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3 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil 2011 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington DC Telephone: Internet: [email protected] All rights reserved The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed herein are entirely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of infodev, the Donors of infodev, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank and its affiliated organizations, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply on the part of the World Bank any judgment of the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to infodev Communications & Publications Department; 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW; Mailstop F 5P-503, Washington, D.C , USA; telephone ; Internet: [email protected]. All other queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, D.C , USA; fax: ; [email protected]. Cover design by infodev Cover photo by To cite this publication: Davis Jr., Clodoveu A. and Frederico Fonseca National Data Spatial Infrastructure: The Case of the Brazil. Washington, D.C: infodev / World Bank. Available at iii

4 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil Table of Contents Table of Contents iv Preface vi Acknowledgments viii About the Authors ix Abbreviations and Acronyms x Abstract xiii 1. Executive Summary Introduction Societal context Historical perspective Current situation Lessons learned Lessons for developing countries Long-term perspectives 4 1.8Conclusions Summary of recommendations 8 2. Societal Context Country overview Demographics Economy Society Environment Government and political system Science and technology Information technology Historical Perspective Relationship among early adopters in the Brazilian GIS scene 3.1 Introduction The role of private companies 16 iv

5 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil 3.4 Final remarks Current Situation Political issues Organizational issues GIS applications Funding issues Human resources Available datasets Standards Access issues Software and network issues International issues Best Practices Examples City of Belo Horizonte: From mapping to GIS to SDI 5.2 Bahia State: IDE-BA and Geoportal Bahia 5.3 Sao Paulo State: IDEA and DataGEO Minas Gerais State: IEDE INPE: Remote sensing SDI Lessons Learned Long-Term Perspectives Conclusions Summary of recommendations Brazilian Government The Executive Branch 9. Appendices Members of CONCAR References 51 v

6 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil Preface This report was prepared as part of the infodev study Using Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Data Infrastructure for Monitoring Development Outcomes. The specific objective was to make an analysis of the potential of the use of spatial data for modeling and monitoring development outcomes and how standardization of the creation and use of geographic data can improve it. Countries with large territories and in a stage of newly advanced economic development represent both a challenge and an opportunity to the use of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in monitoring development. But SDIs are much more than just than an electronic map creation device. SDIs require users engaged in the creation and use of geographic information. These users need to be trained in techniques for spatial data handling and analysis. They also need to be aligned with the country s broad policies rather than just focusing on immediate problem solving. The new computer technologies represent also another challenge and potential opportunity for the use of SDI in the monitoring of development outcomes. Current data sharing techniques allow joining several different data-providing organizations, without interfering with their technological choices, production processes, or internal culture. Providing shared access to data is only a first step for SDIs, and the next step is creating information services. However, there are several obstacles to achieve wide availability of spatial data and information that can actually make a difference in complex problem-solving situations, involving multiple actors, with different (and often conflicting) world views. There is a need for more interaction among users to support cooperation, discussions, and community building. Users must be motivated to contribute and to participate, and better tools for data discovery must be developed, especially considering semantic aspects, since interdisciplinary collaboration is a necessity. In order to be effective in environmental monitoring SDIs need to take into consideration citizens, scientists and policy makers and help enabling them in the creation of development policies that will lead to sustainability. Dr. Clodoveu Davis and Dr. Frederico Fonseca prepared the report based on their first hand experiences in developing early GIS projects, which later became part of the initial Brazilian spatial data infrastructure. The report reviewed relevant studies on the Brazilian SDI, analyzed the recent legislation that created the Brazilian SDI, and interviewed stakeholders in the Brazilian GIS and SDI projects. Two early studies, Considerations from the Development of a Local Spatial Data Infrastructure by Davis and Fonseca, and Networks of Innovation and the Establishment of a Spatial Data Infrastructure in Brazil by Camara, Fonseca and others helped framing the Brazilian transformation process from a series of loosely coupled GIS projects in to a well-established SDI. The report was also able to incorporate the latest changes in Brazil s SDI scene. A recent executive order, issued in November 2008, defined and created INDE (Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais), the Brazilian spatial data infrastructure. It corresponds to the U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), to the European INSPIRE, and, more recently, to the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI). This new initiative from the Brazilian government has the challenge to gather the successful but independent SDI projects in Brazil. The spirit of the legislation is promising and focuses on leveraging on what already exists, and on encouraging partnerships and sharing of technology and data. Although Brazil is a country that vi

