National Spatial Data Infrastructure Building Blocks: The Status Quo in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, geospatial data silos are common due to the absence of a proactive and collaborative geospatial sharing platform. A national sharing platform, Ethiopian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (ENSDI), is in its pre-implementation phase. It is now of crucial concern to identify and prioritize areas of investment. However, we lack information on what is already available and where, and what is still required to deliver ENSDI building blocks. The purpose of this work is to assess status quo of these building blocks. 110 organizations were addressed based on a sampling procedure that is free of personal bias. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, on-site inspections, and a review of secondary sources. The analysis revealed that many national geospatial information and other enabling policies, laws and strategies are already available. Although they do incorporate the value of sharing and accessing information, it appears that they lack details regarding interoperability, inclusiveness, and implementation. This work reveals complex institutional challenges that require better definitions of roles and responsibilities in order to overcome existing overlaps of mandates; and improved coordination of efforts with the geospatial industry. Furthermore, most legacy data sets are available in digital form, but they are neither ready to be shared on the Web nor accessible for the wider Geographic Information Systems (GIS) community. This is largely due to the absence of standardization, negligence of metadata, extended use of proprietary software, absence of clear data models and definitions, and poor (file based) data organization. The absence of Internet connectivity or low band width remains a fundamental obstacle for any web-based sharing of geospatial data. We also identify a lack of expertise in spatial data management, processing and programming. GIS and Remote Sensing specialist remain hard to find. Last but not least, this study recommends further study on data quality and data management issues

Geospatial Data Sharing Barriers across Organisations and the Possible Solution for Ethiopia

Geospatial data sharing across organisations is a well-recognized challenge with multiple facets. Due to the absence of appropriate space for the sharing of and access to geospatial assets, these often remain scattered and locked within various economic sectors of Ethiopia; this means that datasets are not maintained or updated regularly, efforts are duplicated, finding available datasets is difficult and there is no single reliable version of the data. Exploitation of the full socio-economic benefits of using geospatial information is therefore impossible. This paper therefore aims to assess inter-organisational geospatial data-sharing challenges and the possible solutions within Ethiopia. A lack of coordination between organisations, poor data quality and compatibility, institutional, legal, policy, and technological issues are identified as major challenges. Ethiopian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (ENSDI), which has already been introduced, should be further promoted as the collaborative entity for effective cross-sectoral geospatial data sharing. A national strategy to hand over informal SDI initiatives, building on existing efforts, setting clear (top-down) ENSDI development approaches and collaborative investments in the building blocks of ENSDI are suggested to enable the successful execution of ENSDI as a cross-sectoral geospatial data-sharing mechanism

Soil loss estimation using GIS and Remote sensing techniques: A case of Koga watershed, Northwestern Ethiopia

AbstractSoil loss by runoff is a severe and continuous ecological problem in Koga watershed. Deforestation, improper cultivation and uncontrolled grazing have resulted in accelerated soil erosion. Information on soil loss is essential to support agricultural productivity and natural resource management. Thus, this study was aimed to estimate and map the mean annual soil loss by using GIS and Remote sensing techniques. The soil loss was estimated by using Revised Universal Soil Equation (RUSLE) model. Topographic map of 1:50,000 scale, Aster Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of 20m spatial resolution, digital soil map of 1:250,000 scale, thirteen years rainfall records of four stations, and land sat imagery (TM) with spatial resolution of 30m was used to derive RUSLE's soil loss variables. The RUSLE parameters were analyzed and integrated using raster calculator in the geo-processing tools in ArcGIS 10.1 environment to estimate and map the annual soil loss of the study area. The result revealed that the annual soil loss of the watershed extends from none in the lower and middle part of the watershed to 265tha−1year−1 in the steeper slope part of the watershed with a mean annual soil loss of 47t ha−1year−1. The total annual soil loss in the watershed was 255283t, of these, 181801 (71%) tones cover about 6691 (24%) hectare of land. Most of these soil erosion affected areas are spatially situated in the upper steepest slope part (inlet) of the watershed. These are areas where Nitosols and Alisols with higher soil erodibility character (0.25) values are dominant. Hence, Slope gradient and length followed by soil erodibility factors were found to be the main factors of soil erosion. Thus, sustainable soil and water conservation practices should be adopted in steepest upper part of the study area by respecting and recognizing watershed logic, people and watershed potentials