Dominica moves to improve its data collection capability
Dominica News Online - Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 at 4:10 PM
Dominica is positioning itself to better deal with the problems being faced in data collection.
Individuals from the public and private sectors in Dominica are currently participating in a consultation on Geospatial Data Management.
The initiative is a joint one between the government of Dominica and the World Bank.
Speaking at the consultation, Minister responsible for Physical Planning, Dr. Kenneth Darroux, identified insufficient collaboration and data sharing as Dominica’s shortcomings in that area.
He says the lack of data policies is one of the fundamental reasons for this.
“This situation has hindered the growth and development of a vibrant Geospatial data base community in Dominica. Other issues would include a lack of awareness among departments and agencies, duplication of data collection efforts and non development of some critical data bases,” he said.
Darroux said the consultation is very timely and paves the way for improving the country’s date base collection.
Meantime Darroux says that having been involved in geospatial data collection since the mid 1990’s, Dominica is now ready to join the rest of the international community to pursue a more strategic approach to disaster risk management and planning.
He says geospatial data, is critical for informed decision making on climate resilience and reducing risks to the adverse effects of climate change.
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9 Comments
finally!
I hope an open source solution is being used; based on non licensed technologies.
we wish!
i know right!!!
Yes, it will be Open Source based solution on GeoNode Platform.
I read a lot of words yet I know no more than the little I knew before.
let us not forget proper – if not augmented – data/information for social and economic purposes. The primary data relating to these will facilitate our position in dealing more effectively with climatic changes.
Thanks for the information Webbie, but permit me an observation: One does not have to be absolute idiot to not know what geospatial means. According to dictionary.com,
geospatial
— adj
of or relating to the relative position of things on the earth’s surface.
In addition to that I always get nervous when governments begin collecting information. The more information a government obtains the more power it has over it’s people and the less free the people are. In this case it is only “geospatial” information, but Dominicans should always be vigilant and not allow any government, red blue or green to seduce us into giving them power over us. These days a lot of that seduction is taking place in the name of new technology.
you do accept that proper statistics are needed, don’t you? with good well ordered data we are better able to make informed decisions as it relates to public policy, financial resources, and the identification of areas of most need. so this paranoid conspiratorial nonsense about governemnt having power over us, put it away. we must move away from governing based on feeling and who can make the most noise and move to one where we have records to drive the decision making process and more importantly justify it rather than rationalise it.
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