7 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil relies often on the Federal government for development projects, GIS is an exception. Projects at the local and state level are many and thriving. The report shows how the new legislation might help the creation of new projects and improve the use of current ones. The report helps understanding the long-term establishment and sustainability of SDIs in Brazil. It highlights the fact that the perception of SDI stakeholders is fundamental to the management of political and technical development of the Brazilian SDI. The report also analyzes the potential impact of new web technologies on SDIs. In order to achieve sustainability, SDI projects must ensure that information providers fund their own projects but must also be willing to share their results. This aspect is novel for public sector budgeting in Brazil, and might be one of the keys for the success of the Brazilian SDI. vii

8 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil Acknowledgments This report could not be written without the collaboration of numerous colleagues and friends, most of which we met throughout our 20 years in the Brazilian GIS community. Some of these professionals and academicians currently occupy key positions in GIS-related organizations, in various capacities. Within that group, we specially thank the colleagues in institutions such as INPE, IBGE and others, that provided us with their valuable insights and information, personally or by responding to our requests for interviews and data. We will not list their names here for fear of forgetting someone, and we will present these acknowledgments personally whenever an opportunity arises. We will only mention Gilberto Câmara, the Director of INPE and our long time academic partner, stating that parts of this report stem from previous joint work. We also wish to thank infodev, especially Tim Kelly, team task leader of the overall Using GIS and SDI for Monitoring Development Outcomes report; The Korea Trust Fund on ICT for Development, for sponsoring this project; Marisela Montoliu Muñoz, for the opportunity of getting deeper in the foundations of Brazilian SDI; Bruce McCormack and Paul Scott, for their insightful and detailed revisions; Samhir Vasdev, for reviewing and preparing this document for publication; and all reviewers whose suggestions were deeply appreciated. Finally, we thank Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and Pennsylvania State University, home of our academic lives. Clodoveu A. Davis Jr. Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil) and Frederico T. Fonseca Pennsylvania, United States viii

9 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil About the Authors Clodoveu Augusto Davis Junior received his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering in 1985 from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. He obtained M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science, also from UFMG, in 1992 and 2000, respectively. He led the team that conducted the implementation of GIS technology in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and coordinated several geographic application development efforts. Currently, he is a professor and researcher at the Computer Science Department of UFMG. His main research interests include spatial data infrastructures, geographic databases, urban GIS, spatial data infrastructures, and multiple representations in GIS. Frederico Torres Fonseca is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and an Associate Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State. Fonseca s research is focused in three areas: Geographic Information Science, Information Science, and Information Systems, with an emphasis on Ontology-Driven Geographic Information Systems. He got his Ph.D. in Spatial Information Science and Engineering in 2001 at the University of Maine. He received the 2006 Researcher Award by the University Consortium of Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) for the foundational work on ontologies in GIS. ix

