Examples of Applications and Study Cases

The chapter presents examples of applications and study cases of platforms of geospatial decision support systems for national public policies and strategies. The rapid progress of internet with the combination of GIS has paved the ways for web distribution of spatial data. Users can access the spatial data through a Web-GIS website, make thematic maps, and perform all types of spatial queries and analysis. In the context of an increasing emphasis on decentralized planning, the need for collection and dissemination of data at local levels has been increased. Use of the web as a dissemination medium of geographic data in the form of interactive maps can be regarded as a major advancement in digital cartography and opens many new opportunities, such as real-time maps, cheaper dissemination, and decentralized sharing of geographic information.

Planning Support Systems

The chapter describes the planning support systems. It presents the resurgence of development planning and its evolution from focus on poverty reduction to a renewed emphasis on structural economic transformation. What conclusions can be drawn from experiences of countries that have succeeded in transforming their economies? Constraints of the planning are examined with examples of usage of geographic information systems, geospatial data infrastructure, and geospatial decision support system, as support for planning support systems and collaborative spatial decision making. Usages for the design on territorial, urban planning, and selected national public policies are presented.

Geospatial Data Infrastructure

The chapter focuses on geospatial data infrastructure. The mass of data needed for public policy planning could come from various sources. The chapter discusses the participatory approaches for the realization of open and interoperable systems and presents the geospatial data infrastructure approach to address this issue: core data sets, standards, institutional and legal arrangements, technology and capacity building. The environment in which the system is designed impacts the technological solution: legal and institutional framework, compliance with standards, availability of human resources, sustainability in terms of financial resources. The chapter examines experiences at the international level to draw best practices for implementing national and thematic GDI.

Land Governance Measurement

The chapter analyzes the land governance measurement. The land as crucial in any public policy and can be a constraint for the territorial development strategies. Frameworks for land governance are presented including The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security known as the VGGT, the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa, and the Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF). Initiatives for developing indicators for land governance and security of tenure are presented.

Geographic Information Systems

The chapter presents the geographic information systems. A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system that allows various sources to gather and organize, manage, analyze and combine, develop, and present geographically located information contributing in particular to the management from space. A geographic information system is also a database management system for entering, storing, retrieving, querying, analyzing, and displaying localized data. It is a set of data located in space, structured so that it can conveniently extract syntheses useful to the decision.

Open Data

The chapter addresses the open data initiatives. The openness of data translates into the ease of access to information for the citizen. This chapter discusses the current status of, and recent evolution in, open data with the emphasis on open government data in the African data communities based on the findings of the Africa Open Data Barometer and the Africa Open Data Index. It addressed issues on the process of transforming national data ecosystems to a state where data from both conventional and new sources are being harnessed to inform decision-making better and enable sustainable development.

Geospatial Indicators

The chapter presents the geospatial indicators. Over the last 10 years, development of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) has become an important subject being a driving force for the national geospatial strategies and plans, increasing the availability and accessibility of geographic information and the exchange and sharing of spatial data. It has become a necessity to have reliable methods and instruments to assess these SDI initiatives. SDI monitoring and evaluation can provide justification for providing public sources to SDI and a measure of success of SDI strategy. The chapter presents the newly developed Country Geospatial Readiness Index.

Geospatial Decision Support Systems

The chapter is on the geospatial decision support systems. Challenges arise when simple GIS is used to support complex problems encountered at higher level, strategic decision-making, and long-term development planning. In this case, SDI can be more valuable. The chapter presents the perspective of information systems for decision support taking into account the following: the levels of decisions and the process of decision making. Trends on the tools and framework for interactive decision support systems are discussed focusing on geospatial decision support systems based on GIS and SDI.

ICT Measurement

The chapter discusses the ICT measurement. As the ICT plays a very crucial in all suspects of national development, the chapter reviews the framework for measuring ICT and corresponding indicators. Its presents various indices developed to measure the information knowledge, the information society, the information economy, and the e-government. The contribution of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development is highlighted. As these frameworks are used for ranking countries, there is a challenge for adaptation at the national levels.

International Development Agendas

The chapter presents the international development agendas: the agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) and related development initiatives: The Word Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Global Land Tools, and the Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM). It highlights the data needs for planning public policies in the context of the agenda 2030, as the countries are expected to align their planning activities and sectoral strategies with the SGD and others development agendas.