[SDI-AsiaPacific] Assessing SDI Readiness in Pakistan

[Asmat Ali]

For more than one century the humanity has shown concerns about the future of our planet. The problem is that the human population is increasing but the earth is the same. Spatial objects such as water reservoirs, forests, oil and gas fields have drawn attention of governments all over the world due to their limited existence and availability on the one hand and their rapid consumption on the other hand. This situation is a matter of great concern for countries such as Pakistan which depend more on natural resources and less on industry for its economy. 
   
   
  To access, manage and monitor these resources, one requires spatial data that is collected by many organizations as no single organization can collect and maintain every kind of spatial data due to mandate constraints. A special characteristic of spatial data is that they can be shared and used for many purposes other than the one for which they were originally produced (asmat, 2008). Moreover “Sharing data can also improve data quality by increasing number of individuals who find and correct errors”, (Rajabifard, 2004). But dilemma is, usually such data is not shared with other organizations or users in countries like Pakistan due to institutional, legal and organizational problems. Not sharing data may also be attributed to culture of the specific region as finds de Man (2000) “Hence, the way in which human beings perceive problems is largely culturally bound”. As a result, lot of time and money is spent to produce, process and procure the same spatial data that may
 already exist with some organization. Moreover, a user who needs this data has to face many difficulties to find out, that which organization exactly possesses his/her required data and how to get it for immediate use. 
   
  It seems that importance of spatial data was not realized for decades by the governments until last few years in countries such as Pakistan. The reasons behind this reactive approach by policy makers in the past were related to the relatively underestimated socio-economic value of spatial data also referred as geographic information (GI). As a result, “there had been a lack of political will to regard GI as national asset” (Masser, 2005). Consequently, the establishing of appropriate policy, institutional and legal arrangements to deal with sharing of GI was not given priority at higher levels. 
   
  This paper would take a closer look at SDI readiness in Pakistan in the context of E-government, socio-technical and geopolitical situation of the country.  
   
  Asmat Ali
  asmatali at yahoo.com

       
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