13th CAN ICT Conference
Organized by: Computer Association of Nepal and Internet Society Nepal
Spatially enabled e-governance: in
the Nepalese Context
Ganesh Prasad Bhatta
(M.Sc. , Land Administration)
Chief Survey Officer, Survey Department
February 8, 2013, Friday
Presentation Outline

Objective of the Presentation
Setting the Scene
 Brief Introduction to relevant terminologies
 Benefits of SEG
 Key Elements of SEG

Present Situation
 Initiatives to build infrastructure for SEG
 Issues and Challenges
 Conclusion

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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Objective of the Presentation

To draw the attention/concern of Policy makers,
ICT professionals, and researchers towards spatially
enabled governance
◦
◦
◦
◦
to fill the policy gap
to fill the system gap
to fill the research gap
among others
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Setting the Scene
'Death of Distance'
 'There is no more there, everywhere is here'
-Internet- (Cairncross, 1997)
↓
 Exploitation of the opportunity offered by internet Electronic Self Service
- E-government ↓
 Incorporating Location Based Information to the information
system
 Location based Services
- Spatial enablement
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Introduction

E-government
◦ Online service delivery, using internet or other digital means
◦ Combines various ICTs (Geo-ICTs) to connect government
agencies and institutions, promotes reorganization of
governments internal and external information flows,
activities and functions in order to shift service delivery over
the internet
◦ Draws together the public sector, civil society and
international actors, as well as improves consultation with,
and participation by, all spheres of society to achieve a more
participatory process of governance & decision-making
(Navarra and Cornford, 2007).
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Introduction …

Governance
◦ The process of decision-making and the process by which
decision and implemented (or not implemented)
◦ It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions
through which citizens and groups articulate their interests,
exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate
their differences .

E-Governance
◦ the application of ICT to achieve efficiency, effectiveness,
transparency and accountability in Government to Government,
Government to Employee, Government to People and
Government to Business.
◦ It enables peoples to make best use of automated
administration processes that are accessible on-line.
(Carmen RĂDUŢ, Dan VILAIA)
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Introduction …
E-Government
Concept
Fig courtesy: (Do, 2010)
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Introduction …

Spatial Enablement
◦ Addition of location based information to the existing
information system

Spatially Enabled Government (SEG)
◦ the government that makes use and benefits from a wide
array of spatial data, information, and services in its policy
and decision making

Spatially Enabled Society
◦ a society can be regarded as spatially enabled when
location and spatial information are commonly available to
citizens and businesses to encourage creativity and
product development
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Introduction …

Example of SEG
◦ spatial based e-government application, which is developed
to access the parcel based official documents on internet.
◦ transmission of the spatial government documents
(cadastral plans, construction permission plans, land usage
plans, application plans, etc.) to related person and
agencies in electronic environment using e-government
applications.
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Benefits of SEG
Ensures good governance
 Helps to make the decision and policy making
effective
 Helps to make justifiable distribution of resources
and national benefits

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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Key Elements of SEG

Legal Framework




Spatial Data Infrastructure
Common Data Integration Concept
Positioning Infrastructure
Land Information System

Data and Information Concept
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Nepalese Context for Spatially
Enabled e-Governance
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Present Situation

The numbers of e-government applications using non-spatial
data have been continuously increasing, while quite a few
applications using spatial data have been conducted by the
related government agencies.

ICT Policy and Electronic Transaction Act have been enacted
but the issues related with spatial and property data are not
adequately addressed
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Business vs ICT Market
Business
fit
fit
Strategy
ICT
Market
link ICT Policy
fit
fit
Processes
link
Systems
Does this alignment prevail for Geo-ICT
based Business and market in Nepal?
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Strategic
Alignment
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Operationa
l Alignment
(Barnasconi, 2006)
Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Initiatives to Build Infrastructure for SEG

Ministry of Land Reform and Management
◦ SOLA (Open source based land information system) under progress

Survey Department, the National Mapping Organization
◦ Digital database of topographic map series and various kinds of
geoinformation products
◦ National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Initiative
◦ Cadastral data acquisition with digital technology
◦ Infrastructure for Positional Data

Department of Land Information and Archive
◦ Digitalization of land records and development of land information
system (LIS) (ongoing)
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Initiatives to Build Infrastructure for
Spatially Enabled Governance …

NSDI initiative
◦ National
Geographic
Information Infrastructure
Project (NGIIP) under
Survey Department
◦ An initiative to ensure edemocracy in geographic
information
◦ An initiative to discourage
duplication of efforts and
resources to produce
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similar
kind
of
geoinformation products
◦ An initiative to ensure
interoperability,
consistency and sharability
of the geo-data
Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Challenges and Issues





ICT Policy and Electronic Transaction Act- Geo-ICT issues,
especially related to land administration to be addressed
adequately
NSDI integration - is vital for e-governance
Awareness - should be enhanced
Inland Capacity for system development - to be developed
Organizational Capacity for sustainability of the system
◦ Infrastructure
◦ Human resources
◦ Investment


Coordination - to be improved
Professional Development - to be emphasized
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
By the way
is e-governance properly translated?
e-governance = विद्यत
ु ीय शासन
विद्यत
ु ीय = Electric
is e-government = electric government?
 Let's rethink the translation

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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Conclusion

Spatial enablement of the information makes the policy and
decision making more effective and spatially better
distributed

Due concern of the policy makers, ICT professionals and
researchers is needed in order to work more on this
domain

Let's work together! Then, we will be successful in
promoting e-Democracy in Nepal, ultimately to build 'eNepal' since 'together we can'
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department
Thank You
for your kind attention!
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Government of Nepal
Ministry of Land Reform and Management
Survey Department