Is quality spatial data valued in Kenya?
The public sector in Kenya undermines the significance of quality spatial data. Spatial planners hardly get readily available & reliable spatial data such as infrastructure, land use or natural resource data for planning purpose in the counties.
The net effect of relying on substandard spatial data for decision making is wastage of resources and economic crisis.
Is there a solution to substandard spatial data? YES!
County Spatial Planning
County Spatial Planning is the process of preparing a 10-year GIS (Geographic Information System) based plan or each county in Kenya highlighting the SPATIAL anticipated development outputs of the planning process and linking the plan to other global, national and regional plans.
Invest in a GIS lab after the planning process
The multi disciplinary and sectoral planning team presents the spatial plan and data to the county governments for legal approval, implementation and capacity building. Implementation is where you get it right or wrong.
The plan being GIS based prompts the county to establish a functionable GIS lab to further analyze, update, store, print, backup and collect additional data as the plan is gradually implemented. Subsequently, the economy is revitalized due to low risk investments, agricultural productivity, trade, environmental conservation, infrastructure development and sound decision making.
Note the words “GIS based” and “SPATIAL anticipated development outputs”. One of the main components of GIS is data.
The spatial plan integrates all the sectors of the economy in a data driven exercise to formulate quick win projects, strategies and policies for each sector, land use patterns, proposed capital investment projects, implementation matrix, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
