PE&RS March 2002

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Thirty years ago, NASA's Earth Resources Technology Satellite, ERTS-1, began a process of rediscovering our physical environment. The subsequent sequence of numerous civilian satellites and geospatial information technologies has witnessed significant developments in the applied integration of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technologies. Periodic assessments of information requirements which can be met by remote sensing and GIS technologies have shown how these advanced geospatial information technologies are relied upon increasingly to locate, assess, and manage natural resources and the environment, to plan and manage infrastructure, and to support decision-making processes related to health, education, and public policy sectors. Information needs as well as information management are supported by these technologies.

New geospatial technologies and development of practical applications, increasingly receptive decision-makers, and advanced technical capabilities compelling cases for integrated Information Technologies (IT) as important tools for addressing sustainable development needs are being created. The world is being rediscovered again as today's societies require and demand information at national, regional, and local levels to make better decisions and to elaborate well founded judgements.

Major advances continue to occur in areas of data acquisition, data processing and analysis, and information management. Dynamic and expanding abilities to collect data of appropriate spatial, spectral and temporal resolution, and to modify data in geographic information systems that address problems ranging from simple to complex, and across disciplines, are efficiently and effectively integrated. With objective, timely and clearly intelligible information, each individual may form his own, reasoned, opinion which is one of the necessary conditions for an effective democracy. The use of geo-referenced information is not only a technical endeavor but also a task of great political significance: GISs are powerful tools for the democratic development of communities and nations.

Knowledge of each region's and locality's potential is indispensable for integral development. Information on natural resources, labor and employment, health, education, public safety, housing, within their specific geographical contexts, helps to formulate detailed diagnoses. These in turn serve to implement policies to increase the well being of the population. Today geospatial technologies play an important role in the transformation of societies, and their contributions towards economic and social development are both important and positive.

The InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) is working with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to ensure that deployment of advanced geospatial technologies are integrated with information and communication technologies to respond to the unique set of values, needs, conditions, resources and aspiration of the countries in the region. Many countries have demonstrated the capacity and desire to incorporate these technologies into their development programs. The challenges, however, are clearly more institutional than technical.

Role of ICT in the Bank
The IDB's Information Technology for Development Division facilitates matching the needs of countries in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for development with the resources and capabilities of IDB. Member countries are working together to ensure that their ICT activities, which increasingly include remote sensing and GIS programs, operationally contribute to achieving development objectives. IDB is responding effectively and in a timely manner to new sets of integrated requirements from the region.
Specifically, the Division provides technical backstopping for project development supported by IDB in the geospatial information technology fields, and offers strategic and technical advice to governments on how to make better use of available geospatial information technologies. The Division is responsible for developing cooperation agreements and co-financing arrangements to support research activities, studies, training, seminars, technical assistance and pilot projects. In addition, the Division provides linkages between public and private institutions to strengthen the participation of local institutions in the identification and development of technical solutions to information technology for development problems.

ASPRS's Partners in Education Program Grant
To contribute to the ICT Division's mandate to support requests to develop integrated guidelines and project components involving IT/geospatial technologies, the American Society Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) provided a generous grant to the IDB to support training and geospatial technology transfer in support of Bank development projects and programs. The ASPRS Partners in Education program is funded ASPRS sustaining members and is focused on expanding knowledge and awareness of the imaging and geospatial sciences, both as a career opportunity and as a resource to address problems and issues of concern to the general public. In his letter to the IDB in August 2001, ASPRS Executive Director James Plasker, wrote:

"Geospatial technologies have contributed to many development projects sponsored by the IDB as well as other international development organizations. As part of our mission and of our education agenda, ASPRS would like to support the IDB's efforts to facilitate greater awareness and understanding of geospatial technologies, within the IDB and its member countries, when they are beneficially applicable components to projects and programs.
The objectives and activities of the ICT Division to strengthen and refine the IDB strategy for information technology in development, and the overall ASPRS mission and education agenda are mutually supportive."

