FRAMEWORK DATA AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
— A SURVEY 
K.Tempfli, T. Bouloucos 
ITC, Department of Earth Observation Science 
(tempfli, bouloucos)@itc.nl 
Commission VI, WG VI/3 
KEY WORDS: Developing Countries, Spatial Data Infrastructure, Mapping, Revision, Education 
ABSTRACT: 
The paper gives a first account of an initiative to survey the state of providing fundamental geo-spatial data and in particular 
topographic data in developing countries. Focusing on developing countries the ITC aims at capacity building and institutional 
development of professional and academic organizations and individuals in the field of geo-information science and earth 
observation. In support of ITC’s educational activities and project services we attempt at intervals to systematically “map the 
mapping status”. The present survey includes analysing the responses of a questionnaire that was sent to national mapping agencies 
of countries of interest, ITC's international partner institutes, and to recent alumni. 
1. Motivation 
The Bathurst Declaration (Bathurst, 1999) formulates what at 
least every mapping professional is likely to believe, ie, "spatial 
data is the key to planning, sustainable management and 
development of natural resources". We can easily extend the 
relevance of spatial data and geo-information to the planning 
and managing of physical infrastructure, protection of the 
environment, securing land tenure, and decision making on 
safety issues. The existence of a spatial data infrastructure 
(SDI) is expected to ensure efficient accessibility of 
data/information that is referenced to a position on the earth's 
surface. The Bathurst Declaration defines SDI as a term that 
describes the fundamental spatial data sets, the standards that 
enable them to be integrated, the distribution network to 
provide access to them, the policies and administrative 
principles that ensure compatibility between jurisdictions and 
agencies, and the people including user, provider and value 
adder who are interested at a certain level of area that starts at a 
local level and proceeds through state, national and regional 
levels to global level. SDIs are increasingly recognized as an 
essential element for the development of a country. By now 
creating a (national) SDI has been put on the political agenda of 
many countries. 
The 'geo-awareness' seems to spread through out the world and 
ambitious plans shape up. How does increasing awareness and 
new plans translate to the existence and availability of base 
data? What is actually done today around the globe in terms of 
producing fundamental geo-spatial data--framework data, if 
you wish--and in particular topographic data? There is very 
little literature published in the worldwide public domain about 
the availability of framework data and the state of topographic 
mapping and data/map revision in developing countries. 
Several attempts have been made in the past, at kind of regular 
intervals, to monitor the progress in providing base data (eg, 
Brandenberger, 1980; Bos, 1982; Perry & Perkins, 1991; 
187 
Brandenberger, 1993; Davis & Fairbairn, 1998). All 
researchers faced the problem of not much being reported by 
developing countries. Despite of the Internet this situation has 
not changed much. Five years ago Davis & Fairbairn reported, 
“there is an alarming dearth of literature concerning mapping 
and map revision in developing countries. This is a worrying 
trend since it implies that the mapping activities fundamental to 
a country's development may not be taking place." Is the latter 
true? Ezigbalike et al (2000) claim, “while there are several 
initiatives in Africa that can be regarded as rudiments of a 
holistic SDI, most advance has been made on spatial data. 
because we did not have to start from scratch. Spatial data 
always have been available in various forms in all countries, 
especially in map form". Yet we ask ourselves, is the rapid 
change of technology triggering changes at equal page in 
operational practice of large volume data providers (national 
mapping agencies, etc) in developing countries? Is the 
technological promise met of improved quality, more detailed 
data, greater variety products, and faster availability? 
Focusing on developing countries the International Institute for 
Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) has 
started out more than 50 years ago on a mission of developing 
and transferring knowledge of aerial surveys for base mapping 
as part of the Netherlands Programme for Technical Assistance. 
Meanwhile the institute has broadened its aim to capacity 
building and institutional development of organizations dealing 
with the provision of spatial data (ITC, 2000). ITC's mission 
includes the institute's continuing interest in topographic 
mapping but does not imply that we are fully aware of what is 
really done in terms of collecting, processing, storing, updating, 
and disseminating topographic data in many developing 
countries. Another incentive for our initiative to survey the 
mapping status globally is ITC's recently adopted policy of 
"decentralization". As part of this policy, educational 
programmes will be developed and implemented jointly with 
partner institutions in a “Geo-Information Network for