Namibia Municipal GIS and other International GIS News

Namibia

Ephraim Katjatjena, the spokesperson of the Omururu Municipality, said the town recently launched its Geographical Information System (GIS) in conjunction with the Polytechnic of Namibia and the Tavastia Vocational Training College in Finland.  This places Omaruru in a leading role with regard to GIS, along with towns such as Windhoek, Rundu, Walvis Bay and Otjiwarongo.  

- New Era

Pakistan

Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has approved Pakistan Space Policy and it is likely to be presented in National Assembly for its consideration and approval soon, Chairman, Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Major General Ahmed Bilal informed business community on Thursday [Feb 9].

Space work has been slow going during the past 40 years, but some success with satellite imagery for agriculture is helping move initiatives forward.

- Business Recorder

Tunisia

At the first ever Geospatial Conference in Tunisia (GCT), held from February 9^th to 10^th, the consensus was loud and clear: Tunisia must revamp its cartography with the latest geospatial innovations if it wants to develop efficient industries and infrastructure projects across the country.

- Tunisia Live

Fiji

The Secretariat of the Pacific community (SPC) is working with the Fiji Department of Forestry to build capacity in using very high resolution satellite images to map land and forest cover in Fiji.

- Solomon Times

The Phillippines

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) today unveiled a new website - with maps!

Another important feature of the new website is the Mobile Mapping Service, a facility for viewing the locations of health facilities and provides a visualization of various corporate data using maps. Office Locations shows the locations of PhilHealth’s Regional and Branch offices. Once the link is clicked, the Google map of the Philippines will be displayed. Overlaid on the Google map are the locations of the Regional and Branch Offices shown using the PhilHealth logo as the symbol.

Under the Health Facilities Locations, the Google map will show by default all health facilities that are already mapped. This facility will enable the site visitor to see the location of a specific health facility on the Google map and its photograph. At the same time, the PhilHealth GIS Application System (PhilGIS) can show statistical data on accreditation, claims, collections, and membership data in map forms or statistical maps. These maps are shown by regions and by provinces. (PhilHealth)

- Phillippine Information Agency

Nepal’s Original Map and other International GIS News

Nepal

Issuing a directive, the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday asked the government to ensure that Nepali citizens have access to Nepal´s historical documents including its map, for purposes of research, viewing and reading, by setting up an entity like a museum.

The map and other documents have not been accessible to the public and this is an effort to change that. Reports suggest the actual map is in the U.S. Library of Congress.

- My Republica

Pakistan

UNESCO with the financial assistance of Japan is introducing the system to better predict flooding, using remote sensing, at a cost of 3.5 million dollars. It's expected to be up and running by 2013. The hope is the new system will be able to predict floods as early as 1 to 14 days before an event. There are no details as to what sort of remote sensing will be used.

- The News

Thailand

Esri Thailand expects a 50% increase in revenue this year based on selling GIS and services and Garmin GPS. Last year revenue was Bt1.2 billion (US 0.04 billion) and this year the expectation is BT2.0 billion (US 0.07 billion). Severy percent of the GPS devices were sold to women and the plan is to focus on "older and retired" people.

- GPS News citing Nation Multimedia