Evaluating National Spatial Data Infrastructure Readiness for Zimbabwe

Evaluating National Spatial Data Infrastructure Readiness for Zimbabwe

Being a third world country, there is a lot of development still taking place in Zimbabwe. Several agencies both in the public and private domain collect and maintain enormous amount of spatial data for their day to day activities. However, information on the accessibility of this data is not available to common users, thereby depriving the utility of this precious information at the right place at the required time. Aiming to promote spatial data sharing, in 2010 Zimbabwe resuscitated the efforts of establishing a National Spatial Data Infrastructure which had been started as early as the 1980s. These initial efforts died due to various reasons. This research seeks to readiness of harnessing National Spatial Data Infrastructure in the country. SDI-readiness model was applied with parameters namely organization, information, technological, human resources and financial resources indices. Desk study, past ZNSDI initiative reports, ZNSDI workshop reports, questionnaires, study reports at regional level, United Nations reports and general observations were used as data collection tools.