[Sdi-latinamericacaribbean] assorted SDI-LAC news

Thu Aug 24 10:13:18 EDT 2006

1) Resolution for work group on National Cadastre Program and SDI in Uruguay
  2) Normas para la ejecucion de cartografia (Ecuador)
  3) New Height Model for the Cayman Islands 
  4) Orion team commences work on Phase II of eLandJamaica
  5) IADB project in preparation - Renewal of downtown areas and land management (Cuenca municipality, Ecuador)
  6) IADB project in preparation - Amazon river navigation and environmental management 
  7) Workshop on Strategies for Permanent Access to Scientific Information in Latin America, March 2007
  8) Lanzamiento de Creative Commons Peru
  9) ESRI and OAS form strategic alliance to expand use of GIS in Latin America
  10) ESRI Chile established to expand growth of GIS in region

  http://www.gsdi.org/SDIA/docs2006/sep06links/1405.pdf
1) Resolution for work group on National Cadastre Program and SDI in Uruguay
    [June 27, 2006] To advance Uruguay's redesign of its NSDI efforts, the intention is to include the SDI initiative in a law about Territorial Planning (Ordenamiento Territorial).  An inter-institutional work group is being established to study the new design, whether the law is approved or not.  A Presidencial Resolution (No. 424/006) was made in June for the establishment of this group.
Resolucion 424/006 (27/06/2006): CrÃ©ase un Grupo de Trabajo con el objetivo de generar las bases para un Programa Nacional de Catastro (PNC) y de Infraestructura de Datos.

    http://www.igm.gov.ec/downloads/especcarto3.html 
  2) Normas para la ejecucion de cartografia (borrador) (mayo 2006)
  Especificacions tecnicas generales para la realizacion de cartografia topografica a cualquier escala.  Se solicita enviar su opinion, criticas u observaciones a este documento, su colaboracion sera muy apreciada, mruano at mail.igm.gov.ec. 

  http://www.caymanlandinfo.ky/index.cfm?fuseactionfiltered=main.news&id=55
3) New Height Model for the Cayman Islands 
[May 1, 2006] A coordinated exercise with the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) later in the year will provide gravity readings throughout the Cayman Islands in order to establish the earth's geoidal surface and thus link GPS observations with orthometric height values obtained by traditional levelling. When computed with the on-going geodetic levelling the Surveyors will soon be able to establish their vertical datum to an absolute accuracy of under 10cm (relative +/-2cm). Currently, the best value would be in the order of +/-0.5m metre. Grant Vincent Chief Surveyor says, "Establishing our height here in Cayman is especially important due to the possibility of flooding and sea inundation as a result of hurricanes etc. Through our recent work in updating our survey control and tide gauge information, we will be able to establish the true sea level and relate this accurately to our new permanent bench marks (PBM's) throughout the Islands. Work in Cayman
 Brac is now complete and Grand Cayman is almost 50% covered. A team is to visit Little Cayman shortly to carry out the geodetic levelling work and thus enable computation for all three Islands." Currently, the survey team from Lands & Survey have established tide gauges in all three Islands which will enable staff to compute any differences in sea level between the Islands. Once this work is complete there will be new values for all three Islands for the Mean High Water Mark which is the legal boundary for land parcels in Cayman. 

  http://www.oriongis.com/content2.asp?MainCataID=3&SubCataID=96&ContentID=781
  4) Orion team commences work on Phase II of eLandJamaica
  [3 August 2006] After the successful completion of Phase I in January, 2003, Orion Technology has commenced efforts to implement Phase II of eLandJamaica, http://www.nla.gov.jm/eland01.html. Initiated in mid 2001 by Jamaicaâ€™s National Land Agency (NLA), Phase I provided a streamlined and integrated system that offered a web-based point of access for all land-related issues. Set to go live on January 1, 2007, Phase II of eLandJamaica will provide NLA clients and internal staff with a more user-friendly application with easier navigation and search capabilities, and improved data sets providing enhanced mapping functionality. A simplified purchase experience will include a shopping cart model, online payment with or without a subscription account, and PDF outputs that users can download and even re-visit. Phase II also will allow system administration capabilities to be divided among a wider set of roles. It will provide updates from additional data sources and departments
 to improve data quality, currency, and coverage as well as provide a more scalable reporting infrastructure and better financial reporting.
  Phase I provided NLA with a solid, modern national land information system. It allowed customers to purchase property related information and scanned documents from an online application for a given price. NLAâ€™s large clients could create and manage their own users, assign permissions, set limits on the expenditures of staff each month, and receive online expenditure reports.
  Currently, the application can be accessed only by those individuals who hold subscription accounts with the National Land Agency as well as internal staff. Phase II is intended to extend the availability of eLandJamaica to any citizen with a valid credit card. 

  http://www.iadb.org/projects/Project.cfm?project=EC-L1021&Language=English
  5) IADB project in preparation - Renewal of downtown areas and land management (Cuenca municipality, Ecuador)
  The central area of the municipality of Cuenca, unlike the mayority of other traditional central areas in the region, is active, and its decline and disuse has been contained not allowing an uncontrollable situation. On the contrary, it is active in social, economic and cultural terms. Nevertheless, there are certain areas in the municipality that concentrate urban activities that generate deterioration and cause the presence of informal vendors. The program will support the investment in these areas of the city, holding up on the deterioration through the investment in the recuperation of public space, the "refitting" of municipal buildings and properties for the housing of vendors, and will finance social welfare and training activities for those involved in the process. Additionally, the program will finance activities related to the update of the municipal land registry, including the necessary information system, not only for the update of the titiling database, but
 also to establish the foundation for the development of the municipal zoning plan and planning of muncipal services, mainly infrastructures for residential services.  

