APPENDIX 68
Memorandum from Robert P Mahoney and Robin
S Waters
We take it for granted that we can accurately and
unambiguously describe our neighbourhood, our towns and our country.
We can use this to define who owns what and where our boundaries
lie. It is almost impossible to imagine life without being able
to do this. It underpins all aspects of the functioning of a modem
economy and society. We do this using maps that are accurate and
that are kept up to date.Yet, it is not something that can be
taken for granted across the world. While huge amounts of aid
are lavished on major development projects, the RICS Geomatics
Faculty and the RICS Foundation were concerned that little attention
was being given to the mapping needs of developing countries.
The research paper entitled "Getting it together—the
geography jigsaw" was commissioned by RICS to look at: "improving
our understanding of the processes and procedures available for
the support of mapping infrastructure in developing and transitional
economies". This paper sets out to illustrate some of the
areas covered by the research. SUSTAINABLE
GEOMATICS? This research was prompted
by requests from RICS members in many parts of the world for help
with understanding the current environment in which "mapping"
needs to be provided. This is very different from the situation
of 20 years ago when large bilateral aid packages were churning
out maps for the developing world albeit often prompted in both
East and West by "cold war" considerations.Today we
have dramatic improvements in the quantity of raw data available
from aerial and satellite remote sensing as well as much more
sophisticated methods for handling this raw data and interpreting
it for a wide variety of end users. But if you ask for an up to
date map of a Caribbean island or of an African city you may get
a tourist map (if it is a tourist area) and, if you know where
to go, you may get an aerial photo mosaic or a satellite image.
But ask for a map with settlement names, road numbers and a consistent
interpretation of ground features for administration purposes
and you will most likely get, at best, a 20 year old map with
no updates and with a grid that is incompatible with modern GPS
equipment.There are many people and organisations that will buy
the aerial and satellite imagery, analyse it for their own specific
purposes and throw it away. This applies to exploration companies,
aid agencies and the military. Around them will be a local civil
administration that cannot afford the imagery, has no facility
to interpret it but would probably love to have a hard copy of
what the others have put in the bin.Was all that money spent on
mapping in the post war years completely wasted? Or was it necessary
at the time—before satellites—and is no longer required
by anyone? Or are we now wasting a lot of money on duplicating
the general interpretation of imagery in specialist organisations
instead of having a general purpose map (or SDI) available for
everyone at a reasonable cost? Expressed in those terms this research
may be considered relevant to the developed world as well. We
are constantly arguing about who should pay and about the role
of the private sector.? It could be argued, for example, that
the developed world (or that part which has well maintained mapping)
has merely delayed the advent of the same problem. Right now we
see that the agricultural programmes are beginning to move towards
high resolution imagery as well as (or instead of?) large scale
maps or vector data.The researchers looked at the different parties
involved with the production and use of "mapping infrastucture"—national
mapping agencies, funding agencies, contractors and consultants.
The main conclusions reached will come as no surprise to this
audience: —The need to increase awareness of the cross-disciplinary
benefits of mapping/SDI to governments and funding agencies; —The
need effectively to present mapping/SDI benefits to other disciplines; —The
need to identify gaps in support offerings—particularly
with regard to the specification of useful cross disciplinary
programmes and products; —The demand for "coaching"
(not just training) of local professionals and departments in
cost effective methodologies and procurement processes; and —The
need to spread best practice—particularly from similar scenarios. Recently
one of the authors has been working in the Caribbean where an
island requires a revaluation of all of its land and property
for taxation purposes. At present the Valuation List has developed
property (buildings) shown as labelled symbols on 20 year old
large scale paper maps. Properties constructed since the 1980's
have been approximately located on the map by valuers unskilled
in land surveying and not equipped with GPS or aerial photos.
The net result is that we have found 15% to 20% of properties
missing, and a significant proportion of the rest tens of metres
out of position. Some of the missing buildings are worth hundreds
of thousands of dollars and many of the wrongly located buildings
are small and very close together. It is therefore evident that
the lack of up to date mapping or imagery available to the Valuation
Department is a severe handicap, is devastating for staff morale
and is preventing the government from fairly collecting a basic
tax.We also noted that all of the utilities and government departments
are in the same position. Only the telecommunications company
(privately owned and arguably on the basis of monopoly profits)
had implemented a GIS—using scanned versions of the 20 year
old maps but with new buildings entered and with pop up photos
when a subscriber number is entered. The Lands & Surveys Department
is under-staffed and under-resourced, it just keeps up with its
primary function of conducting and checking land surveys for conveyancing.
It has not been able to revise the basic 1:2,500 topographic maps
since they were made. The Planning Department has had a set of
1:10,000 photography for the last three years which were unknown
or unavailable to any other departments. There are no street addresses
on the island and there is no Land Register.However it is believed
that there is money available from at least one multilateral agency
to fund mapping and SDI. But there appears to be a lack of political
will to do anything about the situation. Unless this high level
backing is forthcoming the result will be piecemeal development
of unstructured and incompatible datasets with either hidden inefficiencies
in many organisations or considerable waste of resources with
duplication of effort.The need is for mapping and GI professionals
to be able to understand their customers needs and to deliver
solutions which are cost effective and make sensible use of new
technologies where relevant is paramount. And current imagery
and field data collection tools are making it much easier to demonstrate
the benefits of new technology in ways which have been difficult
with the previous generation of digital mapping systems and expensive
GPS equipment.We presented the preliminary results of this research
to a multi-disciplinary audience at the Global Alliance for Building
Sustainability in Johannesburg last year. That audience of planners,
architects, engineers and other property professionals were able
immediately to see some of the benefits of a co-ordinated SDI
policy. The final Johannesburg conference resolutions contain
many fine words, including some directly alluding to mapping infrastructure.
They need to be followed up with well directed actions to which
we can all contribute.January 2004
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