Assessment Of Kenya's Readiness For Geospatial Data Infrastructure Take Off
GEOSPATIAL DATA SETS
Like many other developing countries that are striving to set up an NGDI, the Survey of Kenya, which is the national mapping authority in Kenya, is in the process of digitizing its fundamental data sets. These include topographic maps at scales of 1:50,000 which cover about 67% of the entire country, with the remaining northern and north-eastern parts of the country covered by a scale of 1:100,000 [12]. Besides metadata, three different categories of geospatial data types were identified in this study namely, foundation, framework, and application data sets. The parameters used to evaluate the suitability of these data sets as described in [13] include availability, accessibility, form, completeness, format, co-ordinate systems, source scale and positional accuracy. Figure 1 shows the percentage representation of the various institutions surveyed in this study.
Fig. 1: Percentage representation of institutions surveyed
Foundation data sets identified include geodetic control, Digital Elevation Models, orthoimagery, international and administrative boundaries, topographic maps, and gazetteers. Framework data sets include cadastral, transportation, land use/land cover, forests, soils, and hydrology. Application data sets cover such diverse themes as wildlife, meteorology, desertification, tsetse distribution, malaria distribution etc.
Different criteria were used to evaluate the above data sets. A data set was adjudged to be one of the following:
- Very suitable: if accessible, in digital form, catalogued, complete or nearing completion in coverage, in Arc Datum 1960.
- Suitable: if a data set is available (catalogued), in digital form and accessible.
- Unsuitable: if either not available, not in digital form or not accessible.
- Very unsuitable: if neither available, nor in digital form nor accessible.
Out of 115 data sets identified in the survey, 38% were categorized as foundation, 21% as framework and 41% as application. Considering only the foundation and framework data, since they exhibit higher re-use value than application data, there is almost an equal number of data sets that are suitable as those that are unsuitable. Table 1 shows that 52% of foundation data sets are suitable and 43% are unsuitable, while for framework data sets, 46% are suitable and 54% are unsuitable. No data set was determined to be very unsuitable.
Table 1. Summary of dataset suitability
In general, the above data sets are unrestricted and therefore readily accessible. Most of them are in digital form, except most foundation data sets. However, consistency of data sets across organizations needs to be established. Most data sets are not updated and therefore their currency can only be taken as the date when the data set was originally acquired or prepared.
STATUS OF GDI TECHNOLOGY IN KENYA
GDI technology or systems includes the associated hardware, software and networks. It also incorporates the Geospatial Data Services Centre (GDSC) or simply the clearing house and technical standards that make possible the discovery, evaluation, access and application of geospatial data. System parameters examined in this study comprise the operating system, GIS software, data interchange formats, database architecture, type of network traffic, data transfer rates, search and retrieve protocol and registration system of servers. The status of GDI technology with respect to the stated parameters is as follows:
Hardware
Although Kenya is a leader in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the East African region, the level of access to personal computers (PCs) is still very low with a ratio of 1PC available for every 2000 citizens [2]. The Computer Society of Kenya (CSK) avers that there are 45 different software houses in Kenya. Kenya also produces hardware generally through component assembly. Export production is done in the Export Processing Zones while other firms assemble computers that are sold in the local market.
Operating System
The operating system controls the execution of applications and acts as an interface between software and hardware. Ideally, geospatial applications should be able to run on any operating system platform as long as it can support input/output management distributed computing and computer security. However, different geospatial applications require specific operating systems, especially on the basis of portability. 91% of organizations in the survey undertaken use Windows, 11% employ UNIX and 9% use Macintosh. Therefore the use of Windows is clearly a defacto standard.
GIS Software
Different GIS software today characterize the GIS industry and have different functional capabilities. They also support different file formats. If different software have to be compatible, then proprietary file formats must be used outside their native systems or a given GIS software should support at least the common file transfer formats. Using object/component technology and well-defined standards is the only alternative to achieving interoperability in a distributed computing environment. Nevertheless, the organizations surveyed were found to mainly use one or more of the ESRI products ArcGIS, ArcInfo and ArcView.
Networks
Of the 283 global GSDC nodes, three are located in Kenya: United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD), which are however established on international mandates. The current telecommunication situation indicates that the network is about 95% automatic and the digitization process covers 54% of the exchange. Transmission lines are currently undergoing the same automation process. In addition, a major fiber optic network is proposed between all the major towns in Kenya within the framework of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). With a total of approximately 270,000 fixed telephone lines in Kenya, which works to about one telephone for every 100 people, Kenya is undoubtedly ahead of her neighboring countries.
According to industry statistics, the subscriber base for the mobile phone industry grew from 1.6 million to 2.52 million between the period June 2003 to June 2004. The mobile network is now seven times the size of the fixed line networks and is available in all the major towns and highways in the country. Although the growth of the mobile phone industry can be used as a reference for success of local ICT, fixed telecommunication services are supposed to be the bedrock of ICT development in any country. However, 65% of this network is resident in Nairobi and Mombasa [10]. According to the latest Internet usage statistics in Kenya there are about 400,000 users in Kenya. This represents an Internet penetration of 1.2% and 3.1% of the total number of users in Africa [5]. Furthermore, 95% of Internet users in Kenya are in urban areas.