    http://www.iadb.org/projects/Project.cfm?project=RG-T1131&Language=English
  6) IADB project in preparation - Amazon river navigation and environmental management 
  The project is meant to development a Strategy for River Navigation Improvement: a diagnostic of the principal problems that affect navigability, in each of the selected rivers including an analysis of water volumes, seasonal variations, critical paths, average sections and depths, meandering, sedimentation and obstacles to navigation due to lack of routine maintenance.  It should also identify the current signal system and identify the main river ports and their restrictions. The project will deliver the characterization of the tributaries in a GIS compatible form. A seasonal hydrological study will be conducted to determine effects of the hydrology and the climate conditions on the region to determine navigation conditions.  Also, an in depth bathymetric and tachymetric analysis for critical points that will require a more detailed level of study. Analysis of river channel maintenance, identifying dredging needs and institutions responsible for carrying out the
 dredging. Investment estimates for each channel, including developing navigational charts, guidance and signage, technology, dredging needs, meandering control measures, canal embankment strengthening, flow direction and channel realignments. Cost/Benefit analysis of the several options and recommendation of the sequences of actions to be carried out. Identification of environmental issues and adverse effects related to required investments and to increases in navigation. This item will include the identification of mitigation and management measures and costs. Proposal of an approach to conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the proposed Amazon River Navigation System, including objectives, methodological strategy, initial identification of social and environmental variables and issues to analyze, contents of Environmental and Social Management Plan, personnel requirements, timetable and costs. Integrated Reforestation Strategy and Land Use Management:
 1.Diagnostic of existing deforestation condition in the upper basins of the tributaries. 2.Analysis and quantification of the impact on deforestation on the river navigation conditions. 3.Diagnostic of actions currently being implemented for preventing deforestation in the upper basins of the rivers. 4.Initial design of best land use management practices in the upper river basins, including the proposal of specific short-term actions to improve current land use practices and analysis of their sustainability. 

    http://www7.nationalacademies.org/usnc-codata/Latin_America_Workshop_Prospectus.pdf
  7) Workshop on Strategies for Permanent Access to Scientific Information in Latin America, March 2007
  This workshop, proposed to be held in March 2007, will provide an international and interdisciplinary forum to promote a deeper understanding of, and requirements for, long-term preservation of and open access to digital scientific information resources for sustainable development in Latin America.
  See as well a Summary of the proposed study "Access and Use of Publicly Funded Geospatial Data for Health and Environmental Applications in Latin America: A Focus on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development" 
  http://www7.nationalacademies.org/usnc-codata/Latin_America_Geospatial_Data_Proposal.pdf

    http://pe.creativecommons.org/?p=42
  8) Lanzamiento de Creative Commons Peru
  Aprovechando la visita de expertos a Peru para el Seminario Internet Law Program Peru (http://www.cpsr-peru.org/eventos/ilaw), el dia 28 de junio se realizara el evento de lanzamiento de las licencias Creative Commons en Peru. Se busca impulsar la libre cultura en el Peru, difundiendo y educando acerca del uso de estas licencias para obras creativas como libros, producciones musicales, artisticas, culturales, cientificas. [nota: las licencias Creative Commons ya han sido usadas para datos espaciales]
  Si tienes tiempo y deseas colaborar con la difusion de las licencias Creative Commons en el Peru, colegas te invitan a suscribirte a la lista de discusion que hemos creado para tal efecto.
  http://pe.creativecommons.org/?page_id=11
  Esta lista tiene como objetivo el analizar los detalles de la licencia CC y colaborar entre todos en la difusion e implementacion de las licencias en nuestro pais. Tu participacion es valiosa para el exito del proyecto. 

    http://www.esri.com/news/releases/06_3qtr/oas.html
  9) ESRI and OAS form strategic alliance to expand use of GIS in Latin America       
[August 6, 2006] ESRI announced that it signed an agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) whereby ESRI will support two projects promoting sustainable development: the Municipal Development Program (MuNet) and the Amazon-Andes Protected Area Metadata Database (AAPAD) which is a subcomponent of the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN).  ESRI is donating software and support to underpin the project, while OAS is securing financial resources to ensure that the projects remain funded and sustainable. MuNet is designed to empower municipalities in Latin America by providing them with the electronic tools necessary to start building their regional cadastral and land registry systems. In addition to 15 software licenses, ESRI will provide one week of training in El Salvador for representatives from five selected municipalities in participating countries. For AAPAD, ESRI will provide software to 45 national parks and protected areas throughout
 the Amazon-Andes region with the expectation that these selected areas will share the data collected and facilitate the expansion of their geographic information system (GIS) database. In addition to the donation of GIS software, ESRI will provide training and 400 Introduction to ArcView courses in Spanish through its 
   its Virtual Campus program (http://training.esri.com/gateway/index.cfm).

    http://www.esri.com/news/releases/06_3qtr/esri_chile.html
  10) ESRI Chile established to expand growth of GIS in region
  ESRI announces that INCOM, its geographic information system (GIS) software distributor in Chile for more than 17 years, has transitioned to ESRI Chile to provide superior customer support and service as well as help expand the growth of GIS throughout the area. The company plans to strengthen its presence in existing markets, including government, mining, utilities, forestry, and education, and expand into other areas such as business, logistics, transportation, and infrastructure.   According to Jack Dangermond, ESRI president, "The ESRI designation provides recognition to a select group of our established international distributors, allowing them to better serve their existing customer base with corporate support and confidently expand the use of GIS in the country."

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