Metadata Clearinghouse and Open Access to Geographic Data in Namibia

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Metadata Clearinghouse and Open Access to
Geographic Data in Namibia

• N. E. Noongo N. E. Willemse
• Environmental Information Systems
• Ministry of Environment and Tourism

UNESCO, Paris 10 11 March 2003
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Content

• Namibia at a glance
• Namibia towards EIS/NSDI
• Access to Geographical Data
• Metadata Clearinghouse

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Namibia at a glance

• Total Area 825,418 sq km
• Population 1,852,108 (2001)
• Population growth rate 2.8 (2001)

• Land use arable land 3 permanent crops
  1 permanent pastures 46 forests and
  woodland 22 Conservation and parks 17
• Others 11 (2002 est.)

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Namibia at a glance

• Climate
• Typically desert climate - hot and dry with
  sparse and erratic rainfall

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Namibia towards EIS/NSDI

• You can only manage things that you measure

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Namibia towards EIS/NSDI
Lack of easily available, up-to-date and reliable
data was notably a big problem for decision-making
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Namibia towards EIS/NSDI

• The construction of EIS was initiated at MET in
  1998
• Main objective
• To develop communication mechanisms to promote
  and encourage dissemination of environmental
  data/information
• EIS seeks to provide the infrastructure needed to
  support the collection, maintenance and
  collection of geographical information in
  Namibia. A significant aspect of this effort is
  ensuring complete and efficient access to data.

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Namibia towards EIS/NSDI

• Funding
• Governments of Namibia and Finland
• EIS activities incorporated in MET structure by
  establishing an EIS Unit

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Access to Geographical Data

• Data Access Policy
• The policy on data access has been a subject of
  discussions in many forums.
• A number of resolutions have been passed by the
  professional bodies at the end of their seminars,
  workshops and meetings
• This approach, uncoordinated effort, is not
  effective neither it is appropriate for such an
  important subject.

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Access to Geographical Data
Data Access Policy

• EIS Unit was thus shaped to be an information
  hub coordinating efforts of various stakeholder
  on monitoring data sharing and data facilitation
  issues .
• EMIN was established in 2001. A network of data
  collectors and users including line ministries,
  NGOs and private companies
• NSDI Committee was established.
• Main responsibilities in data sharing/exchange
  policy, data storage and facilitation
  standards/guidelines, metadata standards.

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Access to Geographical Data

• Data Access Policy
• In the current situation, a cabinet paper on data
  access is being reviewed for formulation of data
  sharing/exchange/access policy.
• The paper addresses
• Matters on the development of policies for the
  exchange of geographical data and information in
  Namibia

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Access to Geographical Data

• Data standards
• Data standards allow compatibility and
  interoperability of data.
• At current EIS is developing standards for
  implementing the NSDI, to align available
  national data standards,
• with respect to format, content,
  interoperability, classifications and data
  exchange.
• Eventually, to align with the work of the SADC
  data standards and International Standards
  Technical Committee (ISO/TC211)

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Access to Geographical Data
Data accessibility Changing history, it has been
a problem in the past for institutions to
share/exchange data. This has changed, however,
in the recent past. At current most state
institutions have shown willingness to distribute
their data in digital formats and maps on
request. Data are distributed by CD-ROM (PC
format), on request.
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Access to Geographical Data

• Data accessibility
• EIS has produced several Environmental
  Information Products, e.g. Atlas of Namibia
  (2002), Regional Profiles.
• These are based on data/information given by
  various stakeholders.
• All that data are made readily available and
  accessible through the Internet.

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Access to Geographical Data

• Environmental Portal (MET)
• www.dea.met.gov.na
• Metadata base
• Searchable library databases
• Downloadable research publications
• Policies and Legislations
• Descriptions and contact details for on-going
  projects
• Links to other natural resource sites as well as
  access to a variety of geographic and textural
  resource data.

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Access to Geographical Data

• Data accessibility
• The digital format used for vectors data is
  ArcView Shapefile
• efficient digital format, supported on many
  computing platforms
• Imagery and raster data are distributed in Idrisi
  32 or ERDAS img format
• All data is compressed using the zip-algorithm

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Access to Geographical Data

• Data cost
• All data produced by EIS are free of charge.
• Some government institutions e.g. Surveyor
  General have cost recovery mechanisms for
  providing data.
• Many of the NGOs work closely with the
  Government ministries. Data are produced and
  shared normally without cost involved.

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Metadata Clearinghouse

• Current status
• All data distributed is accompanied by a metadata
• Metadata records conform to the current FDGC
  standards with the addition of some extension
  agreed to meet the Namibian needs

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Metadata Clearinghouse
Metadata Standardization

• We intend to transfer to the ISO metadata
  standard as soon as it is available.

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Metadata Clearinghouse
What it took

• Political support
• Coordination and cooperation
• Survey tool questionnaire and follow ups

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Metadata Clearinghouse

• Making it work
• To allow users to more efficiently access and
  utilize the metadata and,
• To develop an infrastructure in Namibia to
  collect, maintain and supply consistent metadata
  for all datasets, EIS hosts a national metadata
  directory on its website.

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Thank you !