Ethiopian Mapping Agency has gone through a major structural reform so as to keep up with the modern technologies in geospatial data and information. The Agency has also renamed itself as the Ethiopian Geospatial Information Agency.
By Haftu Gebrezgabiher (The Ethiopian Herald)
ADDIS ABABA–The Ethiopian Mapping Agency has recently undertaken structural reform and changed its name to Ethiopian Geospatial Information Agency in what it said would support the growth and transformation agenda of the country by providing quality geospatial information to stakeholders.
The Ethiopian Mapping Agency’s Director-General Sultan Mohamed told The Ethiopian Herald that the re-establishment was found to be necessary following the study and review of the experiences of other countries last April. It is an era of digital information which is characterized by utilization of the state-of-the-art technologies which represent the most efficient way of gathering, administering, distributing and communicating data, he added. Thus, with the structural reform, mapping which represents the creation of maps, a graphic symbolic representation of the significant features of a part of the surface of the earth has been fully replaced by digital geospatial information activities.
Geospatial information is a broad concept which includes information about the earth surface, topography, land use, urbanization, villages, settlement, and areas of economic production and social infrastructures, Ato Sultan further added. The previous analogue technology could not cope with the rapid economic development and the application of geospatial information was a must, according to the Director-General. Besides providing large number of information, the new system has also made the process of date collection very efficient in terms of time.
“We have been able to build a capacity to provide tourism and land use map for culture and tourism bureaus, land authorities respectively,” says Ato Sultan. However, Ato Sultan states, the Agency is still experiencing staff turn out and limitation in terms of inputs supply to achieve its objectives.
Source: The Ethiopian Herald