DEVELOPMENT OF NDATA SCHOOL OF CLIMATE AND EARTH SCIENCES GEOPORTAL

The purpose of this study was to come with a web-based platform for Ndata School of Climate and Earth Science (NSCES) at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) and determine NSCES’s current spatial data sharing patterns. Ndata school was chosen from a number of faculty departments because most activities within the faculty involve use of spatial data of various kinds that has been disorganized and unconfined to a central place for a long time since MUST began in 2014. There have also been data collection redundancies which has been costly since the same data has been collected now and again for different purposes within the school. The main objective was to develop a geoportal that will enhance spatial data sharing and effective management at NSCES i.e., data standards, availability and interoperability improvement thus creating an effective spatial data sharing community, Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) within the school. The methodology used implicates configuration of the database followed by server and web setup. A number of tools were used of which included an implementation using Django web framework of python that was used to come up with a user interface, a Geo-Server as spatial data server, Pycsw or Geo-Network as catalogue services tool and PostgreSQL along with PostGIS as database server. The project was implemented by following agile development approach wherein the implementation was done in phases and meetings concerning its development. The data to be used was collected from all NSCES programs through Head of Departments, class representatives and lecturers by reviewing the already existing data which will presented to the team as documents by one of the study participants. And lastly, the final product comprises of a working geoportal application with data downloading and other repository tabs in the end making spatial data availability and exchange more effective within MUST thus a contribution to the country as organizations dealing with spatial data can be managing its spatial data for effective use through this approach.

Ndata school was chosen from a number of faculty departments because most activities within the faculty involve use of spatial data of various kinds that has been disorganized and unconfined to a central place for a long time since MUST began in 2014. The main objective was to develop a geoportal that will enhance spatial data sharing and effective management at NSCES i.e., data standards, availability and interoperability improvement thus creating an effective spatial data sharing community, Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) within the school. A number of tools were used of which included an implementation using Django web framework of python that was used to come up with a user interface, a Geo-Server as spatial data server, Pycsw or Geo-Network as catalogue services tool and PostgreSQL along with PostGIS as database server. And lastly, the final product comprises of a working geoportal application with data downloading and other repository tabs in the end making spatial data availability and exchange more effective within MUST thus a contribution to the country as organizations dealing with spatial data can be managing its spatial data for effective use through this approach.

No detailed description has been provided for this study area.

Traditional authority: TA Chimaliro

District: Thyolo

Coordinates: -15.9729, 35.19975