10 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil Abbreviations and Acronyms AR Arquitetura Referencial de Interoperabilidade dos Sistemas Informatizados de Governo Referential architecture for interoperability of government information systems CISL Comitê Técnico de Implementação do Software Livre Technical Committee for the Implementation of Free Software CONCAR - Comissão Nacional de Cartografia National Committee of Cartography CNPQ Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico the Brazilian Science Foundation CPqD - Centro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Telecomunicações Telecommunications Research and Developmente Center CPRM Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais the Brazilian Geological Survey DBDG - Diretório Brasileiro de Dados Geoespaciais INDE s central data catalog EMBRAER - Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A. Brazilian Aeronautics Company EMBRAPA Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária The Brazilian Agency for Agricultural Research E-Ping a set of directives for interoperability among Brazilian government organizations e-pmg Padrão de Metadados do Governo eletrônico A metadata standard for e-government FatorGIS a media company that started out in 1993 publishing a small magazine on GIS FOSS Free and open source software GeoBrasil GIS conference series which started running in 2000 GI Geographic Information GIS Geographic Information Systems GIS-BH The GIS project of the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil GIS Brasil GIS conference series which run from 1993 to 2004 GPS Global Positioning System GSDI Global Spatial Data Infrastructure IBGE Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics IDE-BA Infra-estrutura de Dados Espaciais da Bahia the spatial data infrastructure of the state of Bahia IGA Instituto de Geociências Aplicadas Institute for Applied Geosciences x

11 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil INDE Infra-estrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais the Brazilian spatial data infrastructure INPE Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais Brazilian National Institute for Space Research INSPIRE Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community, the European SDI project IT information technology MDS Ministério do Desenvolvimento Social e Combate à Fome Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger MMA Ministério do Meio Ambiente Ministry of Environment MGB Perfil de Metadados Geoespaciais do Brasil Brazilian spatial metadata profile MPOG Ministério do Planejamento, Orçamento e Gestão Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management MundoGEO a GIS media company, which is a spin-off of FatorGIS and includes a webportal and a conference series. NSDI American National Spatial Data Infrastructure ODF The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents OSS Open Source Software PRODEB Companhia de Processamento de Dados do Estado da Bahia Bahia state s information technology company PRODABEL Empresa de Informática e Informação do Município de Belo Horizonte S/A Information and Informatics Company of the city of Belo Horizonte Protocolo Brasília an agreement among departments of the Brazilian government to establish the use of ODF, the Open Document Format, as the standard for document sharing PUC Rio Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro PUC SP Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Sao Paulo Catholic University of São Paulo R&D Research and Development REBATE a spatial information technologies research network composed by public and private sectors and led by the Federal University of Bahia SDI Spatial Data Infrastructures SEI Superintendência de Estudos Econômicos e Sociais da Bahia Social and economic studies organization from the state of Bahia SERPRO Serviço Federal de Processamento de Dados The Federal Information Technology Company SMA-SP Secretaria do Meio Ambiente do Estado de São Paulo São Paulo State s Environment Secretariat SLTI Secretaria de Logística e Tecnologia da Informação Secretariat of Logistics and Information Technology xi

12 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil SPRING GIS software developed by INPE SOA Service-oriented architecture SUS Sistema Único de Saúde Unified Health System TecGraf the Computer Graphics Group at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro TerraLib an open-source GIS component library developed by INPE and TecGraf UFMG Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Federal University of Minas Gerais Unicamp Universidade Estadual de Campinas Campinas State University UNSDI the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure VCGE Vocabulário Controlado do Governo Eletrônico Controlled vocabulary for electronic government XML Extensible Markup Language XSL Extensible Stylesheet Language, a set of recommendations for defining XML document transformation and presentation xii

