Towards a national spatial data infrastructure for the Kingdom of Bahrain

• Main Author: Al-Haidan, Khalid Abdulrahman
• Published: University of Newcastle Upon Tyne 2008
• Subjects: 910.285095365
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.577149

Geographic Information (GI) is information about any location, feature, shape, or object linked to its location in the earth surface by set of coordinates (geographically referenced). GI is important for any nation, since it holds knowledge about the main infrastructures. The availability of this type of data supports any country in planning, decision making, business, and in providing services. Many countries from both the developing and the developed world have felt it important to have integrated databases for geographic information at the national level to satisfy end user needs of GI from both the public and the private sectors. Integrated databases will make sure that the GI is utilized by the different parties, including both data users and providers, in a timely manner. Utilizing such information in the provision of quality services and in the decision making process can be achieved by implementing a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) at national level. SDI is an infrastructure connecting the databases of the GI users and providers, and the facility which allows them to share and exchange the data under approved standards and data exchange policies at national level. The importance of the SDI comes from the fact that it plays a major role in supporting government strategies and projects. SDI can support the organizations in their day to day management, decision making, and planning, in addition to influencing positively the services provided by both the public and the private sectors. The Kingdom of Bahrain has made a huge investment in capturing and storing geographic information related to the land infrastructure in digital format. The investment was not only in data capture, but also in software, hardware, human resources, and training. The main results and outcomes of the investment were about 15 individual Geographic Information Systems (GIS) units, without any kind of integration. The GI exist in different data formats, with no standards, and the data are collected under different procedures with an absence of data sharing and exchange amongst the geospatial data stakeholders. This makes it difficult for other organizations to utilize the data and leads to duplication of effort and poor utilization ofthe existing human and financial resources. viii In order to move towards meeting the goals of the future vision of the Bahrain government, which aims for better economic, social, and environmental development, Bahrain has to make use of the existing resources and their potential. This requires a strategy that takes into consideration the local conditions and starts building a National Spatial Data Infrastructure, with a clear data exchange policy to assure up-to-date geospatial data that satisfies the needs of both the public and the private sectors. The aim of this research is to study and analyse the critical success factors in the governmental and non-governmental organizations that possess or use geospatial data in relation to the implementation of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This research discusses, identifies, and reports the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT analysis) in the main geospatial data stakeholders in Kingdom of Bahrain. Eleven factors derived from the review of international best practices were selected to examine the conditions in the Kingdom of Bahrain in relation to implementation ofNSDI. In order to assess the local conditions in the Kingdom of Bahrain in relation to the implementation of Bahrain's Spatial Data Infrastructure, information has been gathered by questionnaire and interviews. The questionnaire covered 42 directorates and departments from 28 organizations (geospatial data stakeholders and users) in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Following the questionnaire, interviews were conducted by the researcher with the key persons from the main geospatial data stakeholders. Then, the researcher's conclusions were given based on the research findings. Finally the recommendations are addressed, based on the study's [mal conclusions.