executive committee were tasked to act on these comments.
Day 1, Session 2:
Session Chair: Mr. Santiago Borrero-Mutis, Director General, Geographic Institute Agustin Codazzi, Colombia.
The keynote presentation was made Prof. Harlan Onsrud, Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering and National Centre for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of Maine, Maine, USA. He presented, Global Survey of National Spatial Data Infrastructure Activities: 2000 Update & Status Report. Prof. Onsrud described that in 1998 with the support of FGDC and NIMA, a survey to assess the nature, extent and status of spatial data infrastructure activities of nations around the world was accomplished. By November 1998 the initial results were reported at the GSDI 3 Meeting in Canberra Australia, responses had been received from 23 nations and several multi-nation regions. In 2000, participation in the survey from many more nations is sought. The new larger pool of data also will be explored for additional and alternative implications. Finally, plans will be discussed for exploring institutional arrangement models that could lead to increased wide-scale sharing of geographic information. In particular, factors affecting the ability and willingness of data suppliers from around the globe to make data sets available through library-like electronic sharing arrangements will be explored.
Theme Speaker, Mr. Jacob Gyamfi-Aidoo, The EIS Program (The Program on Environment Information Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, presented "Engaging Emerging Economies" - an African Perspective.
The day ended with a Conference Dinner at the Castle of Good Hope. Guest Speaker Jack Pellicci, Vice President ORACLE, presented, Spatially Enabling e-Everything Enterprise in a Digital Economy.
This highly informative talk emphasised realising the value in Spatial Information and the strategic role of "Spatial" in the new Economy. He concluded by asking if the GSDI could support the new global business model.
Day 2 (14 March 2000), Session 1a:
Session Chair: Dr. Bob O'Neil, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing
Mr. Doug Nebert, of the GSDI Technical working Group presented, The SDI Implementation Guide: a Cookbook to support the GSDI.
The SDI Implementation Guide or Cookbook will provide geographic information providers and users with the necessary background information to evaluate, implement, or participate within a geographic information community known as the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI). The GSDI Cookbook identifies:
The ultimate aim of these SDI collaborations is to facilitate the Geospatial data industry to become mainstream and a component of every day life. The SDI Cookbook has been internationally authored, is accessible on the Internet, and is also being distributed on CD-ROM and in paper format. Version 1.0 of the Cookbook (prepared for this Conference) consists of a general introduction and nine chapters covering the following SDI topics:
All delegates of the conference were given a copy of the "Cookbook" which was acknowledged as a very useful resource.
Dr. Cliff Kottman, vice president, Open GIS Consortium, presented The Impact of Open GIS upon GSDI Goals.
He described the last two and a half years, which the Open GIS Consortium has delivered marketplace-consensus Implementation Specifications on the subjects of "Simple Feature Access," "Gridded Coverage's", "Catalogue Services" and "Co-ordinate Transformation Services." These Specifications provide the technical foundations for the most recent, and must useful, specifications: "Web Mapping Services." The Web Mapping client may be customised for applications such as urban planning, agriculture yield prediction, flood control, disaster management, and so on.
Web Mapping technology allows government offices to leap over the barriers to horizontal integration, and achieve virtual horizontal integration using technology, not policy. He sees the goals of GSDI will be enormously advanced as a cascade of "data source" institutions to stand up OpenGIS-enabled data servers. Here, a "data source" institution is one that has data of value to GSDI stakeholders.
Mr. Roy Gronmo, of SINTEF Telecom and Informatics, presented DISGIS: An Interoperability framework for GIS.
This paper outlined that the DISGIS Interoperability approach is based on the ISO RM-ODP model for Open Distributed Processing, the use of UML for model-specification and the use of XML and/or binary streaming for data exchange. The aim is to support interoperability between components on the feature-model level, independent on the underlying storage structure and access mechanisms. Even though it is important to define platform-dependent storage and manipulation interfaces for a data server level, such as the OGC Simple feature specification for SQL and COM/OLE, the aim of the study has been to specify an interoperability interface on a storage-independent application server level.
Day 2 (14 March 2000), Session 1b:
Session Chair: Prof. Ian Masser, Institute for Aerospace Survey and the Sciences (ITC).
