ICAST 2008 2nd International Conference on Advances in Space Technologies Islamabad, Pakistan, 29th – 30th November, 2008

978-1-4244-3300-1/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE 85 Proceedings of ICAST, vol. 2, p. 85-90.

Assessing Readiness for National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse-A Milestone for SDI Development in

Pakistan Asmat Ali

Survey of Pakistan asmatali@yahoo.com

Abstract- The term Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) has been

defined and still being redefined. However, ultimate objective of SDI is to improve the availability and accessibility to interoperable multiple geospatial data for a wide range of user community. One of the preliminary requirements to improve the availability and accessibility to geospatial data is to know, who has what and where, of which quality and contents as well as what are the conditions to exploit it. All these generic but very important questions are possible to be addressed by establishing a data advertising, sharing, discovering, and dissemination system known as geospatial data clearinghouse.

Presently, in Pakistan no geospatial data clearinghouse exists. As a result, every geo-related organization has its own geospatial data sets. Resultantly, the collected data sets and their specifications remain unknown to rest of the user community, except the custodian one as well as letting other organizations to collect the same data sets. The dilemma is, if this situation continues then huge volume of similar data will keep on growing on one end of the spectrum and requiring more space, time, managers, and money to manage it on the other end. This scenario identifies the need for establishing geospatial data clearinghouse so that wastage of time and money on producing the same data sets could be avoided as well as availability and accessibility to the data could be facilitated and enhanced. But establishment of geospatial data clearinghouse is a challenge for developing countries like Pakistan due to limited technical resources and expertise. Therefore, one needs to know what kind of such resources exist on ground in a specific region before taking off for the establishment of such clearinghouse.

This paper argues and explores readiness for the

establishment of national geospatial data clearinghouse in

Pakistan and determines with the help of empirical study, which

components of the clearinghouse exist in the country. Hence, the

paper focuses on “where are we” and not “how to get there”.

I. BACKGROUND

The term Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) has been defined,

redefined and still being refined in the context of current scenario of spatial knowledge and technologies. As a result, there is not yet a generally agreed upon definition of SDI due to its multiplicity, complexity and dynamic nature because, “…understanding SDI is (still) in its infancy”, De Man (2007, p.42). Therefore, technical people such as engineers and scientists, for example define it in technical terms and propose technical solutions for SDI implementation. Where as, journalists, vendors and economists emphasize on economic benefits. Researchers interested in social impacts underscore political, institutional, organizational and information sharing

aspects (asmat, 2008a). It is argued that understanding, needs and rationale for SDI development cannot be exactly the same for developed and developing countries though it may have some commonalities. Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) developments take place at different levels (asmat, 2008b) such as at corporate, local, national, regional and global level. However, the ultimate objective of SDI is to improve the availability and accessibility to interoperable multiple geospatial data for a wide range of user community such as data resellers, geo-service providers, publishers, researchers, planners, and decision makers. One of the main elements of NSDI is the national spatial data clearinghouse (McLaughlin 1991, Clinton 1994, FGDC 1997, 2002, 2005, 2007, Coleman and McLaughlin 1998, Onsrud 1998, Groot and McLaughlin 2000, AUSLIG 2001, Crompvoets and Bregt 2003, Crompvoets et al, 2004, Crompvoets 2006, GSDI 2006, 2007). Masser (2005, p.17) while arguing on SDIs concludes, “The overriding objective of an SDI is to maximize the use of geographic information” by means of geospatial data clearinghouse. One of the preliminary requirements to improve the availability and accessibility to geospatial data is to let the user know, who has what kind of data and where, of which quality and contents as well as what are the conditions to exploit it. This is what is commonly known as geospatial data clearinghouse.

In Pakistan, geospatial sector received little or no attention

by the successive governments in the past. However,

Government of Pakistan (GOP) has started realizing needs of

geospatial data for socio-economic development in the country.

