What Does 'Building Spatial Capacity' Mean?
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- By Jeff Thurston | 21 January 2011 | 2066
Across the spatial information industry we often talk about building capacity. That can mean different things to different people. What consumers wish for and want, may be substantially different than what businesses and institutions are capable of providing, are instructed to provide and what legal questions may allow for - or professionalism and ethics. In general, building spatial capacity means raising awareness and it ought to be inclusive of all individuals, not only a few. This allows society to understand and trust what the geospatial community is capable of and doing, and supports the notion they can be depended upon and chosen.
Across the spatial information industry we often talk about building capacity. That can mean different things to different people. What consumers wish for and want, may be substantially different than what businesses and institutions are capable of providing, are instructed to provide and what legal questions may allow for - or professionalism and ethics. In general, building spatial capacity means raising awareness and it ought to be inclusive of all individuals, not only a few. This allows society to understand and trust what the geospatial community is capable of and doing, and supports the notion they can be depended upon and chosen.
When I choose to purchase a piece of surveying equipment, learn a GIS course, design a building with a particular software or navigate through a city using GNSS technology, I have decided it is worth my time and that I will learn or gain something something useful - something helpful. In most cases the outcome will be 'right' - it will take me where I wish to go, result in a design I can share or perhaps sell and it will provide me with geodata I find helpful - perhaps for initiating flood prevention of some other cause.
There is implied trust when I buy and use geospatial and geomatic technologies and services. To achieve that sense of trust though has taken lots of efforts by many people. The level of trust includes awareness about the products, some level of understanding about how they operate and what they are useful for, and, a sense that whomever is teaching about it, selling the product or service, or providing the means to use it - knows what they are talking about and helps me to choose.
Building spatial capacity in society and communities is slightly more complex, although the same issues are present. The European Union speaks about INSPIRE, a Directive pertaining to spatial data across the European Union. That goal helps to lay the groundwork for trans-national understanding of spatial issues through the designation and assignment of a series of Annex that includes spatial data types. In fact, in builds capacity for common understanding, since each country is required to comply with these Annex.
The U.S. government has been talking about including spatial data throughout it's operations for quite a while. That initiative has similar impacts - to build common awareness. It also pertains to national data, since the U.S. government is not likely to demand that people use geospatial a certain way. Other nations have similar efforts in place like Europe and the U.S.
Thus, it can be seen that laying the groundwork or foundation for governance and legislation that includes geospatial information and technologies is dependent upon increasing awareness in the first instance. Often by this time, and with respect to government agencies, the benefits have largely been demonstrated in terms of increased government efficiency and or effectiveness, often with economic considerations that are favorable.
To achieve that point is not straightforward though. It can (and has) taken decades to reach these levels. Education is a key aspect of building spatial capacity. It involves not only training on the use of equipment and technology, but recognition and a desire to solve real world problems with these products and services.
If there is a fault or gap in the entire geospatial system it is that too many people talk about technology alone, neglecting to share, express and convey the advantages of the technologies and where and how they can contribute people - they assume people will know what to do with technologies once thrown into the marketplace.Wrong.
While there may be early adopters for any given technology introduction, those adopters may not be willing to share their knowledge and understanding and or may not have the skills or means to share them. Is it any wonder that the most successful spatially related company's are usually those who invest time and money into helping others to understand what they are about? Look around, I bet you can see which company's and institutions are investing the most in building capacity through this avenue!
We can see several key areas where building capacity takes place - institutions, businesses and government.
Institutions have a dual role of training and education. They help people to learn technologies, but also provide a pathway to understanding the conceptual aspects for using particular technologies and services. Great debates happen in universities between two camps - pure science and application orientations (I worked in a university for 25 years). Neither is particularly right, and society needs both. We apply geospatial technologies to solve particular real world problems, on the other hand, designing nifty technology for it's own purpose is pretty much pointless. Look around again and one will find successful company's usually connect with user communities to keep a balance between concept and applications. This is important.
But we do want dreamers. And innovators and we do need to take risks. Thus, funding pure research is important.
The collaboration between company's, institutions and governments does have a special role because it provides an means to cut across boundaries, inject new ideas and thoughts into communities and provides a means to test and orient geospatial applications across wider communities within society. It can result in real service, helpful to many. It is also a capacity building effort, and has the unique advantage of raising awareness to a broader range of people. It also has the advantage of resulting in the greatest likelihood that legislation issues will arise and thus real change occur.
In some cases the raising of cultural awareness and environmental awareness through the use of spatial tools and technologies has significant and major impacts. The ability to reduce conflicts through 'map awareness' and or to provide 'flood prevention', for example, among people within a wider watershed can have tremendous benefits. Alternatively, understanding the 'processes' by which transportation systems operate, neighborhoods are developed and climate change is happens, can have far reaching effects - but is often gained through spatial databases, mapping and land administrations.
When we talk about building spatial capacity we are speaking about a broad range of technologies and services handling spatial data whose information can raise awareness in society about how real world problems and issues, how to confront them with options and a means to decide upon which is the best path forward. Through building spatial capacity we gain trust, knowledge and confidence that we can handle these issues with positive outcomes.