Mr. Minoru Akiyama, Secretary General ISCGM Geographical Survey Institute, presented the paper on Implementation of Global Mapping Project for Global Environment.
Ministry of Construction of Japan in 1992 proposed the Global Mapping concept. The International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM) was established in 1996 to promote Global Mapping Project. The Global Map was defined by ISCGM as a group of global geographic datasets of known and verified quality with consistent specifications , which a common asset of mankind with scientific quality for world-wide distribution at marginal cost. The need of Global Map was adopted at UN Conference in 1997. The scale of Global Map is approximately 1:1,000,000. Global Map has eight layers of transportation, boundaries, drainage, population centre, elevation, vegetation, land cover and land use. The detailed specifications were adopted in the 5th ISCGM meeting in Canberra.
There has been remarkable increase of participation in the project. Sixty-seven countries have participated in the project and forty countries are considering participation.
Activities on Global Mapping was appraised at Cambridge Conference in July 1999. Some participating organisations have been developing Global Map with international co-operation.
Mr. Klaus Barwinski, Director Surveying & Mapping Agency Northrhine-Westfalia, presented Step by Step towards a Global Spatial Data Infrastructure.
Natural disasters have underlined the necessity of documenting processes and creating more effective tools of disaster management. There is a dire need for a global homogeneous and up-to-date spatial core dataset. To solve that problem virtual 3D models of the globe were needed. There are a lot of spatial data around the globe, but these data are not standardised, not complete, not suited for all purposes and sometimes not very qualified. This differs from region to region.
Mr. Barwinski believes that to prepare, the GSDI should proceed according to the following four steps:
The proposed activities will protect and manage our living space and offer a good chance for new projects and action fields in an economy based on spatial data.
Dr. W. Senus, Chief Scientist, NIMA presented the paper on Global Mapping - The Shuttle Radar Terrain Mapper.
In January 2000 NIMA and NASA conducted a joint mission to determine the terrain height of the earth between plus/minus 60 degrees latitude. This unprecedented mission modelled the terrain height over 80 percent of the earth's landmass. The mission will produce two accurate terrain models with post spacing every 100 meters and every 30 meters respectively. The 100-meter model will be available for distribution to the global community and will provide an order of magnitude improvement over the best global models available today. The GSDI conference allowed post flight analysis of the actual mission. Specific coverage of terrain data and mission imagery were described.
Day 2 (14 March 2000), Session 2a: Case Studies and Progress Reports 1
Session Chair: Dr Ken Bullock, Dept. of Information Technology Management, NSW, Australia
Mr. Santiago Borrero-Mutis, Geographic Institute Agustin Codazzi, Columbia, presented paper on the Formation of a Permanent Committee on GIS for the Americas.
Ms. Cristina Gouveia, CNIG Portugal, presented a paper on The Portuguese SDI and its contribution for the GSDI,
The paper described the developmental process involved in the establishing the Portuguese SDI. She described the strong points that contributed to the successes in Portugal as: the fact that the SDI has a legal mandate. The SDI is a co-ordinating body and not a GI producer and it is a research agency. More importantly, there is integration of spatial data nationally, regionally and locally and the citizens are targeted as vital to SDI utilisation and its success. There is a strong emphasis on the users needs. Ms. Gouveia's did however warn against a top-down approach to SDI development.
Mr. Alessandro Annoni, European Commission - Joint Research Centre Space Applications Institute, The project GI&GIS a key action of the EC Joint Research Centre to support the creation of a European Geographic Information Infrastructure.
His paper described the Joint Research Centre direct actions in the Fifth Framework Programme a specific project "GI & GIS: Harmonisation and Interoperability". The project supported the actions to create a European Geographic Information Infrastructure (EGII), addressing scientific and technological aspects related to Geographic Information (GI) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
The project was designed to provide technical support to the Services of the European Commission, with the final goal to provide benefits for the European Community helping GI and GIS stakeholders, providers, system vendors, and users of spatial information services.
The GI&GIS project aims at helping to pave the way both for private and for public sectors in the EU to overcome the difficulties that hinder the development and application of GI. He concluded by stating that the GI&GIS project can be seen as an integrating tool, a bridge between information technology and applications domains.