The launch of E-government program in 2003, which included

GIS for Agriculture, Natural Resources & Urban Property of

Pakistan, Mapping & Database of National Cartographic data

is the first example. Second example is the establishment of

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in 2006

that requires different kinds of geospatial data for rescue

operations. Another example includes establishment of Land

Records Management Information System as E-government

initiative. These actions of GOP are healthy sings for

geospatial sector and its stakeholders. But without a unified

platform for data sharing and disseminating i.e. geospatial data

clearinghouse, every organization is collecting, maintaining

and managing geospatial data sets. The data sets have different

format, data model and projection etc due to specific mandate

of every organization. Therefore, one can see these geospatial

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data sets as islands of information that are not discoverable,

shareable, accessible and re-usable for rest of the user

community except the custodian organization. Though special

characteristic of spatial data is that it can be shared and used

for many other purposes than the one, for which, it was

originally produced (asmat, 2008c). But, duplication of efforts

in collecting, maintaining and managing the same geospatial

data is taking place as Fernández et.al (2008, p.2) argues for

the same. The dilemma is, if this situation continues then huge

volume of inconsistent data will keep on growing on one end

of the spectrum and requiring more space, time, managers, and

money to manage it on the other end. This scenario identifies

the need for establishing geospatial data clearinghouse to make

geographic data broadly available, accessible and shareable for

a multiplicity of users, Morales (2004, p.3). But the

establishment of such clearinghouse is still missing in the

governmental plan.

II. GEOSPATIAL DATA CLEARINGHOUSE

The term geospatial data clearinghouse is known variously

within the geospatial community as "catalogue services"

(OpenGIS Consortium), "Spatial Data Directory" (Australian

Spatial data Infrastructure), and "Clearinghouse" and the

“Geospatial One-Stop Portal” (U.S. FGDC), Nebert (2004,

p.40). The similar diversity lies in defining geospatial data

clearinghouse by the researcher community. For example,

Crompvoets et al.(2004, p.1) argues, it as an electronic facility

for searching, viewing, transferring, ordering, advertising and

disseminating spatial data from numerous sources through the

Internet and as appropriate, providing complementary services.

Groot & McLaughlin (2000, p.142) finds it, as a system of

software and institutions to facilitate the discovery, evaluation,

and downloading of digital geospatial data whereas Morales

(2004) underscores that geospatial data clearinghouse is not

only for advertising and sharing/exchanging spatial data but is

meant to provide services also like geoprocessing and spatial

analysis. SDI pundits in GSDI newsletter of April 2006,

envisions it “to actually obtain the data. Clearinghouses

support uniform, distributed search through a single user

interface; they allow the user to obtain data directly, or they

direct the user to another source”. It is argued that debate on

geospatial data clearinghouse would continue till gap between

theory and practices in spatial domain exists. However, the de

facto definition of the clearinghouse at the moment (as nothing

is perfect for ever in technology) can be, a mechanism to

publish, share and query multiple data sets and to facilitate

related services such as data visualization, data downloading,

data accessing, applications and tools to exploit data over

Internet.

Conclusively, the critical study on geospatial data

clearinghouse reveals its following components:

Fig.1. Clearinghouse concept (Adopted from Groot et.al 2000)

• Human Network

• Spatial Datasets

• Metadata

• Servers

• Access Network

• User Interface

• Human Resources

Importance as well as status of these components in the

context of Pakistan will be unbundled under section 4.

III. FIELD STUDY

In order to assess readiness for National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), an integral part of which is geospatial data clearinghouse (discussed under section 1), a study was conducted in Pakistan during September, 2007. The information was collected through questionnaires, interviews, policy documents and site visits. In all 48 questionnaires were sent to public sector organizations, academic, NGO and private companies. Out of which 19 questionnaires were received back with information representing 40% return rate. Site visits provide opportunity to have direct observation. Therefore, seven organizations were visited as displayed in table I.

TABLE I ORGANIZATIONS VISITED

Public sector Private sector Other

Survey of Pakistan (SOP) Geomatics & Engineering Services

Geological Survey of Pakistan

MYCO

Soil Survey of Pakistan NESPAK

Institute of Geographical Information

Systems (IGIS)

IV. MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE FIELD STUDY

The field study was conducted in a wider context but information collected is recycled and reused to focus on the purpose of this paper. Therefore, study results that are relevant to geospatial data clearinghouse are presented here.