STATUS OF GDI POLICY IN KENYA
The policy of geospatial information (GI) should guide the realization of GDI and therefore should be prepared prior to the establishment of GDI. The Government of Kenya (GoK) in its current national development plan 2002-2008 has incorporated in its policy paper on ICT an action plan to establish NGDI for efficient management of Geospatial information [11]. As discussed in [6], the policy of geoinformation should address among others the following basic issues: production, ownership, archiving and maintenance of fundamental data sets; standardization of data production, transfer and exchange of software and hardware. In addition, this should also consider provision, standardization and maintenance of metadata for every data holding; legal issues pertaining to ownership, intellectual property, confidentiality, privacy and liability; data access and security; modalities for the organizational arrangement of NGDI; funding; commercial aspects; capacity building and the promotion of synergy among GI related national and international bodies.
The current ICT draft apart from not being readily available to the general public is said to be lacking in many areas. Indeed, the government seems to have failed in addressing the ICT policy and strategy in a cohesive and comprehensive manner [8]. Other drawbacks noted include ill-coordination, non-inclusive, piecemeal introduction and hasty movement towards implementation of scattered and under-resourced ICT projects.
A comparison of Kenya’s policy situation with other countries like South Africa and Tanzania supports the observation that Kenya’s current policy lacks a single vision that is imperative in harmonizing the efforts of the public and private sectors, civil society entities and communities. It is also observed that some key issues including infrastructure development, human resource capacity building and dealing with the digital divide are poorly addressed and that the GoK has not paid sufficient consideration as to how ICT initiatives will be funded, let alone sustained over time.
STATUS OF GDI INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS IN KENYA
It has generally been acknowledged that some of the greatest challenges in the development of any information system or GDI, for that matter, have more of an institutional nature than technical [3], [16]. Therefore, the successful implementation of NGDI can only be realized if the proper institutional framework exists. Such a framework would serve as a rallying point for creating awareness and as a means for facilitation of NGDI. The Kenya NGDI secretariat was set up following the first workshop when GDI was introduced to different stakeholders. A typical 3-tier structure comprising of the executive committee, the steering committee and the Working Groups (WGs) was adopted [14]. The SoK was selected as the lead agency.
According to [7] the responsibilities of a lead agency include:
- Designing and implementing the GDI concept;
- Coordinating the development of standards and protocols;
- Building and sustaining core data sets and
- Providing online public access.
Hence, as a lead agency, the SoK is supposed to provide strategic vision and leadership in mainstreaming the GDI agenda in Kenya. However, it has been found out that there is no implementation strategy for GDI that is in place. This means that the efforts at NGDI development are essentially lacking the required focus. Though the official lists of institutions participating in NGDI does not exist, an analysis of the lists of attendance of institutions in the three NGDI workshops held so far (see Table 2), indicates that out of the 38 organizations that were represented in the first NGDI workshop, only 15 managed to attend the two successive workshops thereafter.
It can be observed from Table 2 that a large number of stakeholders participated in the first workshop. This could be attributed to the fact that this workshop took place immediately after the AfricaGIS conference that was held in Nairobi in 2001. In between the three NGDI workshops held thus far, there were two period gaps of about 5 months each. Since the third NGDI workshop, one could therefore have expected at least 4 more workshops to be held. However, only one workshop on Standards, sponsored by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has since been held. Lack of a clear NGDI implementation strategy, coupled with insufficient funding are the single most important factors responsible for inconsistency in holding the workshops.
Table 2. NGDI workshop attendance
GDI HUMAN RESOURCE CAPACITY IN KENYA
The NGDI structure adopted in Kenya has four Working Groups (WGs) namely: Standards, Education, Dissemination and Legal. During the third NGDI workshop, participants were asked to indicate which WG they could participate in. Out of 27 institutions represented, the Standards WG attracted 12 institutions, Education 7, Dissemination 4 while the Legal WG attracted only 2. Generally, the human resource required to efficiently run GDI in Kenya seems insufficient. This is because 86% of the institutions surveyed indicated that they required either more staff with geospatial expertise or more training for existing staff or both.
[4] identified three categories of specialized organization and process management skills required to facilitate the development and implementation of NGDI. These include geospatial information science and application development; computer science, telemetry and system development, and management and policy implementation. Individuals from these disciplines will often have general knowledge and skill without particular orientation to GDI. It is therefore necessary that the people to be engaged in GDI activities undergo some sort of professional training to be able to relate GDI with their basic knowledge and skills.
Indeed, no single group of graduates from the disciplines of computer science, geomatics, engineering, surveying engineering or surveying technology backgrounds has shown itself to be immediately productive on graduation and also adaptable within a changing market place [1]. More specialized training is certainly required, most probably at postgraduate level. Furthermore, GI professionals need to keep abreast with changing demands in industry by attending accredited short course programs conducted within the framework of continuous professional development (CPD).