Day 2 (14 March 2000), Session 2b: Directions, Policies and Institutional Issues 1
Session Chair: Mr. John Moeller, FGDC
Ms. Uta When de Montalvo, Science & Research Policy University of Sussex, presented Access to spatial data - What determines The Willingness Of Organisations To Share It?
Ms. Montalvo described the increasing use of GIS in developed and developing countries and the availability of spatial data that has become an issue that affects many organisations. SDI's are reliant on the willingness of different organisations to effectively overcome bottlenecks in the availability of spatial data. The paper presented the findings of empirical research designed to systematise the determinants of organisations' spatial data sharing behaviour. It presented a model to understand and predict the willingness of organisations to engage in spatial data exchanges across organisational boundaries. South African organisation in the GI community was used as a case study. Drawing on the analysis of the empirical data the paper assessed the importance of different determinants and offered suggestions of how they may be addressed. In conclusion by turning to the practical implications of the findings for SDI policy arrangements the paper indicated particular determinants that spatial data initiatives should take into account in order to foster the sharing of spatial data among different organisations and how these insights can help to optimise the SDI policy efforts.
Ms. Lisa Ting, Department of Geomatics the University of Melbourne, Spatial data infrastructures and good governance: Frameworks for land administration reform to support sustainable development.
This paper described the UN-FIG Declaration on Land Administration produced at Bathurst, NSW in late October 1999, which stated that appropriate land administration systems are integral to the achievement of sustainable development objectives. Ms. Ting stated that spatial data infrastructures are increasingly recognised as crucial for the effective functioning of land administration systems and land administration systems of the future must manage the growing complexity of rights, restrictions and responsibilities over land due to environmental and social imperatives. Spatial data infrastructures will be an invaluable tool in the resolution of the ongoing tensions between people and land or more to the point, between human poverty and environmental conservation. Thus spatial data infrastructures need to be embedded in a legal, institutional and socio-political-economic framework for good governance if they are to be a successful tool for dynamic and sustainable decision-making. This paper argued that partnerships between effective SDI's and good governance should be the determining feature of land administration systems for sustainable development.
Prof. Ian Masser, Division of Urban Planning & Management Institute for Aerospace Survey and the Earth Sciences (ITC), presented a paper on What is Spatial data infrastructure?
Professor Masser's paper outlined the nature of SDI's for future debate. This paper describes first generation NSDI's as being explicitly national and referring to GI or/and infrastructures. The study asks what is a NSDI? There was no consensus reached to whether the NSDI could be referred to as a process or a product. The paper concludes by stating that there is still much confusion regarding the purpose, scope and content of SDI.
Day 2 (14 March 2000), Session 3a: Directions, Policies and Institutional Issues 11
Session Chair: Mr. Minoru Akiyama, Geographical Survey Institute
Karen Kline, RSU Department of Geography University of California, The Synergism of Global Map, GSDI, and Digital Earth: The Importance of Relationships.
The paper described the three major projects underway involving global data, standards, and technology, which are the Global Map, the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI), and Digital Earth. The Global Map project, under the direction of the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM), will release Global Map v1.0 in 2000. The Digital Earth initiative, led by NASA, is focusing upon the technology needed to bring to life Vice President Al Gore's vision of a "digital earth." The technology required to produce, access, archive, distribute, and utilise global data sets is critical. With the increase in data streaming down on a daily basis from the satellites above us, there is a need to be able to harness this data process and analyse it and use it to our benefit. This cannot be achieved without technology, which Digital Earth is endeavouring to provide.
Policies and standards allow us to communicate and transmit the data we have. Metadata, visualisation, access and delivery are all very important. If every organisation or discipline uses proprietary standards, or language, it is very difficult to communicate between organisations and disciplines. With a common language, or GSDI, these hurdles are overcome, allowing scientists and others to share their data with a minimum of difficulties. With this sharing comes a plethora of information from collaborative efforts.
Last, but not least, is the data, which the ISCGM is primarily focused on providing via the Global Map v1.0. This product is a multinational effort focused on providing a global data set that contains framework data layers, including administration, land use, vegetation, drainage systems, elevation, and transportation networks. This data set will be updated on a regular 5-year interval, allowing for global change studies and other analyses requiring framework data.
