National Mapping Organisation Of South Africa
Dr Derek Clarke
National Geo-spatial Information
NMO-Industry Forum 2011
National Geo-spatial Information is the national mapping organisation of South Africa
Mandate from legislation
Land Survey Act
Spatial Data Infrastructure Act
National Mapping Organisation of South Africa
Responsible for:• Geodetic and topographic surveying;• National spatial reference frame;• National aerial imagery;• National mapping;• National spatial data infrastructure (2010)• Archive of records
Not responsible for:• Regulating cadastral surveys• Cadastral mapping
National Mapping Organisation of South Africa
Key work programme for 2011/12:• Maintain 980 of the 29 000 trig beacons;• Operate CORS (GNSS) real time and
post process – currently 56 stations;• High accuracy geoid of South Africa;• Complete fully structured topographic
database mid-2011 - nominal scale 1:50000;
• Update changes to topographic database – 99% of main features within 12 months;
• Acquire 315 000 km2 of digital aerial imagery and process to ortho-image;
National Mapping Organisation of South Africa
• Land cover and land use mapping (new programme) – test methodology;
• SA Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI):– Review legislation for SDI– Formulation of key policies– Assign official data custodians– Publication of key standards– Promote meta-data discovery facility.
Budget: US$16.7 million
National Mapping Organisation of South Africa
Some challenges:• Conflict between political agenda of rural
development and mandate of NMO;
• Budgetary cuts – not able to achieve user-demanded targets;
• Recruitment of skilled professional and technical staff;
• Making up lost ground with SASDI;
• Ground truthing/local knowledge – budget and staff limitations;
• User awareness;
• Product distribution.
National Mapping Organisation of South Africa