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Essay / Current Situations and Practices of SDI in Nepal
Table of ContentsSummaryIntroductionComponentsStakeholder AnalysisData ProducersDatasetsData UsersStandardsGeoportalChallengesSummary and ConclusionsSummaryThe term “Spatial Data Infrastructure” (SDI) is often used to refer to the relevant core set technologies, policies and institutional arrangements that facilitate the availability and access to spatial data. SDI describes the overall methodology, process, existing practices, terms and policies of Nepal. This article describes the current situations and practices of IDS in Nepal and the future needs for effective and efficient management. The development of SDI is not in a complete phase but rather in an embryonic stage. The services we take are only for topographic sheets, land resources, etc., as well as basic data collected under the Eastern Nepal Mapping Project and Western Mapping, which has benefited from the aid from the Finnish government. This data has been collected over the past 40 years, but it is still difficult to update because there are many standards from the OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) and ISO (International Standardization) to describe the standards, but they seem to somehow follow the ISO19115 and ISO 19110 standards. The Geography Department owns the Geoportal, it has renewed its new version of the Geoportal from July 2018. Thus, it makes the search easier, faster and user-friendly . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayIntroductionNepal is known as the country's highest peak in the world, namely Mount Everest. It is located between two giant countries, India and China. The study area is depicted in Figure 1 below showing the country in white color. The role of geoinformation is crucial for developing countries like Nepal. We are in a development phase that makes us dependent on the geospatial sector. The terms SDI and NSDI are used interchangeably. SDI provides a foundation for the discovery, evaluation and application of spatial data for users and providers at all levels of government, the commercial sector, the non-profit sector, academia and by citizens in general. Comparing our SDI infrastructure with that of China and India is very advanced as they contained updated, real-time data, web processing and satellite imagery. With the growing domain of geospatial, surveying and other related sectors, the question may arise how to control and manage this data for present and future perspectives. So, the government of Nepal realizes the need for IDS from the 7th National Five Year Plan till plowing. Different agencies create different data standards. The Department of Survey, as the national mapping agency, created the digital topographic database from its base map created between 1999 and 2002. Finally, the National Geographic Infrastructure Information Program (NGIIP ) was created as a geoportal for providing geospatial resources. to users. Regarding interoperability, it fulfills the condition of semantic interoperability up to level 3 according to different interoperability levels. The geoportal is not as technical and functional as Europe's INSPIRE geoportal. One way or another, the development of its capacity for technological and practical applicability is in the developmental stage. This program is the control, the updatingday, regulation and maintenance under the aegis of the Investigation Department with communication from the various stakeholders. Strengthening resource planning and management in Nepal through the development of geographic information infrastructure for access to geographic and related data for decision-making. Develop a geospatial data infrastructure platform to facilitate data sharing between the survey department, the Central Bureau of Statistics and participating agencies. IDS is not a single element, rather it is the integration of plans, policies, standards, data, formats, etc. This methodology is simple and fair. demonstrating how IDS was conceptualized. The process initiated by combining framework data sets and foundational data sets accepting certain standards, rules, policies, etc. to define the metadata service. When defining metadata, it is simple and simply consists of publisher name, publication date, data cost, etc. Then the database is formed, constituting the different layers of images at different scales. The next user queries the data on the geoportal using keywords and retrieves the results based on the user's needs and requirements. Finally, the geoportal retrieves the result from the communication network. All the constituent elements of the SDI are defined and given a detailed description. Apart from that, what could be the existing and predictive elements to improve the existing ones. To define the data sets, the spatial reference system is MUTM (Modified Universal Transverse Mercator). The entire topographic map following cartographic practices. When it comes to policy making, there are many forums, seminars, conferences, etc. are organized for their formulation and implementation. But there is still no concrete NSDI policy that brings all policies under one roof. ComponentsThe components are the building blocks of the SDI. The following components are: Data Producer: The organization that produces geospatial data primarily as a surveying service. Other partners: this section includes, like the forest service, private consultants producing maps. Data users: anyone who uses data freely or for payment. beneficial to them.Legislative body: the ministry, the department which regulates after laying down certain standards, rules, plans and policies.Telecommunication service providers: the internet service provider like Nepal Telecom for communication between user and server. Stakeholder AnalysisStakeholders are people, institutions and groups. , media, parties, etc. who are directly and indirectly involved in the production, management and control of geodata. The stakeholders are the Department of Survey, Department of Mines and Geology, Department of National Parks and Conservation Areas, Department of Forestry and Department of Statistics. The survey department under the Ministry of Agriculture, Land Management and Cooperatives, Government of Nepal is mainly responsible for the establishment, operation and maintenance. Sometimes there are problems and lack of communication between stakeholders, which leads to a problem in data sharing. This may be due to ignorance, lack of knowledge, lack of strong political commitment. Data ProducersData are the functional and fundamental units of IDS. We need to handle the variety of geodata with some features andstatistical information. The data contributors are: Survey Department Topographic Survey Division Geodetic Survey Division Cadastral Survey Division National Geographic Information Infrastructure Division Land Use Resources Data Department of Mines and Geology Department of national parks and conservation areas. and old administrative boundary with scale (1:1,000,000). Topographic data Here the datasets are contour (1:250,000), hydrography (1:250,000), building (1:250,000), designated area (1:250,000), transportation ( 1:250,000). 500,000), transportation (1:250,000), utility lines (1:250,000), contour (1:1,000,000), designated area (1:1,000,000), topography (1:1,000,000) . Geodetic checkpoint. The data sets contain the different control orders. point like 1st order, 2nd order, 3rd order and 4th order. But the geodetic checkpoint task is a continuous process of creating datasets. Cadastral Data The datasets contain the entire cadastral map of the entire nation with landowner information. The cadastral data task is an ongoing process of creating datasets. OrthophotoOnly a few orthophotos of a few cities have been mapped. Orthodataset is an ongoing process of creating datasets. The following basic data for SDI can be listed as geodetic control points, administrative boundary, built-up areas, transportation network, geology, land cover, hydrography, topography, utilities, cadastre, DTM, census. Data users Analysis of the trend of geodata usage shows that there are increasing trends. Users come from different fields including students for research and their projects, Ministry of Energy for construction of hydropower project, Highway department needs the topographic map for road construction, daily transaction of the value of land property. Some comments from them were that the accuracy of the data is low and only limited formats are available. Standards There are many ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards. But in our case it only followed ISO 19115. Here the standard only defines the following things like dates, identification, extent, quality, spatial resolution, coordinate system. The rest of the ISO standards are not there to define things like feature cataloging, web mapping application, online data processing, etc. In the case of OGC standards that partially follow the web map service, but the rest of the service like web feature service, web coverage service, cataloging web services, etc. are still missing. Geoportal Previously it was implemented as a national geographic information infrastructure, but from July 2018 it was changed. The last one is quite good and informative. The geoportal URL is http://nationalgeoportal.gov.np/. The geoportal is the key source for sharing and querying data. Geoportals are characterized by technical and functional aspects. The software to create the geoportal are Apache, QGIS, ArcGIS, SQL, etc. For search criteria, the user must enter keywords. Whereas the standard followed is Web Map Service. If anyone wants to know to catalog information, there is information about metadata. Metadata elements contain title, abstract, keywords, category and extent (East, West,.