He concluded by stating that, these three complementary efforts provide the three most critical components: the technology, the data, and the standards. Relationships between Global Map, GSDI, and Digital Earth are critical to the continued evolution of the three.
Mr. Roger A. Longhorn, Principal Consultant - GI/GIS IDG (UK), Regional Geographic Information Policy: The case in Europe at 2000 and lessons for GSDI.
GI communities at national, regional and multidisciplinary levels are now resolving "technical" GI and GIS issues that can be addressed by standards (data and systems interoperability) and further advances in ICT itself. But other, often more complex data issues remain, e.g. IPR/copyright, invasion of privacy, data protection, liability for use/misuse of data, access to information, especially public sector information, pricing, etc.
To confront these issues, the European Commission (EC) initiated a consultative process at the end of 1994. The EC's goal was to set up a framework within which the European Geographic Information Infrastructure (EGII) could be defined and established. Wide consultation was held throughout 1995 and 1996. A draft Communication document ("GI2000: Towards a European Policy Framework for GI") was produced and again debated during 1997. Questions were asked in European Parliament about the delay in adopting GI2000 in September 1998 and the initiative effectively died in October 1999.
The "European Union" (EU) is a unique international region, unlike almost any other in the world, in that 15 sovereign nations have given up specific rights, by signing several international treaties, in order to promote and progress their societies and economies as a region. With 12 more CEEC (Central and Eastern European) countries now slated to join the EU in the next decade, there is obvious need for implementation of any tools and policies that can assist in planning for such a varied region.
In order to investigate regional GI/SDI issues that propose regional solutions requiring regional policy leading to regional legislation, there must be a regional law-giving institution in place and committed to at least understanding the issues.
The question investigated in this paper is simple, but crucial, as stated below.
"If implementing a Global Spatial Data Infrastructure requires answers to similar information related questions that still face the European GI community within the EU 15, yet the EU's Executive Body cannot find time or resources to adequately address these issues in their own region during a time of great territorial expansion, then what hope is there for GSDI?"
The paper focused on three issues. First an account of events covering the period of development of the GI2000 draft Communication and the aftermath of withdrawal of this document from the official EC agenda. Second, how regional GI/GIS is being approached in the Asia-Pacific region via the Permanent Committee for GIS Infrastructure in Asia and the Pacific, searching for commonality between the two regional initiatives, if any exist? Finally, examining the potential pitfalls (or triumphs!) that await GSDI implementers.
Abbas Rajabifard, Department of Geomatics, The University of Melbourne, From Local to Global SDI initiatives: a pyramid of building blocks.
The paper referred to a strong hierarchical relationship among different political/administrative levels of SDIs concepts. Based on this hierarchical relationship a SDI pyramid can be formed by taking a perspective that starts at a local level and proceeds through state, national and regional levels and is completed by developing a Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI). Therefore, it is argued that by better understanding and demonstrating the nature of this hierarchical relationship, GSDI development can gain support from a wider community of both government and non-government data users and providers.
The paper aimed to contribute to GSDI development in general and its organisational framework in particular. And was shown by:
Day 2 (14 March 2000), Session 3b: A North American Perspective on NSDI's
Session Chair: Mr. Francois Salge, National Geographic Institute, France
Mark E. Reichardt, FGDC, SDI Challenges for a New Millennium - NSDI at a Crossroads: Lessons Learned and Next Steps.
The U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure has grown significantly since its inception in 1994 under Presidential Executive Order 12906. Since that time, a core set of critical Metadata and data content standards have been developed and endorsed. A common Framework of Geospatial data has been defined. Over 175 national and international sites are accessible through six Spatial Data Clearinghouse gateways on the World Wide Web. To implement the NSDI nationally, key partnerships have been forged between federal, state, local, and tribal governments, academia, and the private sector. The FGDC has recently moved to increase its commitment to international and global SDI development and collaboration. However, much remains to be accomplished. Federal government-wide adoption of NSDI principles is not complete. Challenges continue to exist in expanding the NSDI to local levels and the private sector.
