Spatial data infrastructures in developing countries.
The availability of spatial information for cities in developing countries is poor or nonexistent. In many cases, the spatial data is in the form of unscaled sketches. Where maps exist they are often out dated or classified as restricted information and access by public departments is very difficult if not impossible. Where current and unclassified maps exist, they are usually of different scales aggravating the problem of sharing information efficiently among various sectors of the city. Digital representation of spatial data is even rarer due to the lack of appropriate equipment and trained staff. Few cities are ready to begin generating digital spatial databases as the task is seen to be too large, too costly and too complex both technically and administratively. The design and implementation of a workable spatial data infrastructure is often a dream for the future, and without a SDI, GIS are not possible.
Reproduction of maps, where they exist, is often done with ammonia printers with the original maps prepared and up-dated on transparent sheets. Cadastral data is usually stored in hard copy registers and updated manually where available. Where a digital database is being prepared for a city, map production often continues to be done manually in parallel. Information about state owned land or government property is poor. In many cities, there are large military land holdings where information is restricted.
Often maps showing land ownership are in theform of sketches which are not to scale. Therefore, the exact demarcation of much of the land is impossible or very difficult and time consuming. Most information about land ownership and utilities are in the experienced hands of key personnel in separate departments. Due to the absence of any other information system they are treated as the primary information source. As a result this information can beeasily lost.
Information about the location of underground utilities and facilities is often worse than the maps showing above ground features. Utilities and facilities are marked on plans but are rarely up-dated. In most cases the actual location of these service lines is different from the location appearing on those plans. Agencies responsible for the provision of different infrastructure maintain their own maps usually showing only the location of infrastructure under their control. These maps are often only in the form of sketches that are interpretable only by the staff of these organizations. For underground utility lines the depth of the lines is seldom or correctly shown on maps. It is often the case for these utilities that some lines run on topof another utility line at a different depth.
These management practices are workable for generalplanning purposes when the size of a city is small,when land prices are low, when the land market is almost nonexistent, and the pace and lifestyle is slow.In these conditions, co-ordination between staff ispossible and there is time to share information to over come the anomalies in the spatial information.But for the large rapidly growing cities of developing countries today, which are becoming the engines of economic development, these management practices are woefully inadequate.