Spatial Data Infrastructure of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Molina, R.
1GEOBOLIVIA Email: rmolina@geo.gob.bo
Abstract
The Vice Presidency of the State, with the help of the GeoBolivia project, is building the Spatial Data In-frastructure of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (IDE-EPB by its Spanish initials). The first phase of the project has already been completed. It consisted in implementing an infrastructure and a geoportal that nowadays gives access to the reference geographic information of Bolivia, through WMS, WFS, WCS and CSW services. The project is currently in its second phase dedicated to decentralizing the structure of IDE-EPB and promoting its use throughout the Bolivian State. The whole platform uses free software and open standards. As a complement, an on-line training module was developed to undertake the transfer of the knowledge the project generated. The main software components used in the SDI are: gvSIG, QGis, uDig as GIS desktop clients; PostGreSQL and PostGIS as geographic database management system; geOrchestra as a framework containing the GeoServer map server, the GeoNetwork catalog server and the OpenLayers and Mapfish GIS webclient; MapServer as a map server for generating OpenStreetMap tiles; Debian as operating system; Apache and Tomcat as web servers. The Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) of the Plurinational State of Bolivia IDE-EPB, created through the GeoBolivia project, aims at providing useful geographic information (GI) to institutions and citizen. The SDI provides relevant, harmonized, and high quality GI, allowing to support the formulation, evaluation, implementation and monitoring of practical policies, with a direct or indirect impact on the territory. Additionally the SDI brings support in terms of education and research. The GeoBolivia project (www.geo.gob.bo) is responsible of organizing the cooperation with and between all the institutions involved in the field of GI in Bolivia. Indeed, the contribution of public and private institutions and professionals is crucial for strengthening and improving the data. With respect to these main objectives, the specific goals of the first phase of the GeoBolivia project were to build a server infrastructure, publish GI using open standards13 and develop a web portal for consultation, as a pioneer and main node of the SDI (Nebert, 2004). Regarding the selection of technology, the GeoBolivia project opted for the use of free software and OGC standards, ensuring its sustainability and promoting the democratization of access to information. On one side, this decision was based on the conviction that democracy depends on an informed citizenry with a wide access to public information, allowing them to fully participate in public life, collaborate in determining priorities for public spending and fight against corruption through demand accountability (Neuman, 2002). On the other side, the selection of free software was based on the fact that open source geographic software has reached yet a mature technological level that allows to use them exclusively. The use of free software is also endorsed by Article 77 of the new Bolivian General Telecommunications Law that states: "The Executive, Legislative, Judicial and Electoral bodies at all levels shall promote and prioritize the use of free software and open standards, within the framework of sovereignty and national security".
Keywords
BOLIVIA; GeoBolivia; geOrchestra