At a recent Geodata Forum held in Washington, DC to address making liveable communities a reality, the U.S. NSDI was examined thoroughly by over 460 professionals from all walks of government, academia and industry. Expert panels and workshops led to a number of key recommendations to advance the NSDI. Some of these recommendations include: the accelerated use of testbeds to achieve standards and interoperability, documentation of funding mechanisms, development of case studies, increased investment in decision-support systems, increased educational experiences at all grade levels, and examining a more dynamic organisational structure to further the NSDI. A follow-on Congressional Subcommittee hearing on GIS and Policy recommended the revaluation and update of the NSDI strategic direction, broadening of the organisations that guide the NSDI, legislation to accelerate NSDI implementation, and promotion of locally independent and regionally-co-ordinated geographic information processes as means of achieving national consistency.
The paper examined the recommendations and the associated FGDC plan for action resulting from the U.S. NSDI Geodata Forum and Congressional Subcommittee on GIS and Policy. The recommendations and plan are reviewed for potential value to other national SDI programs, and the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure. An accelerated US policy on international collaboration was described, along with a call for action to implement national and regional infrastructures, partnerships and pilot projects to help nations establish and sustain globally compatible SDIs.
Jane Patterson, North Carolina (representing various agencies), Building Capacity to use GIS as a major information engine to manage information and to inform the public during natural disaster situations.
Jane informed the delegates that North Carolina has been through three major hurricanes within three years and the ability to inform citizenry and to utilise information that can be shared and jointly developed has become a major effort.
Community colleges have begun development of curriculum to train more GIS workers to build human resource capacity within the local government communities. Information that can be shared has become a major task that has demonstrated the necessity to work on common platforms that are web based. The presentation demonstrated the obstacles of a state grappling with this mammoth task of mobilising for three major disasters within three years. It also provided real-world situations where GIS provided the underlying platform for collection, management and dissemination of information.
Karen Siderelis, US Geological Survey, The role and responsibilities of the Chief Geographic Information Officer
Day 2 (14 March 2000), Session 4a: Case Studies and Progress Reports 11
Session Chair: Andre Bassolet, EIS International Advisory Committee
Bob O'Neil, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing/Geomatics, Discover, Visualise, Access
The presentation dwells on the discovery and access component of Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure CGDI, which has been designed to be interoperable with the National Atlas Information Network. This network offers 3 principal services: discovery, visualisation and access. The discovery service (CEONet) is interoperable with the FGDC clearing house. The visualisation service permits the data holdings of the National Atlas of Canada to be rendered and layers overlaid. The Atlas contains Geospatial frameworks or secondary reference systems such as postal codes, census divisions, ecozones etc. The user to form polygons bounding the search areas for data sets known to the infrastructure can exploit these, the associated attributes and other Geospatial features from the Atlas.
The access service (GeoGratis) provides an implementation of best practices for the delivery of free Geospatial data. Data sets, which can be distributed free of charge, are stored as files or in a Geospatial data warehouse. Data in file form is delivered through a formatting engine to meet the user specifications. Alternatively, the user can select features sets from distributed warehouses and these may be viewed and delivered through an Open Geospatial Datastore Interface. A parallel delivery channel similar to the Open GIS Consortium's Web Mapping Testbed may be opened in the future.
CGDI is becoming accepted as the most appropriate way to manage and advertise Geospatial data in Canada. Groups outside the traditional Geospatial community are now connecting many databases to the infrastructure.
Dr. Hans Voss, German National Research Institute for Information Technology - GMD, CommonGIS - Common Access to Geographically Referenced Data
CommonGIS is an EC-funded Esprit project that started in November 1998. It envisions the dissemination and exploitation of geographically referenced data (geo-data) to a broad cross-section of the public. Geo-data encompass various thematic or statistical data on demography, economy, education, culture, history, etc. The key-thought of CommonGIS is to make geo-data commonly accessible and usable for everyone, from everywhere, by providing a WWW-based Geographical Information System (GIS) with specific functions for the automatic generation of thematic maps.
