Project Title:
Towards a Regional Geographic Information Infrastructure (RGII) in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) Region

Second Technical Report
1. Introduction

The two year project titled "Towards a Regional Geographic Information Infrastructure (GII) in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) Region" started from March 2002 under ICT R&D Grant with the formal agreement between the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) of UNDP and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC).

2. Project Objectives

The long term general objective of this project is accomplishing towards a Regional Geographic Information Infrastructure (RGII) thus facilitating the sharing, integration and use of geographic information across a broad base users, giving particular consideration to standardised datasets, data availability and facilitation of exchange of information using the potential of modern information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet.

The specific objectives of the project are:

1. To develop a customized system for serving the GIS database on the Internet using latest Internet mapping technologies
2. To develop a metadata system based on international standards for searching and viewing the metadata through the Internet
3. To publish the GIS database at ICIMOD using the system
4. Extension of the system to partner institutions through capacity building

3. Accomplishments during the Reporting Period

3.1 Framework for Country-based Portal structure to share GIS Resources

During the first year of the project, a conceptual framework was developed to share GIS resources and provide GIS services exploiting the full potential of the Internet and GIS technology. It has made considerable efforts in developing a comprehensive underlying structure, named as Mountain GIS Portal, based on the latest Internet Mapping technology, latest web technology. The portal is aimed as a new one-stop experience for the geographic data and resources needs in the region.

During the second year of the project, emphasis was laid on extending the portal to encompass the different country pages and to build up their capacities. Country Information of regional member countries (Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh during the Project period) were proposed to be developed to serve the National GIS resources in a common and consistent format. Accordingly, the main GIS resources that have been identified under country structure are : GIS Data, Metadata, Maps, Applications. These in-country resources is being supported by the national partner institutions - NAGISC in Bhutan, LGED in Bangladesh, in terms of coordinating with other national institutions, collecting and collating data, metadata, applications and information on other GIS related activities within their country. These are being tested and made available gradually through the portal. Furthermore, available information in other ICIMOD member countries has been integrated through the ICIMOD network in the portal environment.

3.2 Training of Partners and Establishment of Country Portals

A one week training program for the partner in Bangladesh was organized in Bangladesh from April 2003, on how to document and manage different resources that go into the country structure of the portal. During the training, the portal with the country based portal structure, exclusive for Bangladesh, was established at the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to enable them to create such a portal with GIS resources. Basically, the training was meant for transferring the knowledge and skills to the respective partner institutions so that they will be able to handle their national geographic information framework part and contribute to the development of Country pages for the Mountain GIS Portal. ICIMOD made available a licensed copy of required software - ArcGIS and ArcIMS to LGED. It is encouraging to learn LGED now has collected a large number of resources and entered into the portal and is ready to share them through the main regional portal. In this connection, a team from LGED, Bangladesh is visiting Kathmandu in second week of December 2003 to finalize resources for the main portal.

Likewise, a training cum establishment of Country Portal is being held from 24 Nov -3 Dec 2003 at the partner in Bhutan, which is the National Agency for GIS Coordination (NAGISC). This cell is now under the umbrella of Ministry of Agriculture and within the Survey Department. The objective of this particular visit is to enable them further to contribute to develop Bhutan country page and enhance their technical capability. Under this provision, ICIMOD is making available licensed copy of required software - ArcGIS, ArcIMS also to Bhutan.

3.3 Establishment of dedicated Platform to house Mountain GIS Portal at the ISP

A dedicated web server with all necessary components and software to smoothly run the portal was co-located at Mercantile which is the major Internet Service Provider. This is also housing the country pages. One of the ideas behind this arrangement was to give space with proper access to the respective country page partner remotely. Having a dedicated server is giving a lot of flexibility in terms of access, security, space, software to all partners and ICIMOD. The current portal at www.icimod-gis.net is coming out of this arrangement.

3.4 Availability of Metadata for Satellite Images

As an initiation, many of the satellite image resources that have been accumulated by ICIMOD itself through its various activities over the years are being made accessible through this framework. While serving them, a metadata format for Imageries in line with the established international standard has been used. This metadata format is being shared with the partner institution.

3.5 Discussion Forum/Mailing List Established

To further strengthen collaboration and communication, an email based mailing list has been established in the portal. This is a moderated mailing list and one has to subscribe to it. To increase the interaction amongst the GIS related societies in the region, an attempt is being made to use the tool of public on-line dialogue more broadly as a way to permit us to learn from others. These discussions will be email-based so as to maximize opportunities for participation by those with limited Internet access, though a web-based is a possibility. Occasionally, specific topic/dialogues for a certain period would be chosen such as RGII, Human Development, Software issues, Data access, Technologies etc., exclusively pertinent to GIS, upon which discussion would be held thereby giving room for electronic conferences.

4. Progress on the Specific Objectives

Status of the different activities targeted towards achieving the specific objectives are discussed below.

4.1. To develop a customized system for serving the GIS database on the Internet using latest Internet mapping technologies

A portal system has been developed to serve the GIS resources in the Internet. The system has already been made on-line as a test and can be accessed at http://www.icimod-gis.net. GIS resources such as training materials, metadata, maps and reports related to GIS applications at ICIMOD are made available through this site.

A "Country Page" or national geographic information framework is also provided with the components on Data, Applications, Maps and other resources. These in-country resources is supported by the national partner institutions in terms of coordinating with other national institutions, collecting and collating data, metadata, applications and information on other GIS related activities within their country. These are being tested and made available to through the portal.

4.2. To develop a metadata system based on international standards for searching and viewing the metadata through the Internet
Development of Metadata system was a major component in the Portal system development. After carefully going through the different metadata standards and the requirements in the regional context, and also in view of our institutional affiliations with strategic alliances like ESRI, it was decided to follow FGDC 'standard' with extension. Some additional elements were added to gather metadata pertinent to ICIMOD focus and the region requirements.
A customized metadata editor within ArcGIS was developed to include custom elements and to make it simple with basic and relevant information. These metadata are compliant with the FGDC standard, even with the additional elements, because the ArcGIS makes a note in the item's metadata that an extended profile is being used. The system has been integrated with the Mountain GIS Portal and provides the user with the option to search the metadata using the Text Search or Spatial Search Engine. A metadata system for Maps and Imageries are also available.

4.3. To publish the GIS database at ICIMOD using the system

As an initiation, many of the resources that have been generated and accumulated by ICIMOD itself through its various activities over the years are being made accessible through this framework. These resources include metadata, data, maps, application and training resources and are being constantly updated.

4.4. Extension of the system to partner institutions through capacity building

A lot of focus is being given to this activity in the second year. There have been a number of trainings and follow-up activities being undertaken to extend the concepts and the tools to the partner institutions. A local prototype of the concerned country portal is being established at the partner institutions. The trainings are leading to activities to develop country pages for Bhutan and Bangladesh using the same framework.

5. Complementary Activities

Basanta Shrestha and Sushil Pandey presented a paper on the Mountain GIS Portal during the Plenary Session 12, titled ICT use for development: Case Studies from Asia, in the 12th Annual AMIC Annual Conference held in Singapore from Nov 6-8, 2003.

The strategic partnership of ICIMOD with ESRI has greatly facilitated the smooth operation of the project. The core software used to develop the system such as ArcIMS and ArcGIS have been provided by ICIMOD from ESRI at special prices for its partner institutions in Bhutan and Bangladesh. Acquisition of these software have enabled the partner institutions to work on sharing national geographic information resources through the country pages, the building blocks of the Mountain GIS Portal.

Additional resources provided by United Nations Environment Programme/ Regional Resource Centre - Asia and Pacific (UNEP/RRC-AP) to ICIMOD were also utilized in the development of the portal.

7. Major Plans for the Remaining Period

The system will be fine tuned with the adoption of new data models such as Geodatabase and ArcSDE for the better and efficient deployment of data through the Internet. Similarly, issues and difficulties addressed by the partner institutions would be incorporated before the final launch. 'Country Pages' will be made available on the portal with a sense of partners' ownership and contribution. It is envisaged that these national institutions are the key players in making available the GIS resources at the country level.

A final publication will be brought out including the concepts, system development and the findings to disseminate the work carried out by the project for a wider audience. Such document will also help in policy advocacy for geographic data sharing in the region for sustainable mountain development.