[GSDI Sponsored Projects] Report on GSDI Small Grant Program by Royal Government of Bhutan

[Kate Lance]

fyi.... here's a summary of recent efforts in Bhutan.  I look forward to similar reports from other GSDI grant recipients (through the grant follow-up work that the Sponsored Projects Committee is doing) ... and I hope to learn more of how the Communications Committee might spread the word about the impact that the GSDI Small Grant Program is having.
Regards,
Kate
 
Excerpt from SDI-AP June 2005 newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 6

 

Report on GSDI Small Grant Program by Royal Government of Bhutan 

 

GIS in Bhutan was first introduced in the country in the early 1990s though an external funded project in the Department of Forest. Since then many other agencies especially working within the environment domain found it necessary to use GIS. Many small GIS units thus mushroomed across the government sectors. However, there was no coordination amongst these agencies and by the end of the decade it was obvious that there was an abundance of duplications in effort, inconsistencies of data and above all, wastage of scarce resources. Therefore the government deemed it very important to establish a coordination agency. A coordination center was first established under the Planning Commission in the year 2000 and later in the year 2003, the function was transferred to the Department of Survey and Land records and this body was called the Centre of GIS Coordination (CGISC). One of the primary problems that needed to be addressed was to inform existing and prospective GIS users on the
 whereabouts of whatever spatial data was available within the various GIS agencies, so that there would be no duplication of effort or resources in collecting/producing the data which was already existing with some agencies. The proposal to create a meta data catalogue was proposed for GSDI SGP support, wherein a support to the tune of USD2500.00 granted to the CGISC and the amount received at the local bank in the month of October 2004. Under GSDI SGP support, a workshop of the GIS TWG was called for – to apprise the users of the support and to initiate the activities as proposed on 13th December 2004. During this first workshop a meta data format was prepared and an understanding on how the SGP funds were to be used were discussed and agreed upon. The second workshop was held on 10th March 2005 to further explain and discuss what more needed to be improved in the inventories. The spatial data inventory has been prepared as the first output from the study will go a long way in
 informing the users and also new comers on the scene on the availability of the spatial data. While it is evident from the inventory that there is much to do in standardizing the data and also educating the users on the qualities and different aspects of spatial data. The exercise has also highlighted the weakness and the grey areas where the next focus should lie in terms of building up national spatial data infrastructure in an organized manner. The next step is to take this inventory onto a web site. Support on this front has been sought from ICIMOD in Kathmandu for the training of a few people in Bhutan to enable our people to take up the job. It is also hoped that this inventory can be further refined with their help. The DSLR is currently in the process of developing its website and the inventory will be posted under this site. The "Inventory of National Spatial Data, April 2005" will be circulated to all user agencies and others relevant agencies. And a formal dissemination
 of the report will be made tentatively in the Month of September/October 2005 on the occasion of the planned National GIS Expo. The workshops and discussions held within the frame work of the support provided by GSDI has provided ample opportunities to understand what each of GIS agencies are doing and also to a great extent come to understand the limitations and opportunities that each agency is working under. While it was evident that most of the GIS agencies were now on their own having been started up through projects and expatriate GIS experts, it was also obvious that the systems had come to stagnate and were not really moving forward at the pace one would expect for want of resources – mainly financial and professional input. A very significant amount of datasets are available within the different agencies, however, the organization of the data and the lack of clear cut guidelines on sharing of data prove to be a serious obstacle facing the user community. The Center of GIS
 Coordination must continue to strive to bring all the users to a common understanding and reorient the working concepts of each agency in the interest of developing an integrated national spatial data infrastructure. The Bhutanese GIS community and the Centre for GIS Coordination would like to thank the GSDI Small Grants Support which enabled to achieve a very important milestone in the history of small GIS community.

		
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