Infrastructure data
Description
Data describing national networks for roads, water, ICT, etc., including their condition, maintenance schedules, logistical service providers and timetables
Rationale
Sharing this data helps value-chain actors to better plan their activities. For example, having good knowledge about the national infrastructure is vital in managing transportation and storage of (perishable) food products and having equitable access to markets. Knowledge of ICT infrastructures enables eService providers to develop their market strategies.
Key datasets
- Road network and conditions
- Road maintenance schedule
- Public transport
- Waterways
- Internet connectivity map
- Mobile connectivity map
Expected impact: Intermediate
Farmer use
- Farmers can make informed decisions on their trading options leading to more equitable markets.
Use by other actors
- Other value-chain actors can also make more informed decisions on logistics. Accessibility is key information for strategic business development in rural areas; this is especially important for traders, transporters, processors, loan agents etc.
- Financial service providers use this information as part of a larger risk assessment of a client to better understand their trading options.
- Data on the connectivity of different regions is useful for providers of agricultural advice via telephone or internet to determine their market options.
Readiness
Most governments have (up to date) infrastructure data available as part of their responsibility for the development and maintenance of the national physical infrastructure. With relatively little effort this can be made available as open data, as nowadays this information is hosted in Geographical Information Systems, such as ArcGIS, QGIS. If available the data can easily be published as open data. While in many countries infrastructure data is not sensitive, in other countries it may be considered sensitive in relation to terrorist attacks or the distribution of the data may be part of an underlying business model to maintain the data or a government service (e.g. the Ordnance Survey in the UK).
Examples of implementation
- The Rwanda geoportal provides the networks of national and regional class 1 roads.This data can be used to analyse the shortest (or alternative) routes between several points http://rwandageoportal.rnra.rw/layers/geonode%3Aroad_networkl_50k
- The municipality of Bonn in Germany provides information on planned roadworks 30 days ahead; this data can be used by transporters to avoid delays. http://www.europeandataportal.eu/data/en/dataset/geplante-strassenbaustellen-30-tage-und-1-jahr-mit-ortsangabe-bonn-bn
- In Canada the government of British Columbia publishes data on the intensity of the traffic on the roads; this may be useful when transporting living or fresh goods. http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/trafficData/index.html
- Open Street Map makes it possible to create and distribute geodata as open data. An example is the digitization of maps of the waterways in Congo that are often used for transporting agricultural goods. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Congo-Kinshasa/Cours_d%27eau
Initiatives that support interoperability
- Open Street Map data model http://write.flossmanuals.net/openstreetmap/understanding-the-openstreetmap-data-model/
- Spatial data standards are maintained by the Open GIS Consortium http://www.opengeospatial.org/
- In the EU the INSPIRE directive is regulating the exchange of spatial government data in data infrastructures. http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/