Consultant activities funded through ASPRS's grant have enabled assistance to the ICT Division's efforts to elevate awareness of ICT/Geospatial technologies and their value. Specifically, a series of seminars and workshops addressed the new generation of remote sensing satellites1 , and GIS applications in various sectors including health, and the value of Spatial Data Infrastructure initiatives and programs. For the first time, the IDB participated in "Worldwide GIS Day Celebrations" on November 13, 2001, and learned of up-to-date applications of geospatial technologies in many sectors, highlighting their potential as a comprehensive tool for development and as a strategic instrument for bank operations. GIS and geospatial technology materials are now included on the ICT Division's web page (www.iadb.org/ict4dev).

Examples of Geospatial Technology Applications in IDB Projects
As advanced geospatial technologies are making a difference in our world, they have also contributed to numerous InterAmerican Development Bank programs and operations in many sectors. These include natural resources and environment, land management and cadastre, transportation and infrastructure management, health, and private sector efforts.

It is often difficult to identify specific geospatial technology activities within a project because the activities are part of programs involving many diverse activities and components. A large rural land-titling program, for example, whose primary focus is adjudication of property rights and land titles, will likely involve extensive land survey activities. Procurements of aerial photography or GPS equipment, for example, will likely be included, but as relatively minor costs despite being critical activities in the larger program.

Transportation and Infrastructure Sector
In 2000, IDB provided more than $860 million for transportation and energy projects. Most of these loans promote integration and trade between countries by upgrading ground transportation and expanding opportunities for producers to reach new markets. Improved transportation infrastructure, including rural and urban roads, ports and airports, from planning and design to construction and maintenance, are at the center of all regional development solutions.

Investments in transportation assets are among the largest made for infrastructure by today's societies. To understand the complexities, and to stay ahead of the endless rounds of repairs, redesign, and new construction, transportation managers have increasingly turned to geographic information systems. In a planning process where funds are limited and decisions have to be made swiftly, geospatial technologies bring into this environment a number of supporting tools for better and speedier decision-making, with the result that GIS has been implemented at almost every major transportation agency. Geospatial technologies are being successfully implemented more and more due to the ever decreasing costs of computer power, wider availability of digital spatial data and a refocus of planning processes with growing need to incorporate environmental and social variables. Spatial data, once a bottleneck of any GIS, is less of an issue with the number of spatial data sets available and conversion of hard-copy maps to digital formats being done by most national mapping agencies. Clearly, geospatial technologies are critical tools for transportation managers, offering opportunity to communicate more quickly and effectively with associates, policy makers, contractors, neighboring jurisdictions and the public.

IDB has demonstrated the importance of advanced geospatial technologies to transportation planning and decision support systems in several successful "demonstration" projects that integrate transportation planning in the Mercosur region. Projects have recently been completed in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, and are underway in Peru and Uruguay (Table 1). These project support decisions related to corridor selection, planning and maintenance of multi-modal transportation initiatives, and support for mandated regional integration efforts. Opportunities exist for many other geospatial applications to transportation projects based on capabilities and applications of these technologies, as an estimated 10,000 industry professionals use GIS to plan, design, construct, operate, and maintain roadway, rail, aviation, port and fleet facilities around the world.

Argentina Planning Support System for Highway Planning and Management Implementation of a GIS-based Integrated System for Transportation Planning Support for the planning and management of highway works. Implemented by HTS Development Ltd. (UK) www.htsdevelopment.com/argentinagis/argentinatop.htm

Peru Regional Transportation Planning Studies and Highway Planning and Privatization Development and implementation of GIS tools and spatial databases to assist in highway planning, infrastructure management and privatization, and tools to develop a highway inventory system using GPS technologies. Implemented by GAF (Germany). www.gaf.de/peru-gis/