CommonGIS is demonstrated by several pilot projects, the focus being on a demonstrator built by the Portuguese Association of GIS users USIG. A tool called Application Builder supports the construction of new applications, i.e. bringing together thematic (statistical) data and corresponding maps. In order to be applicable for a wide range of existing maps, the application builder automatically recognises and imports a number of widespread formats of map data. Most important, however, is that CommonGIS has defined a so-called data characterisation language (DCL) for the conceptual and semantic modelling of given thematic data. The descriptions of attributes and specified relationships between those attributes are exploited by the Application Builder to structure and guide the modelling process itself, and are also essential for the automatic construction of sound visualisations. Currently ways of bringing the DCL into standardisation processes are being sought.
Yves Reginster, ETeMII consortium, The ETeMII project.
ETeMII is an accompanying measure (AM) funded by the EC under 5th Framework Programme to support the future creation of the European Geographic Information Infrastructure.
The AM aims organising a network of excellence, bringing together most of the stakeholders of the territorial management; a particular attention will be paid on user's needs. It will have to build a consensus on the technical issues that are the foundation of ETeMII: · reference data, data access policy,
Awareness activity is an important component of the AM, promoting contribution to European Geographic Information Infrastructure, using Metadata services, implementing standards, using reference data. Reference data: The objective is to reach a European and global (GSDI) technical consensus on the definition of reference data and making them available, at affordable cost.
Metadata: through workshops, awareness activities, the aim is to build upon existing initiatives, to reach some consensus on the way to meet user's needs, and to remove barriers to data access. It is important to enable searching of any kind of information with a single tool. A particular focus will be given to semantics and the use of multiple interoperable thesauri to record the multi-cultural and multi-lingual characteristics of the European Information Society.
Standards and interoperability: the work will be based on seeking interoperability standards requirements, and offering awareness on existing very extensive but possibly incomplete interoperability standards activities to target. At the same time it will ensure that there are new observation windows between pure research activities and standards development.
Day 2 (14 March 2000), Session 4b: Technical Strategies and Considerations 11
Session Chair: Mr Jingtong Jian, National Geomatics Centre of China.
Ilya Zaslavsky, San Diego Supercomputer Centre, XML-based Spatial Data Mediation Infrastructure for Global Interoperability
The World Wide Web is a successful global infrastructure, and XML (eXtensible Markup Language) emerges as its data interchange model. This paper, presented the XML information mediation framework developed at the San Diego Supercomputer Centre, as it extends to spatial information integration. The potential and challenges of mediation among geographic sources 'wrapped' in XML was explored, in particular the information mediation architecture enabling global interoperability of geographic data.
By contrast to the traditional data warehousing, this approach implies a mediating layer between user interfaces and geographic sources, responsible for dispatching user queries and assembling the results. Spatial data reside on different servers instead of being moved to one or several repositories, which leads to better scalability and easy updates. While it is not currently feasible to standardise geographic data formats on a global scale, XML compliance provides for enough freedom in structuring geographic data, at the same time ensuring that different local standards can be made interoperable within a common framework.
The main components of the XML-based mediation architecture for the emerging GSDI are as follows:
Foster K. Mensah, Remote Sensing Applications Unit University of Ghana, The Need For Developing A Standardised Meta-Data For Spatial Datasets In Ghana
This paper described the availability of useful data is the most basic and critical factor in establishing a Geographic Information System (GIS). Knowledge of what is available requires that GIS users document, their digital spatial data holdings and publish this documentation.
Though some institutions in Ghana have been documenting existing data sets they hold, this is done in an uncoordinated and disparate manner. This means large amounts of shareable data are being generated without adequate documentation or documented in a disparate manner. Without proper documentation the data becomes less valuable to the user. Access to relevant and timely data is facilitated by the provision of meta-data.
Realising the need to document its spatial data set holdings the Remote Sensing Applications Unit (RSAU) has created meta-data for the land cover and land use coverage's produced under the Ghana Environmental Resource Management Project, with CorpsMet95, a free standalone intuitive FGDC compliant Metadata creation tool, that runs on Windows 95.
The increased demand for spatial data in Ghana requires the development of Metadata standards based on the RSAU example. The purpose of these standards will be, to provide a common set of terminology and definitions for documentation related to data content, quality, condition, and other data characteristics and to facilitate data sharing in Ghana.
