The future orientation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Africa : provisional document for review

Abstract

The Division of Information Systems for Development (DISD) wishes to raise the awareness of African governments on the importance of geographic information. The main technology for processing geographic data is the geographic information system (GIS). It is therefore pertinent to examine the future orientation of GIS in Africa. At the lowest level, GIS refers to the software packages for manipulating spatial data. At a medium level, it includes the data and information resources created with the hardware and software tools and which only the same tools can exploit. The rest of the world has moved beyond the resource level and emphasis is now on how to get spatial data into the wider community, using the technology as appropriate. This calls for a shift in emphasis from GIS and spatial data resources to spatial data infrastructures.