Bolivia Decision Support System for Transportation Planning and Infrastructure Management Implemented GIS-based Decision Support System to support multi-model Mercosur-level transportation models and studies, focusing on integration of inter-oceanic corridors and for transportation planning and project management; includes highway inventory system using GPS. Studied transport alternatives for products from Central-West Brazil and Bolivia destined for the Pacific Basin markets. Implemented by GAF (Germany) and GIS-Trans (USA) www.gaf.de/projects.htm

Uruguay Spatial Information System for National Infrastructure Management and Planning Development and implementation of GIS-based decision support system and remote sensing technologies. Builds upon on-going development of a National Geographic Data Clearinghouse and development and dissemination of spatial digital data. Strengthening GIS capacities and databases contributes to understanding socio-economic consequences of highway and other infrastructure projects, as well as support study of inter-oceanic and other integration corridors. Implemented by AeroterrA (Argentina) and ICA (Uruguay). www.aeroterra.com

Chile Information System for Regional Transportation Planning and Infrastructure Management. Implemented GIS-based planning information system and strengthened existing systems and capabilities. Developed Mercosur-level transportation studies and regional analysis of the inter-oceanic corridors. Developed spatial databases and applications to support regional analysis of inter-oceanic corridor of Arica-Tambo Quemado-Santa Cruz-Cuiabá; and inter-oceanic corridor of Buenos Aires-Mendoza-Santiago-Valparaiso. Implemented by GAF (Germany) and GIS-Trans (USA). www.gaf.de/chile-gis/

Civil Society
Geospatial technologies have been crucial in many democratic governance and civil society programs. An example is national population and housing census programs. Fundamental to any universal census of population and housing is basic cartography for the planning, execution, and post-census analyses. Too often the basic cartography is out of date and inaccurate, or in poor physical condition. Deployment of field enumerators for the census operation requires updated cartography showing the distribution of streets and roads, dwellings and other structures. Tabulation of updated census data also requires updated cartography to geo-code census data by aggregation units that comprise the different levels of census geography. Statistical cartography is used to present census results, displaying the spatial characteristics and relationships of the demography and other acquired data. Updated cartography, beginning with collection of field data using GPS and aerial photography, as well as high-resolution satellite images, and integrated into GIS databases provides the basis for preparing such analyses.

Although IDB has a limited portfolio related to Population and Housing Census programs, in recent years several projects have ensured that census activities are carried out on schedule and with the necessary quality levels. IDB recognizes that censuses are an important source of information and guidance on economic and social development, employment, migration, housing, education, public health, social welfare, and many other areas. Recent examples include IDB's support to the Bolivian government, through the National Statistics Institute and the Ecuadorian government. These projects provided human, material, and financial resources needed to ensure that the census is conducted efficiently, and to update the country's statistical maps which are fundamental to organizing national population and housing, as well as business and agricultural census, and to establishing sample frames for future household surveys.

GIS is also a powerful tool for balancing equitable distribution of voting districts, for directing voters to polling places, for issuing permits and licenses, and for mapping and analyzing social programs. Geospatial technologies have supported programs for environmental protection, for poverty reduction, and for urban and regional development. The experiences learned in countless applications in the developed world provide examples to be applied in the developing world, showing that many common responsibilities of government are serviceable with outstanding efficiency, through information technologies including geospatial tools.

Social Programs: the Health Sector
Support to health projects through delivery of efficient and high quality health services are important to full human development, as demonstrated by a long history of Bank programs in the region. Increasingly, Information Technologies are being incorporated in health projects; computers modernize central ministries and regional offices; sometimes databases are created to monitor investments, illness data, or generate health statistics. Bank supported reform projects have changed the way health services are delivered and managed, improved financial aspects, standardized procedures, and facilitated exchange of patient health files when appropriate.