This paper elaborated on the Ghanaian effort to developing a national Metadata standard.
Day 2 (14 March 2000) 16h00
GSDI Steering Committee meeting to consider preparation of the initial resolutions
Day 3(15 March 2000), Session 1: GSDI Africa Session
Session Chair: Mr. Albert Mhlanga, Surveyor General's Dept. Swaziland.
This session was opened with the second keynote presentation of the Conference.
Mr. Orlando Nino-Fluck, Senior Cartographic Officer Development Information Services Division United Nations Economic Commission for Africa presented, The Committee on Development Information (CODI) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and its role in orienting geoinformation policies and activities in Africa.
In the area of geographic information technologies, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), has been implementing activities for more than four decades through its former Cartographic and Remote Sensing Unit of the Natural Resources Division, and now through the Geoinformation team of the Development Information Services Division (DISD), in its efforts to assist the African countries to improve the management and their natural resources and the environment, as part of the Commission's overall mandates.
A very important activity encompassing the comparative advantages of the Commission, has been the organisation and servicing of the United Nations regional cartographic conferences for Africa, a legislative and subsidiary body of the Commission. Currently, the Committee on Development Information (CODI) subsumed the functions of this Conference in May 1997. CODI addresses three specific sectors of development information, namely: ICT, statistics and geoinformation.
The ECA believe that the synergy that will be gained will benefit all aspects of information for development. The First meeting of CODI was successfully held in June 1999. Three subcommittees were established for each of the three areas. In this regard, the sub-committee on Geoinformation (CODI-Geo) replaced the tenth United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Africa.
NSDI, RSDI and GSDI where among the issues addressed by the meeting and a resolution was passed urging African countries to develop policies and strategies for the establishment of national Geospatial data infrastructures; to define, as part of the national geo-information policy, national data standards in line with regional and international parameters; and asking the sub-committee on geoinformation to determine the most appropriate manner in which the African region participates in the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure.
The ECA will continue its efforts to encourage African governments and societies to invest in the production, maintenance and management of Geospatial data, and to stimulate the development of integrated datasets, standards and other elements of national and regional geographic information infrastructure. In this context, and as a follow up of the recommendations made at CODI, ECA will undertake in the following months a study of the orientation of GIS activities in Africa, whose results will be presented to the next meting of CODI for subsequent approval of the ECA Conference of Ministers, ECOSOC and the General Assembly. The study will explore emerging and modern concepts for managing geographic data that take into account the development of nation-wide- spatial information networks, and reflect a stronger civil society and private participation.
The Spatial Data Infrastructures, as they are being conceptualised, are, without any doubt, a robust response to the challenges that the African region confronts vis-à-vis the contribution of geoinformation in the development process, which can accommodate the various needs and peculiarities of the region.
ECA further believes that partnership co-operation is essential to the success of the output. An appeal is made to participant organisations and individuals at GSDI 4 to join hands with ECA in this exercise.
The GSDI Africa Session
Three presentations were made in this session. Andre Bassolet, Chairman of the International Advisory committee for the EIS Program, presented An Overview of SDI Activity in Africa.
Camille van der Harten, SADC RRSU presented a paper on Spatial Data in the SADC Region in support of Early Warning for Food Security and Natural Resources Management.
Mr. Van der Harten emphasised that Agriculture was recognised as by far the most important activity in most countries of SADC. SADC promotes regional co-operation and economic development and has adopted a Program of Action covering co-operation in various sectors, including that of food, agriculture and natural resources. Food security and natural resources management is one of the main pillars for economic development and social welfare in the region. Zimbabwe is responsible for the co-ordination of this programme, which includes the implementation of the SADC Regional Food Security Programme. Under this programme, the use of remote sensing and GIS technology is an important part of the environmental monitoring activities, which are being co-ordinated by the Regional Remote Sensing Unit. In order to support the analysis of remote sensing products the Unit started in 1994 the development of an unique spatial data base with information on national and sub-national boundaries, elevation, infrastructure, hydrology, major growing areas, forests, protected areas and cultural sites. This database also includes a variety of satellite, climate and agriculture information in raster format. While the main focus of the RRSU activities and data bases is on early warning for food security, it has become clear that the activities, data bases and outputs are also very beneficial for a wide range of environmental monitoring and spatial data activities. During the last years, the RRSU has been increasingly recognised as the authority and one of the major spatial data sources in Southern Africa, and consequently the RRSU is involved in a number of initiatives to further harmonise and improve spatial data infrastructures in the SADC region.
