Realizing benefits of Spatial Data Infrastructure Kumar.pdfAnil Kumar Director, Environment Information Management 26 April 2012 Geospatial World Forum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Anil Kumar

Director, Environment Information Management

26 April 2012

Geospatial World Forum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Realizing benefits of Spatial Data Infrastructure A user’s perspective from Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi

PAGE 2 ENVIRONMENT AGENCY – ABU DHABI

Agenda Where is Abu Dhabi?

Introduction to Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD)

What does EAD do?

Geospatial initiatives – a quick glimpse

Evolution of AD – SDI

AD – SDI Benefits/Advantages

What Should SDI do?

Conclusion


Introduction • Governmental agency

• Established in 1996 (Law No. 4) as ERWDA

• Designated Competent Authority in 2000

– Charged with implementing Environmental laws

• Overall function of

– Protection, Conservation & Management

– Promote sustainable development

– Assist the AD Govt in implementing environmental

laws, policies and regulations


Preserve our

Natural Heritage

Protecting our

future

Educate and raise awareness

Our key roles:

• Preserve our Natural Heritage

• Protect our future

• Educate & raise awareness

Our priorities:

• To develop and implement an effective environmental

regulatory & policy framework for Abu Dhabi

• To conserve groundwater through integrated water

resources management

• To conserve and protect biodiversity

• To ensure our air is clean and minimize climate change & its

impacts

• To promote sustainable communities and engaged

stakeholders

• To continually improve the way we work

What do we do?


Geospatial Initiatives Protected Area Delineation

Coastal Sensitivity & Vulnerability

Groundwater Studies

Soils Survey

Wildlife Conservation


Geospatial Initiatives

Environmental Baseline Database Imagery Database

Air Quality Monitoring Climate Change Studies

Geospatial Analysis

Mobile Solutions


EAD Geospatial Portal


• Rapid growth and development

• Socio economic changes

• Increase in awareness of local & global

environmental issues

• National, Regional, International obligations

• Environment 2030, State of Environment

reporting, EPI, Ecological Footprint, etc…

• Information requests from leadership,

stakeholders, etc.

Need for Information

……requires comprehensive, accurate, timely and relevant

data & information…….


AD-SDI Evolution • EAD assigned “Competent Authority” Status in 2000

• Comprehensive review of data & information

requirements

• Major data elements held by other organizations

• Conceived Abu Dhabi Environmental Database (AD –

EDB)

• AD – EDB leading towards SDI

• ADSIC launched AD – SDI together with EAD & seven

other entities in 2007


GIS

Spatial

Data +

Base Map

Data

ba

se

Ap

plic

atio

n

GIS

Spatial

Data +

Base Map

Data

ba

se

Ap

plic

atio

n GIS

Spatial

Data +

Base Map

Data

ba

se

Ap

plic

atio

n

GIS

Spatial Data

+

Base Map

Data

ba

se

Ap

plic

atio

n GIS

Spatial Data

+

Base Map

Data

ba

se

Ap

plic

atio

n

Entity’s Geospatial Data & Applications

Utilities

Municipal

Natural Resources

Economy

Urban Planning

Infrastructure

Safety & Security

Others

AD-SDI Central Node Geospatial Data & Applications

Internet

GIS

Spati

al

Data

Data

ba

se

A

pp

lica

tion

GIS

Spati

al

Data

Data

ba

se

A

pp

lica

tion

GIS

Spati

al

Data

Data

ba

se

A

pp

lica

tion

GIS

Spatial

Data

Data

ba

se

A

pp

lica

tion

GeoPortal

SD Thematic

Layers + Data

Common

Base Map

Data

ba

ses

A

pp

licatio

n

Metadata

Catalog

Private

Sector

Academia

General

Public

Before 2007 Current Status

Utilities

Municipal

Natural Resources

Economy

Urban Planning

Infrastructure

Safety & Security

Others

SDC

AD-SDI Evolution


Operations

Planning & Analysis Decision Support

AD-SDI program supports inter-government and multi-stakeholder collaboration for better planning, analysis and decision making…

