Land Information Center to Launch National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)

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Land Information Center to Launch National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)

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Written by The Guardian

Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:49

The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, through the Land and Surveys Department, and in collaboration with Galen University, the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America & the Caribbean (CATHALAC), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is working to establish the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) to foster national development by promoting national competitiveness and productivity. The spatial data infrastructure is the building block for any GIS activity in the country. The Land Information Center, as the national institution for GIS, is taking the lead in this project. To begin this effort, the inaugural conference is going to be held at the San Ignacio Hotel, San Ignacio Town on July 29 and 30, 2009.

The NSDI will provide the protocols and standards for data development and data sharing along with the fundamental datasets required by planners, decision makers, and workflows in government and enterprises in Belize. Best practice around the world has demonstrated that successful NSDIs

address three critical components: the establishment and operation of a geospatial data clearinghouse made up of a distributed electronic network of data producers and users connected through the Internet; establishment and articulation of clear standards for data documentation, collection, and exchange to facilitate sharing across jurisdictions and various hardware and software programs; and development of policies, procedures, and partnerships to create a national digital geospatial data framework that include important basic categories of data significant to a broad variety of users.

As stated earlier, ‘the NSDI will provide the protocols and standards for data development and data sharing along with the fundamental datasets required by planners and decision makers’ which will easily be incorporated with the sharing mechanisms developed through Information Sharing Protocol Project (ISPP) funded by UNDP. It is foreseen that the NSDI and the ISPP projects can be a significant catalyst to national development and the growth of businesses in the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Government of Belize.