Capacitating local governments for the digital earth vision: lessons learnt from the role of municipalities in the South African spatial data infrastructure

Capacitating local governments for the digital earth vision: lessons learnt from the role of municipalities in the South African spatial data infrastructure

The Digital Earth vision foresees the availability and accessibility of geospatial information to achieve the goals of sustainable development, economic growth and social well-being. In the case of urban areas, up-to-date geospatial information is essential for managing a city towards achieving thes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of digital earth Vol. 14; no. 12; pp. 1897 - 1917
Main Authors: Siebritz, Lindy-Anne, Desai, Ahmad, Coetzee, Serena, Cooper, Antony K.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 02-12-2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Taylor & Francis Group
Subjects:
Accessibility
Availability
data governance
Earth
Economic development
Economic growth
Economics
Government
Infrastructure
Local government
Municipalities
Rural areas
SASDI
SDI
service delivery
Spatial data
Sustainable development
Urban areas
Urban development
Urban sprawl
Vision
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Summary:The Digital Earth vision foresees the availability and accessibility of geospatial information to achieve the goals of sustainable development, economic growth and social well-being. In the case of urban areas, up-to-date geospatial information is essential for managing a city towards achieving these goals. The rapid shift from rural to urban areas globally puts pressure on local governments and they often struggle to find and organise the resources required to collect and maintain geospatial information that can help to address urban growth challenges. A spatial data infrastructure (SDI) can facilitate the availability and accessibility of geospatial information towards addressing national objectives, however, the involvement of local governments in an SDI can be a challenge. In this paper, we critique the role of municipalities against the backdrop of the developments of the South African SDI (SASDI) to date. The critique identifies five high-level shortcomings of the SASDI that have led to the limited participation of municipalities. Based on the shortcomings, we provide recommendations for capacitating municipalities through SASDI so that the Digital Earth vision can also be achieved for municipalities. These recommendations are aimed at involving the local sphere of government in a national SDI and are equally applicable to other countries.
ISSN:1753-8947
1753-8955
DOI:10.1080/17538947.2021.1998680