Being the national focal point for Space Technology Applications and recognizing the need for a national platform for dissemination and exchange of knowledge and experience in the areas of Geographical Information systems, Remote Sensing and Global positioning Systems in innovatively addressing the socio-economic issues pertaining to the management of spatially distributed resources in the Island, the ACCIMT organized the National Conference on Geo-informatics Sri Lanka 2008 in collaboration with University of Moratuwa.

The seven best technical papers were presented at the conference with the best seventeen refereed papers being published by the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, in the form of a Special Issue of the Journal ‘Engineer’ of the institution of Engineers. The Conference provided an effective forum for a wide cross section of stakeholders comprising of policy makers, resource planers & managers and researchers to exchange and share knowledge and experience while reaching consensus on jointly working towards the evolution of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure with ACCIMT as a focal point.

This status report is based on a survey carried out in 2008 by the ACCIMT involving public and private sector organisations engaged in research activities substantially using RS/GIS applications in their work.

Introduction

The objective of the survey which carried out by the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, is to analyse the present situation of Geoinformatics Applications in Sri Lanka.

Agency Type

Type of Organizations which involving in RS/GIS/GPS Activities



Agency responses to the survey is shown in the Figure 1. The Academic institutions that were carrying out Geoinformatics applications totaled to 39% of those responded. Whereas the government and semi governmental agencies totaled to 24% each.

Major Activities

Major activities in the Surveyed Agencies



Major activities carried out by the various agencies are shown in the Figure 2. 25% of the agencies are carrying out Geoinformatics for research purposes, 19% of the agencies are involved in academic activities, 11% are carrying out tasks associated with planning, 10% are involved in consultancy activities.

Agency Capabilities

Involvement of RS, GIS & GPS activities in the Surveyed Agencies



The agencies capabilities in terms of GIS, RS and GPS are shown in the Figure 3. The highest use is by GIS users. They total to 54% of the community. Next highest is the GPS with 44%. Remote Sensing users also account to approximately 40%.

Geoinformatics Tasks



The Geoinformatics Tasks carried out by agencies are mostly for Database Preparation or for Map Creation. 23% of surveyed agencies fall into this category. 19% of the agencies carryout Image Analysis while Spatial Analysis is done by 17%.

Geoinformatics Software use in Sri Lanka

Software use for RS/GIS/GPS applications in the surveyed Agencies



Geoinformatics Software use in the surveyed agencies is shown in the Figure 5. Mostly used software is the ESRI ArcGIS with a market share of approximately 29% and another 25% are using ESRI ArcView software. The software ILWIS has shown approximately 13% of the software share among the surveyed agencies.

Personnel Engaged in Geoinformatics Applications

Staff distribution of different experiences and qualification in RS, GIS and GPS



The number of personnel engaged in Geoinformatics Applications at the surveyed agencies is shown in the Figure 6. The total number in all categories total to 1286. The majority are GPS users. It appears that the number of persons in the GIS and RS fields and especially trained persons are very less.

Separate Divisions and Budgets

Trend of establishing new divisions for RS/GIS/GPS activities

Survey results indicated that only a few agencies have recognized a separate division for Geoinformatics activities. However an increasing trend could be observed in the recognition of separate divisions within surveyed agencies. This is shown in the Figure 7. Out of the surveyed agencies, only 9 agencies (24%) had been given a separate budget allocation for their activities in RS, GIS and GPS. 29 organizations (76%) had carried out their activities without a separate budget allocation.

List of agencies which responded to the survey