In recent years the tremendous potential of GIS to benefit the health care industry, for example, has been realized. Health researchers, public health professionals, policy makers and others in both public and private sectors use GIS to better understand geographic relationships that effect health outcomes, public health risks, disease transmission, access to health care, management of health facilities, and other public health concerns. The Year 2000 International Health Geographics Conference noted that GIS has "evolved as an empowering technology, enabling health geographics professionals to use, analyze and present information in ways not possible with textual and numerical information systems. In comparison to other relevant technologies, GIS offers greater awareness and ability to respond to health care, medical and research issues at the appropriate scale."

Maps of low-weight births have shown how prenatal care programs are working, and geo-referenced information on HIV/AIDS has helped in prevention and mitigation strategies. However, much more can and must be done from studying connections between health and environment to improving services of hospital administrators, pharmaceutical companies, and managed care providers.

Other examples include applications of remote sensing and GIS to preserve the environment, to plan cities decades into the future, to speed disaster rescue and recovery, and to protect endangered species. Natural resource managers have discovered the power of geospatial technologies to help make the critical decisions they face daily. Once expensive, these geospatial technologies have emerged as the tools of choice in local and national resource agencies around the globe, helping development and conservation communities find common ground by providing a framework for the analysis and discussion of resource management issues.

Spatial Data Infrastructure for Sustainable Development
Geographic information is vital to sound decision-making at the local, regional, national and global levels. Economic development, community land use assessments, flood mitigation, environmental restoration, crime management, epidemiological assessment, and disaster recovery are but a few examples of how decision-makers are benefiting from geographic information, and where IDB is playing an important role with financial and technical assistance.

Geographic information, however, is an expensive resource. Appropriate information and the resources to fully utilize it may not always be available, particularly in the developing world. Many national, regional and global programs are working to improve access to available geographic information, promote its reuse, and ensure that additional investment in data collection and management results in an expanding and readily available and useful geographic information.

The collection of technologies, policies, criteria, standards, institutional arrangements and people that promote and facilitate the sharing, access, and use of geographic information is referred to as the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). SDI provides the basis for geographic information discovery, evaluation, and application by users and providers within all levels of society-government, commercial and non-profit sectors, academia, and citizens in general. The goal of an SDI initiative is to reduce duplication of effort, improve quality and reduce costs related to geographic information, to make geographic data more accessible, to increase the benefits of using and sharing available data.

Analog maps at small scales and significant levels of obsolescence are too often the available coverage in Latin America. National mapping agencies have been accustomed to analog cartographic production. In the past decade, most national mapping agencies have implemented digital systems to automate cartography production. Yet data maintenance has been a major difficulty, too often leading to increasing data obsolescence. How this process is understood and managed is having an impact on the way regional spatial data infrastructures are developing.

At the same time, use of geographic information is growing rapidly outside of the national mapping agencies and across many multi-sectorial projects and programs. Geospatial data have been developed at large scales for thematic applications, creating a substantial amount of geographic information (yet not always structured). As more geospatial information becomes available it is not always playing its due role in decision-making processes, with form sometimes being perceived more important than quality.

Efforts to promote the need for harmonic SDI at local, regional and national levels, and its contribution to economic, social and environmental sustainable development are gradually being addressed in Latin America. Thanks in large part to the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the World Bank / InfoDev program, there is a growing awareness about the direct relationships between information, economic growth and development, with an increased appetite for spatial data. Numerous National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) initiatives are, in part, a recognition of the need to improve spatial data availability to support better project formulation and decision-making, and the impact of regional and global initiatives like the GSDI and Globe Map.

William G. Brooner
Consultant
InterAmerican Development Bank
1300 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20577, USA
WILLIAMB@iadb.org

1 Seminars included presentations by Space Imaging (Ikonos program), William Davenhall, manager, Health and Human Services Solutions Group, ESRI (Enterprise GIS in the Health Organization); and Dr. Santiago Borrero-Mutis, director general, Instituto Geográfico Augustín Codazzi, Bogota, Colombia and chairman, Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Steering Committee (SDI Initiatives in Latin America).