Abstract
Most of the countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are poor but rich in various natural and agricultural resources. The vision of SADC is a common economic well-being, improved standards of living and quality of life for all people in the member states. Geographical information science (GISc) plays a vital role in managing the natural and agricultural resources to achieve the vision of SADC. Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) facilitate access to geographical information and provide policies to manage access to geographical information. These are key success factors for finding sustainable solutions to the challenges of all member states. In order to implement SDIs and to strengthen the use of geographical data in solution finding, these countries need GISc education to train the necessary professionals and scientists. The objective of this study is to investigate if there is a relationship between the availability of GISc education and SDI implementation in the SADC countries. To our knowledge a similar study has not been undertaken. Previous studies have been conducted to determine the current state of GISc education and SDI implementation respectively on the African continent. In this chapter we compare the findings of the two studies to determine if there is a relationship between the availability of GISc education and the state of SDI implementation in SADC countries. The results indicate that SDI implementation in SADC is not influenced by the availability of GISc education.
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Eksteen, S., Coetzee, S. (2014). The State of GISc Education and SDI Implementation in the SADC Countries: A Comparative Study. In: Buchroithner, M., Prechtel, N., Burghardt, D. (eds) Cartography from Pole to Pole. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32618-9_34
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