Improved livelihoods from NSDI

Judith Phiri, Business Reporter

THE Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency (ZINGSA) has said the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) will enable improved understanding, in-depth insight and informed decision-making to address a range of economic, social and environmental challenges.

Launched in 2018, the ZNGSA has the mandate to enhance the country’s capacity to harness space technologies. It will also make it possible for the country to manage its natural resources and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Responding to questions from the Sunday News, ZINGSA chief operations officer (COO) Mr Painous Gweme said the development of the NSDI was among a number of significant national projects.

“During the year 2023, ZINGSA intends to carry out a number of significant national projects. We intend to develop the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The development of the NSDI is a realisation by ZINGSA that there is a lot of produced reliable data using various methods for different areas of interest, however, there is currently no central repository from which users can access these fragmented data sets. It is against this background and the recognition that spatial data is a national resource that the project was mooted,” said Mr Gweme.

He said as ZINGSA within the framework of the NSDI, they were in the process of mapping all water bodies such as dams, rivers lakes within a specific catchment area, all irrigation schemes under government, local authorities and private players using remote sensing and satellite imagery. Mr Gweme said the exercise will assist in determining capacity utilisation of water bodies and their carrying capacity.

“So far, we have carried out basic mapping for all the dams in Zimbabwe. We are currently mapping all areas that may need irrigation in order to determine the requisite water resources for each specific scheme,” he said.
In terms of other key projects, he said they will work on the densification of the Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) network expansion.

“This is in an effort to migrate from the current analogue geodetic network to a digital one which will ensure reliable and accurate positioning information. This information is critical and finds use in the survey, mapping and monitoring of large infrastructure projects,” added Mr Gweme.
Working with other Government Ministries and Departments, he said they were also in the process of developing a mining cadastre in order to enhance transparency and accountability in the sector.

Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Professor Amon Murwira said the NSDI was one of the critical projects.
He digital spatial information was a critical component of the national infrastructure and knowledge-driven economy as it provided means to integrate a wide variety of data and services that contribute to public health, national security and environmental sustainability, among others.