A functioning NSDI will improve the country’s ease of doing business ranking by opening systems and platforms to enable players across all sectors to create, share, analyze, and use critical information for improved and efficient decision making. Ultimately, a coordinated NSDI will serve as a warehouse for vital climate change data, which will allow for better engineering design for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation across all sectors.
In Saint Lucia for the fourth time, (July 2019), consultants representing Kadaster International, tasked with working alongside local stakeholders to launch the NSDI, explained that more than 90% of all decisions taken by government is relevant to spatial planning. Joep Crompvoets, a representative from the consulting firm, lauded the country for creating the legislative environment geared towards data protection but lamented the lack of data-sharing legislation.
“In Saint Lucia, a lot of activities have been done. A lot of things have been achieved in establishing regulations and policies for limiting the use and availability of spatial information, but not for sharing available data.
“Stored data is valuable. But only when the data can be shared across sectors and used for strategic decision making, does it truly become useful.
“The establishment of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) for Saint Lucia will clearly be beneficial to individuals, households, communities, businesses, and sectors. It will allow for cost savings and improve efficiency at all levels,” Crompvoet says. Senior Cartographer in the DPP, Suzanna Aurelien, says it is important at this stage of the country’s development for individual agencies to stop working in silos. She looks forward to the adoption of a framework to freely share information with each other.
“In developing countries as well as first world countries, data sharing and reuse is the way to go because it helps to save money and facilitates a lot of processes.
“In Saint Lucia, we have a lot of work to do when it comes to facilitating the NSDI by putting in place data sharing and data reuse legislation.
“I also believe that facilitation of data flow across agencies will boost the economy by making it easier to obtain information for investment purposes.” Aurielen says.
There is consensus that spatial planning provides predictable conditions for investment. When used constructively, the NSDI, funded through the DVRP, is expected to promote prudent use of land and natural resources for development. The NSDI will be used also for promoting sustainable development and improving the quality of life of the citizenry, thereby leading to poverty alleviation.