International Tidbits
Bahrain’s Survey and Land Registration Bureau (SLRB) and Bahrain-based International Consortium (ICON) have agreed to make official Bahrain maps available to the public. The agreement is between the public and private organization and while maps may be available, there’s no indication that raw data will be.
The value of the geographic information industry is expected to reach 100 billion yuan (about 14.6 billion U.S. dollars) in China this year, per Cong Yuandong, secretary general of the China Association for Geographic Information System. The country has been encouraging students to study the technology since 1998; there are some 200 universities that offer GIS-related degrees.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) will have to delay calculating the property tax using GIS due to a delay in acquiring the required system, which I understand means the software. The system will use Quickbird images to accurately determine the building footprints, which it’s expected will lower taxes, especially for those in the suburbs.
- Zee News
The Boston Globe profiles Patrick Meieir (originally of Ivory Coast) and his school’s (Tufts University) efforts using Ushandi to help relief efforts in Haiti. One of the things I learned about the nearby school which is where my running club takes shelter for our winter workouts:
One reason for Ushahidi-Haiti’s success lies in the profile of the Fletcher School’s graduate students, who, with an average age of 28, already have an impressive range of global experience. Fletcher’s academic dean, Peter Uvin, said, “if you look at the crowd who took early leadership, they all have prior, relevant experience; Patrick had done early-warning work in the Horn of Africa for years. They don’t start from scratch.’
