Africas resource capabilities human and material in the space field and their deployment to date to

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Africas resource capabilities (human and
material) in the space field and their deployment
to date to meet the challenges of
developmentFocus on Geoinformation and Spatial
Data Infrastructures

• Dozie Ezigbalike
• Economic Commission for Africa
• First African Leadership Conference on Space
  Science Technology for Sustainable Development
• Theme Space And Indispensable tool for
  Africas Development and Growth
• Abuja, Nigeria
• 24 November 2005

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What is Geoinformation?

• Information that anchors decisions to space
• Development decision questions
• What? Why? When? How?
• Where?
• Where Questions
• Where are the input factors?
• Where are the population that will benefit?
• Where are the markets for the products?
• Where are the infrastructure elements, utilities,
  etc?
• 80 of all human decisions involve where?

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Information for Development (I4D)

• Agriculture and food security
• Land cover, soil type, topography, hydrography,
  rainfall, demographics, infrastructure, etc
• Health
• Hospitals, settlements and demographics, disease
  vectors, environmental factors, infrastructure,
  etc.
• Education
• Schools, demographics, infrastructure
  utilities, etc.
• Housing
• Demographics, infrastructure utilities,
  topography, building materials, etc.
• Water Supply
• Hydrography, aquifers ground water, topography,
  etc.
• Mining Minerals
• Land cover, soil chemistry, topography, rock
  formations and physical properties, etc.
• Infrastructure Development
• Demographics and settlements, socio-economic
  establishments, topography, hydrography, soil
  type, etc

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Just-in-Case Maps

• Most I4D are spatial
• Best presented as maps
• Before the information age
• NMOs determine usual themes
• Estimate periodic demands
• Prepares stockpiles of maps at predetermined
  scales
• Issues/sells to users
• Currency of maps questionable

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Just-in-Time Maps

• Confluence of ICT and geography ? digital
  cartography
• Data stored in databases
• Databases include location attributes
• Admin units, enumeration units, coordinates
• Digital process makes production easy and fast
• Previously unimaginable map themes now possible
• Users ask for more as they become more aware of
  possibilities
• Maps are produced as and when needed ? just in
  time
• with most current data from databases
• Space science technology as source of current
  data
• Repeatable, site-specific

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Data from Space Science Technology (SST)

• Agriculture and food security
• Land cover, soil type, topography, hydrography,
  rainfall, demographics, infrastructure, etc
• Health
• Hospitals, settlements and demographics, disease
  vectors, environmental factors, infrastructure,
  etc.
• Education
• Schools, demographics, infrastructure
  utilities, etc.
• Water Supply
• Hydrography, aquifers ground water, topography,
  etc.
• Mining Minerals
• Land cover, soil chemistry, topography, rock
  formations and physical properties, etc.
• Housing
• Demographics, infrastructure utilities,
  topography, building materials, etc.
• Infrastructure Development
• Demographics and settlements, socio-economic
  establishments, topography, hydrography, soil
  type, etc

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SST Issues

• Data delivered in large volumes
• Meaningless and useless in raw form
• Requires specialist high level skills to process
  into useful information

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Some Information Society Concepts

• Use of appropriate information in decision making
  reduces the need for other inputs, e.g., money,
  time, labour, etc
• Therefore information use should be made
  explicit, quantified and commoditized
• Data collected for one purpose or project can be
  used for other purposes and projects
• Information can be re-used without loss
• Therefore, re-use data and information products
• Adopt cooperative, multi-stakeholder approach to
  production, management, and dissemination of data
• Have appropriate policies, standards and
  institutional arrangements

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Introducing Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI)

• Geoinformation from SST and other sources
• Is expensive and labour intensive to produce
• Spatial framework of the data sets (admin units,
  point coordinates) do not change often
  associated values or attributes may change
  frequently
• Spatial aspects of development and economic
  decisions are cross-cutting
• Therefore geoinformation management should adopt
  collect-once-use-many-times approach
• Put in place policies, resources and structures
  to make spatial data available to all potential
  users
• When they need it
• Where they need it
• In a form they can use (almost) immediately
• That is, adopt infrastructure approach to spatial
  data collection, management, dissemination and
  use
• Just like roads, bridges, telecommunications, etc

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Infrastructure Defined

• The underlying foundation or basic framework
  (e.g., of a system or organization)
• The basic structural foundation of a society or
  enterprise, a substructure on which other
  components are based
• Collective or No ownership
• Custodianship principle
• Standard delivery and standard equipment
• User responsible for any equipment required to
  use
• Taken for granted
• Public good characteristics

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Questions for SST Community

• Can you make the paradigm shift
• From science to the information society
• Emphasis on the information products, not wall
  pictures
• Can you make a case for your products to be
• Incorporated into the spatial data infrastructure
• Described in standard SDI metadata clearinghouses
• Part of the infostructure of the information
  society
• Can you participate, as equal partners
• In the NSDI policy process
• In national e-strategy processes
• Assume custodianship responsibilities for
  relevant data sets on behalf of the community of
  users
• Do you share our geoinformation vision?

