Geoinformation for Development

Development topics are emerging more and more in daily discussions. Affected by natural disasters and the consequences of global change, economic development and the many challenges to human security, actors require explicit spatial information for improved decision making. The geoinformation community is aware of this potential and the wide field of application. However, there are still many obstacles in the way of successful implementations. The lacking awareness about GI applications, inadequate human resources or missing institutional provisions all hamper improvements.
The special session ‘Geoinformation for development’ of the annual AGIT Symposium (www.agit.at) held in Salzburg on July 7 2006, addressed these topics by means of an open moderated discussion forum attended by scientists, actors in development cooperation and policy practitioners. With the objective to bridge the divide through partnerships the conference covered the following topics:

- The pressing issues – landcover, access to water, food production and distribution, biodiversity.
- Methodologies and tools – information systems for sharing data, GIS, remote sensing and photogrammetry, spatial modelling, scenario development.
- Institutional requirements – challenging existing power structures, obstacles for implementation, facilitation of negotiation processes, early warning, and complementarities in international cooperation.
- Recommendations provided by members of a concluding panel discussion.
The articles cover the contributions made either by oral presentation (keynotes, discussion forum), posters or statements by panel members and session chairs.
The book addresses people working in the overlapping fields of geoinformation, development co-operation and technology transfer.