News from PCGIS
1 June 2010, by PCGIS Team
Department of Physical Planning and Housing receives GIS training
The Government of the Republic of Zambia has placed priority on the preparation of the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) so as to effectively foster economic growth and development in the Districts. The IDP further aims at coordinating the work of the local and other spheres of government in a coherent plan to improve the quality of life for all the people in the area. The major challenge in the formulation of IDPs in Zambia however, has been the lack of spatial data, and where the data is available it is seldom updated.
To avert the status quo the Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH) through the Department of Physical Planning and Housing (DPPH) in Lusaka decided to send planners in two groups of four to the Provincial Centre for Geographic Information Service (PCGIS) in Livingstone for basic Geographic Information Systems (GIS) training. The two groups were at PCGIS from the 26th to 30th of April and 24th to 28th May, 2010 respectively. The DPPH sent its staff at PCGIS after realizing that the knowledge and use GIS is cardinal and inevitable in the formulation of IDPs especially in the establishment of an up to date spatial database in a digital format depicting the geographic status of infrastructure and other features. It is also significant in facilitating spatial analysis of an area of interest in order to support an integrated and effective planning process.
What made the training even more exciting was that the Mr. Zulu the Provincial Planner for Lusaka was among the people who were being trained. The DPPH staff found topics like spatial reference, integration of tabular data to GIS, georeferencing, map making so thrilling. All the participant were elated with the training such that they wanted to be at the centre a little longer. At the end of the training every participant got a certificate for participating in the GIS training.