GIS in developing countries

The application and development of GIS began in developed countries, especially North America.The main components of GIS include hardware, software, data and human resources.The hardware includes computer, scanner digitizer, plotter, printer, while the software can be selected either commercial or freely available.Examples of software that are widely used ARC / INFO, ArcView, Idrisi, ER Mapper, GRASS, MapInfo.Data formats will be discussed specifically in the following chapter.

Some ways to enter data into a GIS is through the keyboard, digitizer, scanner, remote sensing systems, field survey, GPS.Human resources as a component of GIS include not only technical staff, which is in charge in terms of data entry and processing and analyzing the data, but also the coordinator on duty to control the quality of the GIS.The GIS functional elements include data collection, initial processing, data management, data manipulation and analysis, and manufacturing of final output.

Use of GIS for tropical forestry in developing countries has recently begun, and quite varied among countries, namely in terms of goals, applications, operational scale, sustainability, and financing. The process of commencement of the use of GIS in developing countries in general is of the pilot project, and not the system running operationally.Therefore GIS largely developed without a long-term objective to integrate it with GIS or other databases.

SIG largely not intended to be used by many people and are usually designed for special purposes.In addition, GIS is more widely developed on a regional level than national and urban levels.Dataset data mostly consist of biophysical, socio-economic data were rarely covered.Because the funding of the development of GIS majority of international assistance, GIS projects tend to be managed by experts who are usually short tenure, and not by local staff.In addition to constraints relating to the commencement of the development of GIS at the top,several other factors that inhibit the use and development of GIS in developing countries is the lack of financial resources, lack of education in this field, lack of communication between bureaucrats to technocrats, poor information flow, political factors are changing rapidly, the lack of flexibility to select and develop a GIS because of foreign aid that is usually enough binds.

To overcome these obstacles, training is an important step to develop human resource capacity.In addition, the commitment of government agencies to use GIS, especially in terms of planning, will be very useful.Also, by involving other agencies such as industry and international institutions, the possibility of successful development of GIS will increase.