Survey on Development of Supporting Structures and Capacity

For Producing and Using Spatial Data in Africa

 

  1. Name and contact details of respondent: A.C Cochlovius Gouws, Director Geomatics, Dept. Water Affairs and Forestry, Private Bag x313, Pretoria 00013, South Africa

  2. What is the name of the programme or project in which you are involved?

    3.

    Building a Corporate / Enterprise GIS for the whole of PWAF and to ultimately distribute it on the web

  3. What are the overall aims of the programme / project? As above, to enable wide access to information easily

  4. What is the geographical area within which the programme operates?

    5.

    Whole RSA is main focus and eventually Africa too

  5. Duration of the programme:

    1. When was the programme initiated? 1998

    2. When is the programme scheduled to finish? Built corporate GIS, available to everyone on LAN, 120 national datasets available, plan to distribute to the web this year. Database will always be added too.

  6. Who are the major role-players in spatial data production, distribution and maintenance, as well as the major users, within this geographical area? (Note: please do not limit the answer to digital spatial data only) DWAF and most other National Govt. Depts.

  7. How is spatial data distributed? (Please do not limit your answer to digital spatial data only) Via LAN Network to DWAF HO Employees. CD’s to outsiders

  8. Co-ordination mechanisms and support:

    1. Is there currently and formal or informal co-ordination of publicly funded programmes involving spatial information? YES

    2. If yes, please describe briefly As above

  9. Please indicate whether the programme on which you are reporting is involved in any

    10. of the following:

    1. The collection of metadata? YES

    2. Making metadata readily available to (potential) spatial data users YES

      3.  

    3. The development of spatial data standards YES

    4. The creation of basic data sets (i.e. base sets of data that could be used by a broad variety of users, for example, the road network) YES

    5. If the answer to 9.4 is YES, please list these data sets - Water related and Forestry information

    6. Developing legal framework for accessing and distributing spatial data YES

    7. Developing pricing policy for spatial data YES

     

  10. Liaison:

    1. Is there any formal affiliation of the programme / project with any global or

      2. (other) regional spatial data infrastructure initiatives? YES

    2. Is there informal networking with other initiatives? YES

    3. If the answer to either 10.1 or 10.2 is YES, please list these initiatives

    NSIF which falls within GSDI initiatives

  11. What, if any, are the particular challenges facing the development of NSDI / RSDI development within the region? Standardization of data standards, sharing/selling of data, implementing OGIS, poor infrastructure (line speeds)

  12. Any other information or comments?

  13. If there are any sources of additional information (e.g. web-sites or brochures), please list these or indicate how the information might be obtained. Contact Director: Geomatics of DWAF