A solid, harmonised and uniform regional spatial database contributes to an improved information in support of managing scarce resources that are required to secure food security and human well being in the region. The spatial vector and raster database developed and maintained by the RRSU is a good example of collaboration between different countries, in terms of data exchange and sharing. This has resulted in a uniform spatial data that is not only setting a standard at regional level, but in some cases also at national level.
Chukwudozie Ezigbalike, University of Botswana, presented the final paper for the session on Spatial Data Infrastructures: Is Africa Ready?
There is general agreement that spatial data is crucial for environmental protection and sustainable development, therefore the development of the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) ensures accessibility of information for decision-making. The basic attributes for a SDI are well defined and agreed, yet the achievement of this ambitious concept will not be easy, especially in the developing world. The question is whether African countries are making the necessary provisions to adapt the concept, thus ensuring that they are not left out in the information age.
Using examples from selected African countries, the paper reviews the state of the components of SDI in Africa and assesses these countries' readiness to adopt the concept. This paper has evaluated Africa's readiness for spatial data infrastructures and found that we are still not fully prepared for its introduction. The three main reasons for our poor state of preparedness are:
It concludes that much of Africa is still not ready for a full on-line spatial data infrastructure and recommends steps to be taken to ensure full participation when other communications and physical infrastructures become available.
SDI cannot be introduced in a vacuum. It depends on other technologies to work, notably information, communications and knowledge (ICK) technologies. These technologies are still at rudimentary stages in much of Africa and the spatial data management community doesn't have direct control over them.
While our policy makers know about maps, the concept of spatial data that is different from, and subsumes maps, is not yet understood. In the mapping era, there were cartographic committees or similar bodies of map users who set priorities and oversee mapping in the country. While mapping provides the base data for the spatial data infrastructure, there are other core data sets in an infrastructure environment and we have to restructure the information management arrangements to include them.
Day 3 (15 March 2000), Closing Session
Session Co-Chairs: Mr Derek Clarke, Surveys & Mapping South Africa & Mr Peter Holland, AUSLIG.
The closing session of GSDI 4 was co-chaired by Peter Holland and Derek Clarke. We had the pleasure of having the Colombian Ambassador to South Africa make the final Keynote presentation on behalf of Juan Mayr-Maldonado.
The presentation emphasised the need for greater regional co-operation in the implementation of the Rio commitments and set the year 2002 as the target for all countries to complete the formulation and elaboration of national sustainable development strategies.
The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was established to follow-up on the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. The primary role of the Commission is to monitor progress in the achievement of Agenda 21 goals and to suggest steps that governments and sectors of civil society can take to move towards a more sustainable world. Sustainable development must remain high on the national and international policy agenda. In this context, Agenda 21 and the other Rio commitments take on added urgency. Sustainable development as an integrating concept is widely acknowledged. It seeks to unify and bring together spatial information on economic, social and environmental issues for decision-making. It has also become clear over the last few years that the capacity and potential of regional organisations and groupings to assist national governments in achieving sustainable development has been greatly under utilised. This of course is the main challenge for the recently created permanent committee on spatial data for the Americas. This body will contribute to identify ways and means to promote greater regional focus and co-operation in implementing sustainable development and will deepen our understanding in the context of the CSD.
During this presentation a video was played showing Cartagena, the venue of GSDI 5 that will be held from the 21- 25 May 2001. The theme for the conference will be Sustainable Development, GSDI and decision-making. The Colombian Government hopes to count on delegates from all the continents, regions and sub-regions of the world, so that this reunion can become more, with a permanent growth.
Mr. Peter Holland read out the resolutions of the conference, which were adopted with the proviso that the steering committee incorporates recommended amendments.
The incoming Chair Mr. Derek Clark gave a vote of thanks and the Conference was officially closed.