Island-Focused Mission: Institutional Development and Environmental Information
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Geographic Information Systems
Island Resources Foundation believes Geographic Information Systems are essential tools for the interpretation and display of environmental information necessary for planning and management of small tropical islands.
The Foundation supports the Caribbean Users Group --- since 1996.--- as a means to share information and ideas about GIS applications in the region. The Foundation is also continuing to explore possibilities for some kind of regional GIS or mapping facility to provide the necessary technical support, as discussed in the following concept paper for the Eastern Caribbean Mapping Cooperative.
This particular concept paper has been around since 1987.
ECMAP
The Eastern Caribbean Mapping Cooperative
The Eastern Caribbean (EC) experience in economic development, environmental protection, natural resources management, disaster recovery, hazards mitigation, and other resource-constrained activities, emphasizes the need for a systematic process for mapping the condition of the region's highly stressed resources. The costs of maintaining this capability on a national (or island-specific) basis are too great for most of the states and territories between Puerto Rico and Trinidad. There is a need and a market for mapping and geographic information system (GIS) services on a regional basis.
Development imperatives and resource constraints within the small island states of the Eastern Caribbean create difficult planning dilemmas which require strong mapping capabilities and geographically referenced databases. Some of these constraints include rugged topography, multiple natural hazards, problematic water resources, high population densities, land use conflicts, changing land forms, an historical pattern of dense settlements, the effects of global change (especially climate change) and the need to maintain a high quality environment to support increased tourism and an acceptable quality of life for local inhabitants.
GIS is an especially valuable technology for capturing and displaying large amounts of detailed information essential for informed development planning in the EC. Because of the limited land area and multiple user demands throughout the region, GIS is especially useful in highlighting and avoiding land use conflicts. GIS displays are also powerful public education tools, facilitating an understanding of alternative development costs and benefits and aiding the process of public decision making.
For the smaller states and territories of the lesser Antilles, few island governments can hope to support an automated mapping or GIS program on a long-term basis. The reason is NOT because of the direct cost of hardware, software, or staffing. It is because map production and GIS analysis demands are so small for any one island that technical staff cannot be occupied full-time and island governments can seldom afford to pay the salaries necessary to retain the skilled technicians who can operate GIS effectively.
These technologies are so complicated and difficult to manage effectively that unless the GIS specialist works with them all the time, skill levels become too low to be useful. Productivity stays low and the quality of products is so unreliable they cannot be applied confidently to critical decision making. The Eastern Caribbean Mapping Cooperative (ECMAP) is proposed as a non-profit, non-governmental digital mapping and GIS cooperative with membership open to any Eastern Caribbean island. ECMAP would operate in a "client-server" mode with national map and GIS users. As national users have needs for new maps or GIS coverage, they would purchase these products or services from the Cooperative, which would generate products in any required electronic or hard copy formats.
The most important uses of ECMAP products would be in desktop analytical systems (i.e., Mac- or PC-based) , such as Atlas GIS, MapInfo, or ArcView2. Using these or other GIS tools such as ArcInfo, ArcCAD, or AutoCAD, the national users could maintain local files, and correct and update the map data maintained by ECMAP. Designated agencies of island or national governments would retain control of official map databases. In other words, ECMAP would do the compute-intensive graphics and database management activities, and the island agencies would do the analysis, presentation preparation, editing, and quality control for their own data.
ECMAP would seek business from both commercial and public sector clients. In addition to current demands to support new developments, many standard map products for the Eastern Caribbean are seriously - one is tempted to say dangerously - out-of-date. ECMAP would be really efficient only if most of the island states in the EC could participate, since this would make technologies such as high-altitude aerial photos and detailed satellite imagery most cost-effective. In addition to its operational role in generating maps and GIS coverage, ECMAP would provide training in digital mapping and GIS applications for its members. Key strategic issues to be determined for ECMAP include institutional sponsorship, and potential sources of support for the organizational phases of the cooperative.
Island Resources Foundation is promoting this concept because of its importance for the natural resource management and environmental protection programs of IRF's clients in the Eastern Caribbean. As one of the region's longest operating environmental non-governmental organizations Island Resources would hope to have a role in the planning and design of the cooperative organization and as a client for ECMAP services. Island Resources Foundation takes pride in its extended history of successful institutional development activities in the Eastern Caribbean.
GIS Users Group
To sign on to the Caribbean GIS Users Groups mailing list, send a blank e-mail to <carib-gis-users-subscribe@yahoogroups.com>
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