In an effort to improve accessibility, reliability and affordability of geospatial information of the country, the National Land Commission (NLC) will develop a framework, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). This will help reduce the costs and duplication of tasks by different agencies. The Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a project to develop the NSDI, today.
Geospatial data refers to information that identifies the geographic location and characteristics of natural or constructed features and boundaries. According to officials from the NLC, although a geospatial portal was launched in 2014, lack of a proper framework resulted in poor utilization of the portal. Therefore the land commission felt the need to develop NSDI. NSDI refers to the technology, policies, standards and human resources to improve the utilization of geospatial data.
“The current project basically is to create a framework within which we can share the spatial data among all the users in Bhutan. The main objective is to encourage the use of geospatial information in the decision-making process. Right now we have lots of data existing in different agencies but in the absence of NSDI framework, we are not able to share the information among government agencies,” said Tenzin Namgay, Director of the NLC.
“NSDI is a very important framework for Bhutan. It is a common framework to be used as digital map information for the Bhutanese. After NSDI is developed and implemented, digital information of digital map can be used by everybody in Bhutan for industrial and rural development and much more,” added Kozo Watanabe, Cheif Representative of JICA country office.
There are more than thirty agencies who are not involved in creating and using geospatial data on a daily basis.
“Through this framework, we will also have an awareness of what data are existing in different agencies. We will also have mechanisms set up for sharing of this information online. So in the long run, I think this will not only encourage the use of geospatial information but it will reduce the duplication of resources across different agencies,” said the Director of NLC Tenzin Namgay.
JICA will be supporting the implementation of the project through funding support and by providing experts to develop capacity of the Bhutanese officials.
Kinley Dem