A. Human Network

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One of the most important non-technical components of clearinghouse is the human network. In the context of this paper, human network means network of producers, suppliers, managers, resellers, publishers, service provider, developers, policy makers and users of geospatial data. The findings of the empirical study show no such network exclusively exists in Pakistan though sincere efforts are being made by research and academia institutions such as Institute of Geographical Information Systems (IGIS) for the establishment of such network. Some of the networks like Pakistan Society of Geographic Information Systems (http://www.psgis.org/) exist in the country but it is mostly populated with personnel who joined the society as an individual not as an organization though they come from geo-related organizations of the country. GOP is the major producer, supplier and consumer of geospatial data but its part in supporting, promoting and establishing such network is found missing. B. Spatial Datasets

The first step in the development of a national geospatial data clearinghouse is the documentation of existing data as means to quantify the content of the clearinghouse. The findings of the study highlight the range of different kinds of geospatial data sets being produced such as topographic, cadastre, soil, geology, hydrology, ortho imagery and crops as displayed in figure 2.

Geology

9%

Crops

7%

Soil

5%

Cadastre

18%

Ortho

Imagery

14%

Hydrology

14%

Topographic

33%

Fig. 2. Geospatial data types produced

The reason behind lot of topographic data production is that topographic data serves as foundation and reference for all other kinds of data collection such as geological, soil, crops, and soil data. Geoservice provider companies such as vehicle tracking companies also built their services on topographic data. But, all topographic data is not yet open to the public due to existing map policy as informed by the authorities of Survey of Pakistan during an interview. Therefore, organizations that need topographic data but can not get it from Survey of Pakistan (the de facto leader of NSDI development in the country); collect their own data which is clearly duplication in collecting the same data as well as wastage of time and money. Anyhow, lot of geospatial data is being produced in the country.

C. Metadata

Metadata is the term used to describe the summary information or characteristics of a set of data (The SDI Cookbook, 2004, p.25). With out metadata, geospatial data no matter how much accurate is, of little or no use for rest of the users except the custodian one. Metadata is the backbone of clearinghouse as Masser (2005, p.8) argues [metadata] increase user awareness of what data is available. The producers / suppliers of geospatial data create metadata that includes description of purpose, source, format, contents, quality, accuracy, standards used and validity period etc of their geospatial data. Only then “Users are able to discover who has what spatial data and its type and quality” (Radwan, 1997). Therefore, a culture of metadata creation facilitates the sharing of geospatial data (Campbell,2008, p.1). The study reveals that in private sector 44% organizations are creating metadata on various standards. It is argued that metadata created with varying standards is easier to convert to one unified standard now a days due to technology and tools developed by such as, Federal Geographic Data Committee (http://www.fgdc.gov) to stimulate the creation and maintenance of metadata. Whereas, only 20% public sector organizations (such as SUPARCO) are complementing their geospatial data with metadata.

20%

40%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Public Private

Sector

% o

rgan

izati

on

Fig. 3. Percentage of organizations creating metadata

The reasons behind low trend of metadata creation in public sector organizations can be attributed to lack of awareness of metadata as well as entire focus on geospatial data production and supply of the data remaining insulated from the rest of the spatial world. More organizations in private sector are developing metadata as the organizations have to generate revenue from the market for their survival contrary to the public sector organizations which are fully funded by the GOP. Hence, private sector is more informed of the latest trends in geospatial industry of the world. D. Servers

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A clearinghouse usually consists of a number of servers that contain information (metadata) about available digital data. The clients request metadata or services by visiting the server(s), usually through a web browser (Crompvoets et.al. 2004, p.4). Therefore, clearinghouse server(s) perform two main functions as envisions Groot et.al (2000, p.144) to manage metadata and to process query posed by user. Simply said, servers are like brokers that mediate between user and metadata base and eventually trigger to geospatial data sets. Organizations both in public and private sectors are well equipped with hardware as the study carried out depicts. For the public sector, credit goes to GOP as the government is fully determined to switch over to ‘digital earth’. In private sector, 81% organizations have servers, to manage and share data, as well as to serve their customer’s requests. Where as, 60% public sector organizations possess servers. Therefore, these servers can be used to hold and query metadata in distributed environment.

