Gauteng will be using a space map to plot its future urban growth and manage its resources, writes Aspasia Karras In the drive to confirm Gauteng’s status as the “smart province”, it has come to grips with the digital age and is now using snappy automated products to deliver its vision of “growth for all”. Central to this strategy is the “space map”, with data from the Landsat satellite, some 500km above the earth’s surface. The satellites are designed to assist in the survey and management of Earth’s resources.
“Aside from the bird’s eye view of Gauteng – in itself of inestimable value to the province’s decision-makers, providing a real picture of the area, the map and other satellite products will be used by Development Information Systems in integrating urban and regional planning, environmental monitoring, demographic studies, urbanisation trends and land suitability studies,” says ##Mohamed Bhyat, the chief director of development information systems in Gauteng’s Department of Development Planning and Local Government.
This is just one of the many applications of the Geographical Information System (GIS) revolutionising the way the department does its work.
According to Bhyat, “The concept of smart government is about more than just efficiency in business processes. It has to do with a philosophy and an approach that, yes, encompasses efficiency and effectiveness but places far more emphasis on integrated development frameworks and governance.”
Governance in the digital age is a whole different ball game to the paper-pushing bureaucracies of the past, and the governments of the world either have to buy in or drop out.
Critics of this approach argue that information technology (IT) is just a tool to enable better and hopefully more efficient business processes but like all systems it suffers from the perennial problem – put garbage in, and you’ll get garbage out.
But in a country plagued with mammoth backlogs of basic service delivery, what role can fancy, expensive computer programs really play? Bhyat’s project is showing the way out of that quandary. IT is a crucial tool for him that will facilitate development, transform the way services are delivered and create a better governance framework.
“All strategic planning in the province, whether it be growth and development, economic policy, financial management and budget cycles, has to be based on information. That information needs to be verifiable, available in the right form and at the right time. The enabler is IT.”
The challenge facing the department when it was set up three years ago was to ensure that integrated development took place in line with the reconstruction and development programme objectives. Its decision to use the information system was based on need. “We decided to go the GIS route because there is no management information system – even a sophisticated data base – that would be able to handle the vast complexity, variety and physical spread of alphanumeric data involved,” explains Louis van der Merwe, a director in the department.
The information system is basically a system of computer hardware, software and procedures designed to support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis and display of spatially referenced data for solving complex, planning management problems. The information system is able to integrate spatial data from different sources with different forms and levels of detail and represents a powerful tool that can integrate information on planning with administrative, political, social and economic data. This includes information on roads and transport infrastructure, land- use constraints, environment, economic viability, the census and more.
When the GIS project started two years ago, there were two problems. Van der Merwe explains: “Either there was no data in existence on a particular subject, or there were varying degrees of duplication, which is both inefficient and highly expensive. We needed a method of gathering all this information from the various sources, integrating them and then ensuring that each data source was transparent to the others for the purposes of effective decision-making.”
The information system presents a comprehensive picture of statistical information in a multi-coloured graphical format, in which layers of data are presented on a map, with deeper underlying facts and information attainable by clicking on a polygon. “This is a highly effective and logical method of presenting management information, providing decision- makers with fingertip information, allowing them to reach intelligent and informed conclusions on an array of issues.”
Each line department provides relevant statistics in its specific area, such as the density of schools and health clinics, to the central information system, where it is all captured and viewed by each department through its own viewer system. There are checks and balances: the information system allows for a bottom-up input of information, so the first layer comes from grass roots communities, the second from local government, the third from metropolitan infrastructures, and finally, provincial government.
The system is so integrated that the information system has already been used to report on capital spending in the province in all areas, and by all levels of government.
Other examples of its work include mapping poverty levels and the health profile of all districts, as well as linking all diseases to the state environment report. It maps statistics on unemployment and employment by district, as well as an audit of skills and household income distribution. For Bhyat, this is just the first step to a fully inter-networked government.
BLURB: Examples of its work include mapping poverty levels and the health profile of all districts