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Appropriate Technology: The design must consider the current level of information technology in the countries of the 
GMS, and ensure the design can be implemented in a practical way, and locally maintained. 
Compatibility with Existing Subregional Databases: The design must have no elements which force the 
abandonment of existing systems or data, and must take as much advantage as possible of data already collected. 
6.2 Overview of the Conceptual Design 
At the national level, it is expected that a number of different agencies will hold the component core datasets - for 
instance departments of Forestry, Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment, etc. The decision makers within the country will 
obtain needed information through sharing and exchanging, facilitated by a "hub", for instance in the national 
environmental agency. This "hub" may choose to hold only metadata, or may also be the custodian of one or more core 
datasets, but their main role is to facilitate the exchange of data using the SEMIS agreed data exchange standards. An 
important part of the design is that there should be no duplication of data, rather data is exchanged when needed using 
the appropriate standard. Figure 2 illustrates this concept. The national "hub" acts to obtain and exchange data with 
other riparian countries and international organisations using the standard exchange formats and keeps information 
about available core datasets in the subregion in the agreed standard metadata format. At the subregional level the "hub" 
would be an international agency such as UNEP or MRC, and will link to national hubs and to other relevant 
international agencies which might have useful data - again using the same standard exchange formats. 
It should be noted that no exchanges are required to go through the hub. Once connections and interchange agreements 
are established, direct transfers are also possible, if desired. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Forestry 
Agriculture Fisheries 
Subregional Finance and 
Hub Planning 
Nat'l 
Hub 
Tourism and 
Wildlife Research 
Industry and 
Etc. Commerce 
Statistics Health 
LEGEND 
- Data Exchange 
i Stakeholder/sector/ 
group 
Q Coordination 
  
  
  
Figure 2: Concept of National Decentralised SEMIS 
6.3 Overview Conceptual Data Model 
SEMIS data consists of 4 data groups: 
1. Core Datasets 
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000. 291