Annexure 10
Attachment D

Introduction

Resolution 4 of the Suva workshop lists the following projects identified during the workshop as priorities for the Pacific Island PCGIAP member countries:

1. Comprehensive assessment of GIS issues of Pacific Group member countries, leading to a major institutional strengthening project.
2. Expansion of the Asia Pacific Regional Geodetic Project (APRGP) to include all Pacific Island countries.
3. Development of a remote sensing data library for the Pacific.

Background

An important component of the workshop program was the identification, by Pacific Island participants, of the key items that would help solve their GIS and related development needs. A number of items were developed during the workshop and these were voted on by all 15 countries present.

The two items with the most votes were:

1. information gathering through a comprehensive survey, spatial data directories, and cadastral benchmarking
2. institutional strengthening.

The workshop agreed these should be combined as institutional strengthening logically follows the information gathering.

Priority key items of the Pacific Group

1. Comprehensive assessment of GIS issues of Pacific Group member countries, leading to a major institutional strengthening project.
   • Comprehensive survey of member countries' major GIS development needs
   • Development of spatial data directories
   • Cadastral benchmarking
   • Institutional strengthening.
2. Expansion of the Asia Pacific Regional Geodetic Project (APRGP) to include all Pacific Island countries.
   • The workshop expressed its desire to be more involved in PCGIAP geodesy activities. As a first step it was agreed that a senior geodesist from Fiji would attend the PCGIAP geodesy workshop to be held in Vietnam in June or July 1999.
3. Development of a remote sensing data library for the Pacific.
   • The accelerating development of remote sensing technology and the increasing availability of remote sensing data were noted. Given that a number of Pacific Island countries mapping is out-of-date, a Pacific Group project to enable locating information on data availability and library of imagery was agreed to.
   • Though important enough to be listed for voting, two other items were not supported as current major priorities. However the workshop agreed that future priorities may include participation in the Global Map project and a GIS atlas for the Pacific.

The above descriptions of the three projects will be developed into one page scoping documents by Australia in consultation with Pacific Group members.

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