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Benefits and bottlenecks of SDI development in Egypt

BOTTLENECKS FOR ESTABLISHING A SDI Besides the benefits of a SDI for Egypt, the respondents were asked to indicate also the bottlenecks for establishing a SDI. These results are presented in Figure 3. Poor of partnerships and cooperation are considered to be the biggest problems (19%). Many organizations fear that they will lose their autonomy when participating in a SDI. There is limited cooperation between the different organizations. Most of the data are used for purposes of their own sectors.

The systems are independent from each other. "There is a difficulty to bring the stakeholders together to discuss the way forward" (Omran, 2005). The second biggest bottleneck is the absence of clear institutional framework for development of a SDI (17%). This institutional framework consists of a coordinating body, data producing organizations, user groups, etc.

The third mentioned bottleneck is the lack of data and metadata (15%). Due to the lack of metadata it is difficult for potential users to know if data exist or not. And if the data exit it is difficult to evaluate its fitness for use, due to a lack of a proper metadata description. Overall there is also a lack of spatial data; especially actual data for large parts of the country is a problem.

As a fourth bottleneck the lack of a proper access mechanism is mentioned (11%) together with the absence of political support (11%).

If we reflect on the SDI components mentioned before, we see that in Egypt the dominant bottlenecks are people and policy related, followed by data and finally access problems. This sequence is often observed in other countries (Crompvoets et al., 2004). The technology is not really a problem any more for establishing a SDI and if there is data available, the major bottlenecks are organizational and policy related. Egypt is not an exception in this.

The respondents have clearly indicated the benefits and bottlenecks. It is now time to look at potential solutions for the identified problems.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
The solutions are formulated in the form of critical success factors. These factors are formulated on basis of the observed bottlenecks in the questionnaire and the in-depth interviews. The following ones are formulated:

• Foster partnerships and leadership: Cooperation and coordination are essential for the development of the SDI. Data sharing and exchange can efficiently take place only when concerned organizations accept to cooperate. Establishing strong partnership among different organizations is essential.
• Establish institutional and policy framework: Policy, copyright, licensing and other rights to the use of data and information must be addressed to ensure the appropriate data is accessible to all.
• Make data and metadata available and accessible: Data are usually the largest part of any SDI implementation. The essence of SDI to make data and metadata available and accessible.
• Create political support: Experien-ces abroad have demonstrated that SDI initiative cannot be successful without support from the highest National level. Therefore it is important to involve organizations and persons with decision power and credibility.
• Funding support: For the success of SDI, sufficient funds must be made available. SDI requires additional amount of money both for its implementation and for its maintenance.
• Capacity building: The lack of staff with the necessary geographic information management skills is a big problem in Egypt. Capacity building initiatives need to be developed in parallel to the processes of SDI implementation.
• Use standards: Standardization is one of the most important components of the SDI. There should be standards for the data exchange, meta-data, services, etc. It is recommended to use the existing international standards.
• Promote access mechanism: The access network is a critical SDI component to facilitate the use and sharing of data by people.

CONCLUSIONS

SDI in Egypt is still immature with many bottlenecks yet to be resolved, such as poor of partnerships, lack of digital data and metadata availability, dearth of clear institutional framework, absence of an access and sharing mechanism to search desired data, and lack of national standards. These drawbacks will demand a lot of effort and requires coordination from different organizations to solve them. Many problems have been identified and the different organizations involved to solve these problems will face a heavy task.

At this moment the demands for a SDI are very high to keep up with the development of modern technology. The assessment made for the current condition promise that: duplication of work goes down, collaboration and coordination between organizations are improved, government resources are used more effective, and finally decision-making is more improved.

The main factors which have a positive impact on the SDI development are: foster partnerships and leadership establish of institutional framework, make data and metadata available and accessible, create political support, available funding support, build capacity building, use same standards, and promote access mechanism. The SDI opportunities, bottlenecks and solutions identified for Egypt are not unique. Many countries in world are facing the similar issues in their SDI-development. It is interesting to see that the institutional and policy issues are now becoming more and more the bottleneck for further advancement of SDI. Policy makers should take the lead in solving these issues.

References

1. ANZLIC, 1996. ANZLIC Guidelines: Core Metadata Elements Version 1. Policy document of ANZLIC Working Group on Metadata.
2. Crompvoets, J., and Bregt A., 2003. World Status of National Spatial Data Clearinghouses. URISA Journal. Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, Vol 15, No. 2.
3. Crompvoets, J., Bregt A., Rajabifard A., and Williamson I., 2004. Assessing the worldwide development of national spatial data clearinghouse. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 18:7, pp. 665-689.
4. Omran, E. El., 2005. Spatial Data Infrastructure to Support Land Evaluation Applications in Egypt. M.Sc. Thesis Report GIRS-2005-016, Wageningen Univ., Centre for Geo-Information, The Netherlands.
5. Rajabifard, A., and Williamson I. P., 2004. Regional SDI Development - A Fundamental Framework. Journal of Geospatial Today, Vol. 2, Issue 5, India.
6. Rajabifard, A., Feeney M. E., and Williamson I. P., 2002. Future directions for SDI development. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 4, 11-22.