Initiatives And Challenges Of Spatial Data Infrastructure In
South Africa Dr Derek Clarke National Geo-spatial Information,
South Africa Geospatial World Forum 2011 Slide 2 Early efforts to
establish SDI in South Africa 1985 to 1997 Voluntary basis; Lack of
available digital geo-spatial information, so most effort into
converting data; Problem with technical interoperability to share
data exchange standard developed, but very limited implementation;
Limited knowledge; Very few organisations public sector mainly;
Private sector companies start to emerge to provide data conversion
services. Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure
in South Africa Slide 3 Change in approach 1998 to 2004 Restructure
of component for SDI; First major inter-departmental effort to
build database from disparate datasets; Boost for private sector
providing data conversion services; GIS community growing; NMO
initiates policy on pricing for geo-spatial data cost of supply
only; Change to legislative approach; Spatial Data Infrastructure
Act of 2003, enacted in Feb 2004. Initiatives and Challenges of
Spatial Data Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 4 The what
happened years 2005 to 2009 No leadership; SDI Act partial
implementation; Committee for Spatial Information not established;
Very limited development of SDI; Limited co-ordination of data;
Duplication of geo-portals spring up. Initiatives and Challenges of
Spatial Data Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 5 New efforts
2010 to present Responsibility for SDI handed back to NMO;
Committee for Spatial Information (CSI) established; Initial work
of CSI; Restructured component to administer implementation of SDI.
Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure in South
Africa Slide 6 SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE ACT -Establishes the
South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI); - Establishes
the Committee for Spatial Information (CSI); - Establishes an
electronic metadata catalogue; - Provides for policies, standards
and prescriptions to facilitate the sharing of geo- spatial
information; - Provides for avoidance of duplication of data
capture; -Appointment and responsibilities of data custodians.
Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure in South
Africa Slide 7 Comments on legislation for SDI: Must be inclusive
of all applicable stakeholders; Must be clear on the powers of the
Minister; Limit the involvement of the Minister to political
leadership and key legislative matters e.g. making regulations;
Must be clear on the powers and duties of the governing
body/council; Strong governance; Appointment of members: simple
process, non-cronyism; Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data
Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 8 Comments on legislation for
SDI (cont.) Clear on what geo-spatial data is subject to provisions
of legislation; Clear on what are the responsibilities for all
role-players; Only key provisions to be in Act and use Regulations
for more detailed provisions easier to amend; Must be enforceable;
Must monitor compliance; Penalties for non-compliance. Initiatives
and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure in South Africa Slide
9 Comments on Powers and Duties of Governing Body/Council:
Representative body; Provide strong and clear leadership to the GI
community and all stakeholders; Able to advise all levels of
government; Must be recognised as an authoritative body;
Appropriate powers; Exercise good governance and be accountable;
Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure in South
Africa Slide 10 Comments on Powers and Duties of Governing
Body/Council (cont): Make policies and issue guidelines; Establish
standards; Committed members; Members knowledgeable about SDI and
GI management; Good communication with all role-players and
stakeholders. Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data
Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 11 The strategic objectives of
the Committee for Spatial Information (CSI) are Embedding SASDI
(and therefore CSI), in the realities we face as a country; It must
fulfill its role and make sound contribution in addressing the
inequalities we face, services we require, our education and health
needs and in changing our employment status; In doing so, it must
enable us to create an integrated system of relevant and reliable
geo-spatial information that will effectively support development
and the 12 Outcomes of Government, and allow us to know our people,
know where they live, how they live and address their needs;
Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure in South
Africa Slide 12 Strategic objective of CSI (cont.) This can be
achieved by: Ensuring access to and use of geo-spatial information
by policy-makers and planners at all levels in the public sector
and community leaders for effective and efficient decision- making.
Establishing a synergistic-cooperative approach wherein
institutional commitment by all stakeholders to communication,
cooperation, coordination and collaboration is essential.
Empowering citizens and communities by providing them with access
to relevant, current, accurate and comprehensive geo-spatial
information. Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data
Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 13 Identification of key
strategic focus areas: A. Data Identify and prioritize the
fundamental or core data sets for the SASDI. Identify the
custodian(s) for each fundamental data set. Determine the actual
feature types and feature attribute types required for each
fundamental data set. Produce a realistic schedule for making
available each fundamental feature type and each fundamental
attribute type, and then for updating them. Allocate unique
identifiers to each instance of a fundamental feature type.
Determine what VGI can be used in the SASDI to supplement the
official data sets. Develop the standards and policies for the
quality of the data. Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data
Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 14 B. Metadata As a quick-win,
populate the Spatial Metadata Discovery (SMD) with a critical mass
of relevant, quality and current metadata records. The SMD will
probably need to support several metadata standards. Identify
and/or develop suitable tools for capturing metadata and make them
available to the data custodians. Produce a realistic schedule for
making available the metadata for each fundamental data set, and
then for updating the metadata. Initiatives and Challenges of
Spatial Data Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 15 C. Services
Identify and prioritize the online (Web-enabled) services required
to be provided through the SASDI. Identify the responsible parties
for each service. Produce a realistic schedule for making the
services available. Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data
Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 16 D. SDI Act and its
Regulations Identify the urgent changes that are needed in the SDI
Act. Identify the priority Regulations required to implement the
SDI Act now. E. Policies Prioritize the policies that are needed
for the CSI and the SASDI. Develop the priority policies.
Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure in South
Africa Slide 17 F. Education and training Ensure that the members
of the CSI and its sub- committees are sufficiently well versed in
GIS, SDI, metadata, standards, ICT, IPR, privacy, liability and
related issues, to be able to function effectively and efficiently.
Provide forums for sharing experiences and discussing issues with
data, metadata, standards, systems, etc. Determine the education
and training needs for the various stakeholders in the CSI and the
SASDI, and develop an overall framework of these needs. Develop a
plan for funding the actual preparation of education and training
materials, getting formal accreditation and the presentation of
courses, etc. Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data
Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 18 F. Education and training
(cont.) Promote research in the field of SDI, both to address
issues that arise and to develop advanced SDI skills in South
Africa. Ensure geo-spatial data literacy amongst all users.
Identify organisations with which CSI should partner to promote
relevant education and training. Initiatives and Challenges of
Spatial Data Infrastructure in South Africa Slide 19 G. Promote
awareness Make users and producers of geo-spatial information aware
of SASDI. Make users, producers and the general-public aware of the
availability of geo-spatial information. Promote the use of
geo-spatial information in policy development, decision-making and
research. Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure
in South Africa Slide 20 Some challenges we face: Amend the SDI
Act; Promulgate Regulations; Key policies developed and
implemented; Key standards implemented; Recording of metadata by
data collectors; Metadata collection from data collectors;
Functional geo-portal, with services including data fusion, source
transparent to user; Awareness of geo-portal to discover available
geo-spatial data; Capacity building of CSI members and users;
Semantics common language/understanding; Compliance monitoring.
Initiatives and Challenges of Spatial Data Infrastructure in South
Africa Slide 21 The success of the SA Spatial Data Infrastructure
will depend on strong leadership from the Committee for Spatial
Information and commitment from the key data custodians.
