SOPAC installs first Internet Map Server in the Pacific Islands

Aug 01, 2003

Under European Union funding (EDF8), the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) has initiated a project for the benefit of 8 Pacific ACP countries (Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu). Entitled “Reducing Vulnerability of Pacific ACP States”, the project aims to improve decision making in three sectors that are of particular relevance to Pacific Islands: aggregates for construction (sand being a coastal resource, any extraction of it may permanently damage the coastline, the lagoon or the reef), hazard mitigation and risk assessment, and water resources, supply and sanitation.

To help meet the project objectives of improved planning and better decision making based on factual and accurate information shared amongst all categories of the population, geographical information will be available as maps and reports to all stakeholders though the Internet.

To give access to maps, a map server based on OpenSource software is currently being established as a demonstration unit in SOPAC. The use of OpenSource software reduces software costs as well as allowing the application to be tailor-made to individual country needs. It provides a system that is open to all Pacific Islander specialists to study and modify via the Internet. The OpenSource software suite is composed of GNU/Linux Mandrake for the server platform with the Mapserver from the University of Minnesota bundled inside Tikiwiki for better multi-stakeholder collaboration.

During a recently completed training workshop, held from the 28th to 30th July, stakeholders from Fiji contributed directly to the map server. Workshop participants from Mineral Resources Department, Public Works Department, Telecom Fiji and Forestry added important data layers of geographical information from each of their respective agencies.

This information is freely accessible on the Internet at and it allows individuals and professionals to analyse, from their home or office, information that was sometimes cumbersome and time consuming to acquire.

Completion of this pilot phase in Fiji will be followed over the next two years by similar equipment installation and training in the other Pacific ACP countries, to allow dissemination of their geographical information to all. Providing interactive maps of Pacific Islands on the Internet for Pacific Islands is a first in the Region. The provision of web-based map servers in each country will enable the distribution of information and analysis to a much larger section of the population, and ultimately in rural areas. The SOPAC/EU Project anticipates the service will be useful to a broad spectrum of the community and that some of these materials will be used in classrooms throughout the Pacific, so that school children can better understand interactions between environment, social and economic aspects of development. Web-based map servers do not require the end-user to purchase any software, its access is simple, therefore any stakeholder can access the information. The lack of Internet connectivity in certain countries is a challenge that the SOPAC/EU Project is also actively addressing. However, it is thought that in the long run the Internet will provide the best outreach system at the lowest cost.

About SOPAC:

SOPAC is mandated by Pacific Countries to contribute to sustainable development, reduced poverty and enhanced resilience for the people of the Pacific by supporting the development of natural resources, in particularly non-living resources, investigating natural systems and the reduction of vulnerability, through applied environmental geosciences, appropriate technologies, knowledge management, technical and policy advice, human resource development and advocacy of Pacific issues. www.sopac.org