60%

81%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Public

Private

Secto

r

% organizations

Fig. 3. Percentage of organizations equipped with servers

E. Access Network

This component seeks to facilitate access to relevant data sources and spatial information services by anyone, anywhere (Crompvoets et.al. 2004, p.8). Access network such as Internet is essential not only for real time communication among stakeholders of geospatial data but also is a medium to explore, query, visualize and download meta/geospatial data. Government agencies at all levels are embracing this technology to provide access to vast amounts of spatial information to the public cheaply and quickly. (UN Handbook on Geographic Databases and Census Mapping 2008, p.16). A study titled ‘BROADBAND PENETRATION IN PAKISTAN: Current Scenario and Future Prospects’ undertaken by Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology reports, “Pakistan started its venture for data communication and internet in 1995/1996” (p.12). Since then internet users have been growing substantially as displayed in figure 5 below.

Fig. 5. Pakistan Internet Subscribers (Source:

http://202.83.164.26/wps/portal/Moitt/)

Consequently, all public sector organizations included in the study have internet facility as GOP’s policy. Private sector has a considerable lead over public sector as private sector has state of the art access network such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) in addition to (traditional) Internet, intranet and Local Area Network (LAN) facility. Due to GSM and GPRS network private sector is providing geoservices on PDAs and mobile phones. Figure 6 portrays various access network used by the private sector.

Internet

23%

Intranet

22%

LAN

22%

WAN

11%

GSM

11%

GPRS

11%

Fig. 6. Access network in use by private sector

F. User Interface

Graphical user interface (GUI) simply said user interface lets the user community to interact with the metadata in a friendly environment residing on the (clearinghouse) servers. Usually, these kinds of (software) developments are made by private sector. Therefore, it was encouraging to see that 67% organizations responded to develop user interface in addition to GIS portal in English language where as 47% organizations responded to the development of GIS portal as well as user interface in national language. G. Human Resources

Technology does not work alone, it demands humans to operate and manage. Well educated and professionally skilled personnel can perform better than the ones who are not properly educated and lack in professional expertise.

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The study carried out reveals that organizations in private sector are dominated by GIS and IT professionals which is a healthy sign for the development of geospatial data clearinghouse. Professionals from both disciplines are 78% followed by civil engineers which are 67% due to lot of construction work for the development of physical infrastructure being the priority of GOP. This is not the case with public sector organizations mostly due to old recruitment policy as informed by a senior official of Survey of Pakistan in an exclusive interview. But situation is changing in the public sector as capacity building institutions from aboard like International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) as well as Institute of Geographical Information Systems (IGIS) in the country are contributing towards capacity building programmes in spatial domain of Pakistan, with reasonable pace.

Fig. 7. Professional in private geospatial sector

V. CONCLUSION

The purpose of this paper was to assess readiness for national geospatial data clearinghouse in Pakistan. Critical discussions made and results of the field study reveals, environment is conducive to the development of such clearinghouse in the country. Most of the identified components of clearinghouse more or less exist except a formal human network that needs attention and major stake of GOP. Being a significant issue for sustainable national development and strengthening the public/private sector institutions related with decision making and their implementation, Government of Pakistan is to work on it as a first priority integrating all efforts carried out so far in this domain. It is also believed that once geospatial data clearinghouse being main component of SDI is in place then implementation of high profile infrastructure like SDI would be much easier in the country. Without the clearinghouse, SDI implementation would be asking for the moon.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I express my gratitude and acknowledge the services of Mr. Ghulam Sarwar, Deputy Director, Survey of Pakistan who helped a lot in editing of the paper.

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