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Information Product instead of Picture
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ECAs GI Vision for Africa

• Our vision is to ensure that spatial data
  permeates every aspect of society and that they
  are available to people who need them, when they
  need them, and in a form that they can use to
  make decisions with minimal pre-processing
• Also the collected data sets should be put to the
  maximum possible uses by publicising their
  existence and making them easily available to the
  widest possible audience
• - Future Orientation of GI Activities in Africa

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What are We Doing Towards the Vision?

• Awareness raising activities
• National workshops and stakeholder meetings
• (Sub) regional workshops and seminars
• Assist member states to develop metadata systems
  and clearinghouse services
• Point of reference for member states
• Training at ECA
• Provide Country Spaces for interim hosting of
  meta-databases
• Ethiopia Node
• AWICH Node
• Registered with FGDC gateway and Geography
  network with worldwide search access
• Developing GIS Portal

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GIS Portal Concept

• NSDI produces standards, polices and
  institutional arrangements to promote, Data
  discovery, Data sharing, Collaboration for new
  data collection
• At the end of the day, users will need to access
  real data
• GIS portal provides a single access point to
  geospatial resources data and services
• Map products from different services can be
  combined/overlaid in a single window

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Processing Services

• These include capabilities that extend and
  enhance the delivery of data through processes
  applied to raw data
• Coordinate Transformation
• Symbolisation
• Analysis or topologic overlay services
• Web Mapping Services
• Not all users need develop full processing
  capabilities

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ECA Resources

• ArcGIS 9 including ArcSDE and ArcIMS
• Webserver with ArcIMS
• Database Server with ArcSDE and SQL Server 2000
• GIS Portal Toolkit License
• Trained staff
• ECA portal to link compatible, collaborating
  services into a federated system of spatial data
  warehouses
• Prototype being developed with the Ethiopian
  Mapping Task Force

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ECA Activities AFREF

• The African Reference Frame
• SST applications do not respect national borders
• Images are captured in swaths that span across
  borders and are geo-referenced using a
  particular coordinate system
• Coordinates are defined on geodetic reference
  frameworks
• Need consistent framework to ensure seamless,
  continuous representation of features
• Currently national frames are not compatible with
  one another
• AFREF project designed to produce uniform
  continental reference frame
• http//geoinfo.uneca.org/afref

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ECA Activities MAfA

• Mapping Africa for Africa
• Initiative to accelerate the rate of
  geoinformation activities in Africa
• A plan of action to provide the fundamental
  geo-spatial information/maps for sustainable
  development in support of various projects under
  NEPAD
• Premised on the principle that Africa should
  spearhead the production of maps of Africa
• Based on the Durban Statement (August 2003)
• outlines recommendations and action plan for
  UNECA
• under the guidance of CODI-Geo
• in collaboration with the International
  Cartographic Association (ICA) and other global
  institutions and organizations
• Fundamental data sets
• Set defined, inventorying to commence

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ECA Activities Addressing
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ECA Activities Publications

• SDI Africa And Implementation Guide
• http//geoinfo.uneca.org/sdiafrica
• Integration of SDI into NICI process
• Land Management Information Systems in the
  Knowledge Economy
• Coming in 2006
• Others Activities
• Advisory services on request e.g., Central
  African transportation infrastructure GIS
  database
• Two regional centres in geoinformation field
  RECTAS, RCMRD
• Joint Centre with AU AOCRS

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CODI-Geo

• Committee on Development Information
• ECAs parliamentary body to provide technical
  advice on, and oversight over subprogramme on
  Harnessing Information for Development
• Encompassing the African Information Society
  Initiative (AISI)
• http//www.uneca.org/aisi
• Meets every two years
• Delegates mainly government official in areas of
  geoinformation, ICT, statistics, and libraries
• Governments encouraged to include wide
  representation in delegation
• Observers include academics, CSOs, NGOs, private
  sector from member and non-member States
• Decisions and resolutions presented to ECAs
  Conference of Ministers
• Becomes binding on ECA and member States to
  implement
• Works in three subcommittees
• One is the sub committee on geoinformation ?
  CODI-Geo
• http//www.uneca.org/codi

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Contact

• Dozie EzigbalikeDevelopment Information Services
  DivisionUnited Nations Economic Commission for
  AfricaAddis Ababa, Ethiopiaezigbalike.uneca_at_un.o
  rgwww.uneca.org