GEOSA, OGC launches a working draft of national geospatial policies & standards
The General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information (GEOSA) and The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) held today in Riyadh a workshop on national geospatial policies and standards.
The workshop witnessed the presence of the relevant authorities from the public, private, academic and non-profit sectors.
The workshop included a speech by H.E. Dr. Eng. Mohammed bin Yahya Al-Sayel, president of GEOSA, in which he raised thanks and appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman- may God support him – and to His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz , Crown Prince and Prime Minister.
Al-Sayel also expressed gratitude to His Royal Highness Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud , Saudi Minister of Defense, Chairman of the Board of Directors of GEOSA for the unlimited support for the survey and geospatial information sector.
Al-Sayel stressed that the GEOSA is working on building and developing the national geospatial infrastructure and providing geospatial services and products with high quality in accordance with the best international specifications, standards and practices.
Al-Sayel added that a National Geospatial Center was launched recently that acts as a national reference for the governance of geospatial data.
The regulatory framework for the governance of geospatial data and the setting of standards has also been adopted, according to Al-Sayel.
Al-Sayel highlighted the controls to achieve the integrated use of the geospatial information system, the national dictionary of geospatial data, the national model for geospatial data, and the descriptive model for geospatial data.
He added that the updated version of the national geospatial platform won the Top Geographic Information Systems Outstanding Software Awards 2022 for the bodies and organizations that use the software of the Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. (ESRI) in return for the authority’s outstanding work in developing the national geospatial platform.
He pointed out that GEOSA is currently working on the e-linkage of geospatial databases in all relevant authorities with the geospatial databases in the National Geospatial Center of the Authority, taking into account the ongoing improvement and updating.
Al-Sayel explained that in the field of policies and standards, GEOSA has learned with a number of international organizations and experts about the preparation of national geospatial policies and standards in cooperation with the Open Geospatial Data Consortium (OGC), through which it aims to regulate the survey and geospatial information sector in the Kingdom in accordance with the best international standards and practices.
“Government agencies can Benefiting from this cooperation through coordination with the Authority in order to unify efforts and achieve efficient spending”, he said.
Moreover, the assistant head of GEOSA for the National Geospatial Center, Engineer Asim Al-Ghamdi, delivered a speech in which he highlighted the objectives of the workshop that aims to achieve cooperation with the Open Geospatial Information Consortium – OGC.
Dr. Muhammad Zafar, Senior Adviser to the President of GEOSA , presented a working paper entitled “Introduction to National Geospatial Policies and Standards”.
After that, two discussion sessions for a number of experts began, during which they discussed the national geospatial data policy and national geospatial data standards.
The aforementioned sessions came in the context of GEOSA efforts to build and develop the national geospatial infrastructure by preparing the guiding standards and controls necessary to achieve the integrated use of national geospatial information. The workshop touched on geospatial policies for the governance of geospatial data and the policy for classifying, licensing, pricing, sharing and protecting geospatial data.
It also touched on geospatial standards, management and evaluation of the quality of geospatial data, specifications for national geospatial data and the national registry of geospatial standards.
Geospatial policies and standards are the first outputs of the partnership between the Open Geospatial Data Consortium (OGC) and the General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information.
