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

Open Data on Malta Coming and other International GIS News

A plane will be scanning the island to build a three-dimensional map that will allow the planning authority to monitor environmental changes over the years.

The photographic map will carry information such as on air and water quality and noise levels. All data will be available online for free, explained Saviour Formosa, who is heading an EU-funded environment project being carried out by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

I guess it's LiDAR + other sensors?

- Time of Malta

The Philippine government has made geo-hazard maps, which outline areas prone to natural disasters, publicly available in a bid to reduce vulnerability at community level. 

They are jpegs.

- IRIN Asia

February 1 is the cut-off for companies with onine mapping websites to have a license from the  State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. Google has applied for one, but does not yet have approval. That suggests its ok to keep running as is, but can't launch anything "new."

- China Daily

Google is guilty of abusing its dominant position with Google Maps per a court in France. It was ordered to pay  €500,000 in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a €15,000 euro fine against Bottin Cartographes. The company, until it was put out of business, offered online maps.

- GPS Biz News

Liberia’s Forest Dwellers Map Illegal Logging and other International GIS News

Liberia

The Liberian press reports on the county's Forestry Development Authority (FDA) effort to curb illegal loggnig. Green Advocates International is leading the project with funding from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Green Advocates International would mobilize semi-illiterate local forest communities to use GIS-GPS community mapping tools in implementing the project. The project builds on more than five years of work by Green Advocates International in empowering local communities in the country with the appropriate tools, technology, knowledge, skills and expertise to help communities protect their rights and resources.

The group Lead Campaigner Cllr. Alfred Brownell said that local communities would be trained to gather and record Global Position System (GPS) reference information using touch screen Hand Held Computers (HHC) relating to illegal logging. Speaking at the launch of the program on Saturday, October 1, 2011 in Yarkpa Town, Rivercess County, Cllr. Brownell disclosed that the GPS reference data would be use to produce a map of the illegal logging activities and reference areas.

- All Africa

The Philippines

Google formally announced today the launching of Google Maps Philippines – a search platform that provides Filipinos local geographic information such as online maps, satellite imagery, addresses and businesses listings – on their PCs and mobile phones.

Predicting Dengue Fever and other Health GIS News

The Phillippines

With the country in the grips of dengue fever, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the state weather bureau have launched a study that will enable health authorities to predict dengue outbreaks in the future.

The idea is to look back and see if there correlations between weather, rainfall and temperature and outbreaks of dengue and malaria.

- GMA News]

Australia

Researchers are attaching GPS tracking devices to flying foxes in south-east Queensland to learn more about hendra virus. The virus transmitted from bat to horse has killed a number of horses and researchers hope to learn more about the risk factors by tracking the bats.

- ABC News

Canada

In the fall, researchers at the University of Western Ontario will resume a study in which they plant global positioning systems on elementary school children in London, Ont., in an effort to understand how their environment influences their activity levels.

The study, which is in its first phases, is the largest of its kind in Canada and will explore factors at school and in the surrounding community. The goal is to help researchers understand how playsets can be intimidating, why some kids who live only a kilometre away get a ride to school every day and how to make changes that encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Research to date suggests that just having "play areas" or what we called "equipment" may not be enough to get kids moving. More subtle things might.

GPS data have helped researchers discover that some kids won’t use the jungle gym because the older kids are monopolizing it, and that tree-lined streets make a child more likely to walk to school because they feel more shielded from traffic.

- Globe and Mail

Aussie PM Needs Better Maps and other International GIS News

Australia

Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard committed her shoe leather to the issue of climate change but would have been far better to have spent some money on maps and people who can read them.

The local paper suggests a meeting on climate change was poorly attended because local residents did not get an invitation due to poor use of maps.

- Mirimbula Weekly News

Outside the U.S.

US AID is planning its own Geospatial Intelligence Center. 

The GeoCenter's goal will be to collect best practices from those missions and try to establish common data standards among both different missions and between USAID and other aid organizations working in a single country or region so data can be more easily shared. The group also plans to standardize, as much as possible, the metadata different missions and agencies use, said Carrie Stokes, another GeoCenter organizer, so different groups can confidently use the same maps and datasets without duplicating work.

- NextGov

The Phillipines

Don’t rebuild communities in areas where landslides had occurred.

 

This advice comes from Dr. Beatriz Cuevas-Jadina of the Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay City, Leyte, who has been studying high-risk landslide areas in Leyte.

 

The VSU scientist made these recommendations based on her study entitled “GIS-Aided Bio-physical Characterization and Assessment of a Landscape in Relation to Landslide Occurrences.” GIS stands for geographic information.

I hope officials listen!

- The Phillipine Star