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Report on coastal environmental data in Tanzania – towards a NDSI in Tanzania

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Study of coastal and marine datasets in Tanzania

Front page of the study of coastal and marine data sets in Tanzania

A report on coastal and marine environmental data in Tanzania has been published. The work was done by COWI Tanzania. This article gives a general overview of the inherent challenges in environmental data management as well as an overview of the report.

Environmental data management is a crucial part of any decision making related to the local, regional, national and global aspects of the environment. Good quality, up-to-date, accessible and relevant information is the foundation of good decision making in governments. Likewise, emergency response systems rely on sound information about sensitive areas and resources.

Since my first professional meeting with the management of spatial data in Tanzania back in 2004 I have struggled with issues related to collection, storage and dissemination of environmental information. As a GIS professional one soon discovers that the path towards a good spatial data infrastructure for environmental information is complicated by access to resources, thematic knowledge, economy, legal issues and the will to make data available. Tanzania is no exception – and it is not the only country with these challenges.

Earlier this year COWI Tanzania was contacted to undertake a “Study of coastal and marine datasets in Tanzania”. The background for the study was that many government offices, organizations and companies in Tanzania struggle with the different aspects of collecting, storing and disseminating their own information. I am happy to have been part of principal contact persons for this project on behalf of NEMC and NEA. The work done by COWI is solid and comprehensive.

Scope and definitions decided used in this report:

  • The geographical scope covers districts in Tanzania with a coastline, the coastline itself and coastal and marine areas.
  • Stakeholders are governmental agencies, research institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and others. A shortlist of institutions, based on the EIN workshop in October 2014 is provided, which does not limit the scope, but serves as a point of departure for the study.
  • Key informants are persons working in the institutions identified or related to the operations of such institutions.
  • Environmental data/information in this respect include spatial data files, reports containing tables and maps, Excel sheets, data collection methods description, etc. It is not restricted to ecological/biological data, but can also be other relevant baseline data (e.g. infrastructural, bathymetrical, meteorological and socio-economic data, etc.).
  • Spatial data can be understood as data that indicates geographic information related to features and boundaries on Earth, such as natural or constructed features, oceans, or similar.
  • Metadata is information that describes key characteristics of some original data, e.g. its content, conditions or locations.
  • Spatial Data Infrastructure is understood as a system for indexing data through metadata that enables users to describe or understand the scope, type or relevance of the original data.

The deliverables requested and delivered from the assignment includes:

  • A list of all visited and all contacted stakeholders;
  • A list of existing coastal and marine data, gaps in this data and data gathering projects;
  • Information about the datasets or documents, with a special focus on coastline and mangrove datasets, documented in an Excel sheet designed by the Consultant in collaboration with NEA. The information includes geographical extent, categories, custodians and owners;
  • Where possible, additional information about source for data and a brief note about
    accessibility;
  • A description of metadata attributes according to the provided category system and, where possible, ISO/TC 211 and ISO 19115 2003;
  • Indication of the stakeholder willingness and ability to contribute to a collaboration under the Environmental Information Network with their data;
  • An overview of current developments/status related to a national spatial data infrastructure in Tanzania;
  • Suggestions for further work; and
  • A presentation at a marine data workshop,

The  report has now been published and is available for download here in both pdf- and word-format:

[wpfilebase tag=list id=27 pagenav=1 /]

At the Environmental Data Management workshop held by National Environment Management Council (NEMC) in October 2014, the stakeholders present concluded that the establishment of an Environmental Information Network (EIN) headed by NEMC and supported by the stakeholders represents a rational way forward. NEMC’s workshop in October 2014 and associated processes were funded by the Norwegian government through the Oil for Development Program (OfD) coordinated by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). The above report is part of bringing a national coordinated effort forward.

Open Streetmap coverage and mapping north of Marendego, Tanzania

Open Street Map mangrove mapping in process north of Marendego, Tanzania

I have earlier written a blog post about Geoinformation Policy in Tanzania. Together with the authors of this report we will present this work as well as an evaluation of the environmental spatial data infrastructure in Tanzania at the TAWIRI conference early in December 2015.

Geoinformation Policy in East Africa (paper review)

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paper_review_generalFor many of us Spatial Data Infrastructures represent the roads we are using in our work. What is the current standing on Spatial data Infrastructure in East Africa? Mr William Kalande and Mr. Ondulo Joe-Duncan in 2006 presented a paper with the title “Geoinformation Policy in East Africa” at the XXIII FIG Congress held in Munich, Germany in October 8-13 2006. In this article they give us a walk trough of the issues regarding geoinformation and policy/legislation in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. The paper is well worth reading. This web-article presents some highlights from the paper for your convenience.

In the summary of their article Kalande and Ondulo have this to say:

Triggered by global trends, economic and political reasons, the republics of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda signed the East African Cooperation treaty in 1999 thus bringing the East African Community into being. This has led to considerable increase in demand for cross border Geoinformation (GI) exchange in the regional block.

Infrastructure (Railway and road network, airports and coastal ports), Natural resources (Lake Victoria, tourists sites), telecommunication (common mobile providers and subscribers), Institutions (hospitals, banks, schools and colleges) just to mention a few, are now legally and commonly shared by the citizens of the 3 member states.

Coping with this increased demand for cross border geoinformation amid the numerous challenges in the effective generation, management and use of GI in decision making in the region dictates that GI policies for the candidate member countries be harmonized to agreed standards before integration. Questions then arise; do these countries on individual basis have Geoinformation policy in place? Where not in existence, what efforts are being made and at what level? Are there any efforts in coming up with a regional policy? The paper highlights the current status of GI policy in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the efforts and possibilities in coming up with a regional GI policy.

The following table provides an overview of the central findings in the paper.

kalande_2006

Table from Kalande & Undolu (2006) showing central findings.

According to Kalande & Ondulo the story on an SDI in Tanzania is that the Tanzania National Spatial Data Infrastructure steering committee at time of publishing the article did not have enough funding to do their work. In the meantime several initiatives are on the rise. Some governmental and some funded by NGO’s. The only mention of biodiversity data in the paper is of Wildlife Conservation Society Tanzania having an: “[..] enormous amount of data [..]”. It should here be mentioned that both individuals/groups of researchers and bodies like TAWIRI, TAFORI etc… have a lot of data available. Some of it published through reports and papers, some of it available upon request. But at this point the authors might have fallen prey off the issues they are pointing towards – namely inadequate national resources with regards to Spatial Data Infrastructure. How would one be able to find resources for SDI if it were not for TZGISUG mailing list, contacts and other seemingly random resources?

The article points towards harmonization of the regulations of SDI in the East African Countries.

All in all the article does a good job in enlightening us on the SDI issues in East Africa. This article is a must-read if you are interested in SDI in Tanzania.

Read more of the article by dowloading the article in PDF format from the www.fig.net:

Almost ten years down the line we are not much wiser. The many fragmented initiatives remain so – fragmented and insufficient in their structures and extent. I am hoping to see things move forward – at least within the management of environmental information. As this is written I am about to travel to Tanzania to contribute to a workshop arranged together with NEMC where the theme will be how the different stakeholders can agree on data sharing.

(This paper review was published in the TZGISUG website some years ago. Since then the website has changed profile and I found it more relevant to pull this article back to my own website. Some changes has been made since its first publication.)