Information Sources

Inter-Government Collaboration

Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration


Enterprise

Info

Solutions

Enterprise

Info

Solutions

Enterprise

Info

Solutions

Enterprise

Info

Solutions

Enterprise

Info

Solutions

Enterprise

Info

Solutions

Enterprise

Info

Solutions

Decision

Making

Analysis

Advisory

Operations Strategic

Plan

Strategic

Plan

Strategic

Plan

Strategic

Plan

Strategic

Plan

Strategic

Plan

Strategic

Plan

KPI’s KPI’s KPI’s KPI’s KPI’s KPI’s KPI’s

Entity 1 Entity 2 Entity 3 Entity 4 Entity 5 Entity 6 Entity 7

Interdepartmental analysis and coordination

Interdisciplinary Technical Analysis, Planning, Coordination and Performance

Management

Whole Government

Economic

Social Environment &

Infrastructure

Executive

Council

Strategy and Policy Unit


Municipal

Transportation

Community Facilities

Planning

Infrastructure & Utilities

Geo

sp

atia

l Ap

plic

atio

n

جيومكانيةت ال

طبيقا الت

FG

DS

Data

Inp

ut

AD-SDI Clearinghouse

• A repository and

archive of current

and historic data

• A source for

mapping services

to support decision

making

• A platform for

spatially enabled

e-government

services

Environment

Community

Facilities

Municipal

Planning

Transportation

Utilities

An inventory of fundamental geographic data sets, being developed continuously, acts as a main source of geospatial information feeding multiple sectors…


AD-SDI Geospatial Portal


8 Entities

100 Layers

36 governmental and semi-governmental Entities, with a limited number of academic and private Entities

250 Layers

51 Governmental & semi-governmental Entities, with increased participation of academic and private sectors, as well as partnerships with international organizations

400 Layers

2007

2008

2009

2010 2011

Evolution of the AD-SDI Community


• Instigate Geospatial thinking among the leadership

• Facilitates geospatial data sharing

– Acts as a data broker

License Agreements

– Fundamental Geospatial Data Sets (FGDS)

• SDI Standards

– Technology, Data & Services

• Software licensing policy (Abu Dhabi)

• Spatially enabling eServices

• Unified spatial reference system

• Provision of geospatial data services

– Enabling entities to create portals

AD-SDI Benefits


AD-SDI Benefits • GeoMaturity Assessment

– Create a geomature society

• Assists agencies (in need) with GIS

implementation

• Data acquisition and project/program

alignment

• Communications

– Coordinators

– Regular meetings (Stakeholders)

– Technical Committee, Working Groups,

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

– Focus on community

– GIS User Conference/GIS Day

– Publication (newsletter “Coordinates”)


What should SDI do? Focus on Solutions

• Primarily SDI is all about making data or services accessible

and available

• Contribution to decision making is rarely assessed

• Generic data quality – one size fits all?

• True value realized only when solutions found for global &

local challenges

• Global environmental challenges such as Climate Change,

Water scarcity, land degradation, biodiversity loss, etc.

• Local challenges manifestations of Global Challenges

• Need to come up with solutions in a proactive manner

• “leverage the power of our collective intelligence”

• “Empowering a billion+ geospatially”


What should SDI do? Real Time Data

• We need real time understanding to make better informed decisions

• Real time data “transformed into information and knowledge leading

to understanding”

• “Rear view mirror driving” or “Bowling in the dark”

• Take real time data and feed it back with minimal turn around time.

• GEO/GEOSS, UNEP Live, Eye on Earth Network, etc.

• Prerequisites

• Ability to collect, manage and process real time data

• Have the right capacity – “good % of decision makers are still

not aware that the Geospatial community exist”

• Most leading GIS software have limited capability to process

large real time datasets & make sense out of it


Conclusion • SDIs have played a major role in making data available

• Many interesting initiatives already in place

• NSDIs, UN SDI, GSDI, etc.

• Build on the solid foundation created

• Focus needs to shift to utilization for making informed

decisions – “creating a better world”

• Real time monitoring and ability to quickly turnaround the

findings in making decisions

• Public Private partnership is essential for addressing the

global challenges.

• Government needs to provide authoritative data

• Let us “leverage our collective intelligence” and “empower a

billion+ spatially”

www.ead.ae

www.geoportal.ae

sdi.abudhabi.ae

geoportal.abudhabi.ae

Our site links :

Thank you all for listening !!!

Documents

Realizing benefits of Spatial Data Infrastructure Kumar.pdfAnil Kumar Director, Environment Information Management 26 April 2012 Geospatial World Forum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands