ANNEX 8
Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific
Working Group 2
Regional Fundamental Data
STATUS REPORT
For 11th PCGIAP meeting
Bali, Indonesia,
18 – 21 May 2005
Chairman
Mr Gholam Reza Fallahi , Iran <>
Vice Chairman
Prof Jun Chen, China <>
Task Coordinator - APSDI Clearinghouse
Dr Zhou Xu, China < >
Task Coordinator – Pan Asia-Pacific framework datasets
Mr Gholam Reza Fallahi, Iran
Report prepared by:
Reza Ahmadyieh, Iran < >
11th PCGIAP, Bali, Indonesia 18-21 May 2005
1- Resolutions adopted at The Joint WG1 & WG2 Workshop, China, September 2004:
RESOLUTION 1- Pilot study on Pan Asia-Pacific framework datasets
Noting that creating a framework dataset is one of the objectives of PCGIAP;
Reorganizing
- the need of a strategic plan for the future APSDI framework data implementation which will justify the benefits of APSDI in such areas as security, trade, environment management, etc.
- integrating and creating a minimum seamless dataset being the major difference between the Pan-AP framework datasets and global map
Recommends
- to undertake a pilot project to create a seamless framework dataset across a number of countries
- to adopt ISO and international standards to improve the draft technical specification for pan Asia-Pacific framework datasets
- the pilot study adopt an incremental approach by starting from a very simple dataset and flexible standard.
- to set up taskforce for Pan-AP framework datasets, and identify the taskforce members and it’s coordinator through the EB and secretariat of PCGIAP
- sufficient resources over a 3 years period be devoted to this pilot project as it will be a major undertaking for PCGIAP
- at least one full-time experienced person be provided by the lead country and at least half a full-time person for each of the participating countries
- trainings and workshops be conducted to promote the work in cooperation with related international organizations and initiatives.
RESOLUTION 2 – Endorsement of Guidelines
WG2 member delegates agreed to endorse the Guidelines for APSDI Clearinghouse Development (version 1.2) prepared by the APSDI Data Node and Clearinghouse Task Force as a basis for discussion and development of clearinghouses in member countries in Asia and the Pacific. WG2 thanked the Task Force for its excellent work.
RESOLUTION 3 – Support for the establishment of clearinghouse nodes
WG2 member delegates recommend that PCGIAP take a proactive approach to promoting and supporting the establishment of clearinghouse nodes in member countries. As part of this approach WG2 accepts the generous offer of ESRI to run a one week seminar, short course and training session on building SDI portals together with the free provision of appropriate software at a location to be determined in the Asia and Pacific region in the next 6-12 months. The workshop will be run under the auspices of PCGIAP (WG2 and specifically the APSDI Data Node and Clearinghouse Task Force) with the ESRI representative liaising with the Task Force Coordinator Dr Zhou. ESRI will provide the one week training free of charge while attendees will provide their own travel and accommodation. ESRI have agreed to run the workshop in Hong Kong although it can be run in another PCGIAP country if an appropriate location can be identified. PCGIAP will actively promote the workshop and training course to all PCGIAP member countries.
RESOLUTION 4 – Re-constitution of APSDI Data Node and Clearinghouse Task Force
China has agreed to continue supporting and coordinating the APSDI Data Node and Clearinghouse Task Force under the leadership of Dr Zhou on condition that a number of PCGIAP countries will actively participate in the Taskforce and be involved in the first phase of the implementation of the APSDI Clearinghouse Portal. Malaysia, Japan, India, Korea, Indonesia, Iran (subject to confirmation) and Australia have agreed to participate in the Taskforce and agree to ensure the designated Taskforce member will actively participate and can attend at least one Taskforce meeting in conjunction with a PCGIAP or WG2 workshop in the next two years. Each Taskforce country will advise Dr Zhou of their designated taskforce member by the end of October, 2004.
RESOLUTION 5 – Creation of APSDI Clearinghouse Portal
As a result of the successful pilot project carried out by the APSDI Data Node and Clearinghouse Task Force, WG2 recommends that PCGIAP establish an APSDI Clearinghouse Portal based on a simple metadata profile to be developed and agreed by the re-constituted Task Force and preferably based on ISO TC211 standard. In addition the Taskforce will determine a minimum number of data sets to be described by metadata and included in each country Clearinghouse node in English.
2- Work plan Summaries
The work plan for 2003-2006 and action plan for 2005-2006 can be found as attachment 2 to this report.
3- Activities undertaken since 10th PCGIAP Meeting, Bangalore India, January 2004
3.1- Joint Workshop of PCGIAP WG1 & WG2
A joint workshop of PCGIAP WG1 and WG2 was held from September 7 to September 8, 2004 in Chengdu, China. The main objective of this workshop is to discuss the possible establishment of a PCGIAP portal and a pan AP framework data set.
About 54 people from 10 countries and regions participated this workshop. The two days workshop included one opening session, one plenary session and four technical sessions.
At this workshop five resolutions were adopted, including constitution of a new task force for a pilot project of Pan Asia Pacific framework datasets and re-constitution of APSDI Data Node and Clearinghouse Task Force. Further details about these resolutions are released at the beginning of this document.
3.2 – Preparing Draft Technical Specification for Pan Asia-Pacific framework datasets
According to 9th meeting of the PCGIAP held in July 2003, the UNRCC-AP “Starting the development of a pan Asia-Pacific regional fundamental dataset, which contributes to Global Map, and encouraging member nations not contributing to the Global Mapping project to consider participating in the project with the assistance of ISCGM and PCGIAP”, The PCGIAP Recommends the basic principles for developing and utilizing the Asia and The Pacific regional fundamental dataset, According to the basic principles on the 10th meeting of the PCGIAP held in February 2004, the WG2 suggested to prepare a draft specification of pan Asia-Pacific framework datasets for discussion.
The datasets will have some characters as following:
· It should mainly base on Global Mapping data, extracting and integrating data from existing data sources, reconstructing them as an integrity and independency datasets for the Asia and the Pacific Regions.
· In some important areas and small countries or regions, updating and adding more detail information in large scale data sources are needed, we encourage member nations to provide data at larger scale on a voluntary basis, and shall not conflict with the PCGIAP data policy.
· For extending the usability of framework dataset, ISO TC211 feature code should be used to replace old feature code as soon as possible, and the complex topological relationship should be created in vector data structure.
Draft Technical Specification for Pan Asia-Pacific framework datasets was prepared and submitted to Joint Workshop of PCGIAP WG1 and WG2.
3.3 - Submitting a draft copy of WG2 web pages based on the draft guidelines presented by Secretariat for preparation of the WG pages
At the Exective Board Meeting, at China, September 2004, Secretariat presented the background and status of the PCGIAP Web Site and proposed its review and actions to be taken for the improvement. The Board recognized the importance of the issue raised and agreed on the draft guidelines presented by Secretariat for preparation of the WG pages. Draft version of updated the pages is submitted to secretariat.
3.4 – Pilot project to establish clearinghouse of Iran
In order to establish a pilot project for geo-spatial clearinghouse network in Asia-Pacific, Iran as a PCGIAP member country and one of the nodes for this network, has accomplished a joint research project in cooperation with a local university. This research has lead to the following outcomes:
- Oracle and Sqlserver were found to have enough merits for maintaining metadata
- MetaMaker 1.0 was designed as user interface for data entry and creating required tables for database.
- A user Interface was deigned to make search operations possible.
Based on abovementioned results, operational phase of the task will be implemented by the mid of 2006. More detailed information will be provided in the next meeting.
3.5 - ESRI GIS Portal Toolkit Workshop for PCGIAP, Hong Kong
To promote the establishment of geo-spatial clearinghouse nodes in PCGIAP member countries, and the development of a geo-spatial portal of AP region, a 3-day GIS Portal Toolkit Workshop for PCGIAP was successfully organized in Hong Kong, China from April 6 to 8, 2005 by PCGIAP WG2 and ESRI China (Hong Kong). Totally 13 participants from 6 PCGIAP members (China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Malaysia) attended the workshop. More details
3.6 - Questionnaire about Geospatial Portal
In order to evaluate the effect of the Hong Kong workshop and help to promote further activities, especially development of geospatial portal of Asia and the Pacific Area, a questionnaire form was distributed among the participants of Hong Kong workshop, and received responses from China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Nepal.
3.7 – Guideline for APSDI Clearinghouse Development
The PCGIAP’s vision for the Asia-Pacific Spatial Data Infrastructure (APSDI) is to create a network of databases, located throughout the region, that together provide the fundamental data needed to achieve the region’s economic, social, human resources development and environmental objectives.
Based on a proposal in the 4th Meeting of PCGIAP, a network of APSDI Data Nodes should be established to distribute, manage and maintain fundamental data. Therefore Developing a network of APSDI data nodes was listed in the work plan of WG2. After some works, RESOLUTIONS from 15th UNRCC-AP, 2000, Kuala Lumpur Recommends that the Working Group develop and implement a work plan that takes account of:
- …Complete the APSDI Data Node pilot project;
- …Develop a specification and implementation plan for a Data Node network for the region, with priority given to metadata, data dictionary and clearinghouse issues;
And in the 7th Meeting of the PCGIAP, 2001, Tsukuba, a taskforce was formed within WG2 for promoting the planning and implementation of APSDI spatial data clearinghouse with distributed data nodes according to the adopted RESOLUTIONS.
Guideline for APSDI Clearinghouse Development (Revision 1.2) was prepared and submitted to Joint Workshop of PCGIAP WG1 and WG2.
Acknowledgments
Working Group Members and secretariat of PCGIAP have had major role in progress of the tasks and activities of WG2, and I extend my thanks to them and their host organizations
11
Attachment 1
11th PCGIAP, Bali, Indonesia 18-21 May 2005
Taskforce Report
On
APSDI Clearinghouse
Prepared by
APSDI Clearinghouse Taskforce
According to concerning resolutions and action plan of the 9th and 10th PCGIAP meeting, several SDI related activities were organized to promote the development of APSDI Clearinghouse.
1. Activities after the 10th PCGIAP meeting
1.1 Chengdu Workshop
A joint workshop of PCGIAP WG1 and WG2 was held from September 7 to September 8 2004 in Chengdu, China. The main objective of this workshop is to discuss the possible establishment of a PCGIAP portal and a pan AP framework data set. About forty five people from 10 countries and regions participated this workshop, including Australia (2), India (4), Indonesia (5), Iran (1), Japan (5), Malaysia (1), South Korea (3), Vietnam (2), USA (1), China (20), Hong Kong-China (1).
The two days workshop includes 1 opening session, 1 plenary session and 2 technical sessions.
In the opening session, two progress reports of WG 2 were presented. Dr. ZHOU Xu, coordinator of the task force on APSDI data node, introduced the revised Guideline on APSDI Clearinghouse Node Development. Dr. Jiang Ji, National geomatics Center of China (NGCC) presented the draft Technical Content specification of Pan-Asia Pacific framework dataset, which was prepared by Mrs. Ji Xiaoyan from NGCC.
Two invited presentations were given in the morning plenary session. One was given by Mr. Minami Hidekazu, representative of ISCGM on Data modeling of Global Map. The other was presented by Ms. Jeanne Foust, representative from ESRI on Implementing Spatial Data Infrastructure: GIS Portals. It gave the participants an opportunity to learn and share the experiences on geospatial data modeling and geospatial portal development.
Twenty five representatives from participated the two technical sessions of WG 2. They examined and discussed the two technical documents submitted to this workshop, that is, Draft Technical Specification for Pan Asia-Pacific Framework Datasets and Guidelines for APSDI Clearinghouse Development. The participants gave valuable comments and recommendations and supports to these two technical specifications.
1.1.1 Open discussion on Pan Asia-Pacific framework datasets
The open discussion on the content specification of pan-Asia and the Pacific framework datasets was focused on the differences between the AP framework datasets and Global Map. It was agreed by the participants that the key difference is to construct a seamless framework dataset for AP by data integration and reconstruction. The development of such a pan Asia and the Pacific framework datasets is very important and difficult for PCGIAP. A pilot study should be conducted to create a seamless framework dataset across a number of countries. A taskforce needs to be set up for undertaking this pilot project. The following draft resolution was proposed on the basis of the above discussion and were agreed to be referred to the Executive Board for consideration.
· RESOLUTION 1- Pilot study on Pan Asia-Pacific framework datasets
1.1.2 Open discussion on APSDI Clearinghouse Development
The open discussion was chaired by Professor Ian Williamson, Chair of PCGIAP WG3. He outlined the objectives of the session and introduced Dr Zhou Xu, Coordinator of the Task Force on APSDI Data Node. Dr Zhou presented the Guidelines for APSDI Clearinghouse Development (Revision 1.2) prepared by the Task Force. The delegates endorsed the Guidelines and noted that the Task Force had successfully completed its task of proving the concept of the Asia and Pacific clearinghouse concept based on individual country clearinghouse nodes using a pilot project. China coordinated the pilot project with cooperation of Japan and Australia.