Development and implementation of national policies to support Spatial Data Infrastructure is critical for a coordinated effort to standardize the processing of spatial information across government to create a single authoritative spatial database for The Bahamas. Spatial data is used throughout government to support many business functions such as Planning, infrastructure inventory, asset management, disaster preparedness, crime analysis etc. Every department has some need for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and therefore technology to support wide spread data sharing and administrative procedures and protocols are necessary to ensure the effective and efficient application of GIS on an agency-wide platform.


Benefits to be gained:

• Foundation for long-term access and exchange of geospatial information between government agencies and support the provision of information to the public and private information user community;
• Cooperation and coordination among agencies in identifying and facilitating the development of useful data for research, planning and disaster preparedness;
• Standardized metadata management;
• Advancement in use of Geospatial Technologies throughout the Civil Service and the academic arena; and
• Minimization if not elimination of duplication of effort.

This effort is an ongoing process to be advanced by the Geospatial Advisory Committee