13 National Spatial Data Infrastructure: The Case of Brazil Abstract This report makes an analysis of the potential of the use spatial data for modeling and monitoring development outcomes in Brazil. The report focuses on spatial data infrastructures (SDI) to support standardization of creation and use of geographic information. The report addresses the challenges and opportunities for the establishment of a SDI in Brazil. The following areas are covered: policy issues and legislation; organizational issues; GIS applications; funding issues; human resources; available data sets; standards; access issues; software; and international issues. The report also describes some best practices at the national, regional and local levels. It includes the early SDI experiences of INPE at the federal level, the initiatives at the states of Bahia, São Paulo and Minas Gerais, and the city of Belo Horizonte at the local level. The report analyzes the latest changes in Brazil s SDI scene. It discusses the potential strengths and shortcomings of a recent executive order, issued in November 2008, that defined and created INDE (Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais), the Brazilian spatial data infrastructure. INDE is an attempt to gather the successful but independent SDI projects in Brazil. The spirit of the legislation is promising, since it focuses on leveraging on what already exists, and on encouraging partnerships and sharing of technology and data, while establishing a no cost and open access policy. Although Brazil is a country that relies often on the Federal government for development projects, GIS is an exception. Projects at the local and state level are many and thriving. The report shows how the new legislation might help the creation of new projects and improve the use of current ones. The report helps understanding the long-term establishment and sustainability of SDIs in Brazil. It highlights the fact that the perception of SDI stakeholders is fundamental to the management of political and technical development of the Brazilian SDI. The report also analyzes the potential impact of new web technologies on SDIs. In order to achieve sustainability, SDI projects must ensure that information providers fund their own projects but must also be willing to share their results. This aspect is novel for public sector budgeting in Brazil, and might be one of the keys for the success of the Brazilian SDI. Finally the report makes recommendations indicating which areas need funding and where are the strengths that should be encouraged, also providing arguments for the generalization of Brazilian initiatives by other countries. The report indicates that INDE is a promising initiative that might help Brazil s path towards development. In a large country with many pressing environmental issues, geographic information made broadly available and competently used is a fundamental tool towards achieving the millennium development goals. xiii

14 1. Executive Summary 1.1 Introduction This report was prepared as part of the infodev study Using Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Data Infrastructure for Monitoring Development Outcomes, covering the situation in Brazil. The specific objective was to make an analysis of the potential of the use spatial data for modeling and monitoring development outcomes and how standardization of creation and use of geographic data can improve it. 1.2 Brazil: societal context (overview) Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, the largest in South America, with over 8.5 million square kilometers, which is about 47% of South America. As a frame of reference, Brazil is larger than the continental U.S. and almost twice the size of the countries that compose the European Union. The country is divided into 26 states and the Federal District, and over 5,500 municipalities. Population exceeds 190 million people. Brazilian economy has been on the rise for the last years, and the country has suffered little impact from the recent international banking crisis. Brazil is a traditional source of commodities, but hosts healthy industrial and agricultural sectors as well. The energy matrix stands out for its large share of renewable sources, including hydropower and bio fuels. The economic stability period led 12.8 million Brazilians out of absolute poverty conditions, but illiteracy is still high and improving the general education indicators are a major challenge. The public health care system is unified in the whole country, but is seen as insufficient and of lowquality (over a fifth of the population has a private health plan or insurance), even though it takes up 4.8% of the GDP. Brazil hosts large social inequalities, with uneven income distribution, although inequality has been slowly decreasing throughout the last decade. The country s Human Development Index reached in 2007, ranking 75 th worldwide. More than half of Brazil s territory is covered in forests; the country has the world s largest rainforest, the Amazon. Intensive enforcement of environmental laws and policies has managed to reduce the rhythm of deforestation of the Amazon, from over 27,700 km 2 in 2004 to less than 7,500 km 2 in The country has declared a total of 18.7% of its territory as protected areas. Furthermore, 12.4% of the territory is delimited as Indian reservations. Brazil holds 12% of the world s surface freshwater supplies, in several important basins besides the Amazon. Brazil is a federal republic, ruled by a president that is both chief of State and leader of the government. Dilma Rousseff is the current president, having taken office in The legislative branch is bicameral, with 81 Senators (3 per state) and 513 members of the House of Representatives. General elections take place regularly every two years, alternating local and state/federal races. About one quarter of Brazilian homes have a microcomputer. In 2008, there were 21 telephone ground lines and 78 mobile phones per group of 100 citizens, along with 9.6 million land-based broadband Internet connections. Such connections are unevenly distributed throughout the country, following the inequalities in social indicators. A plan to expand and disseminate broadband accesses has been issued recently, but its implementation has not started so far. As in the case of physical infrastructure, widespread quality Internet access remains a challenging problem. 1.3 Historical perspective The adoption of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) in Brazil begins in middle 80s. The transition from pure GIS projects to a broader view that led to SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructures) is hard to pinpoint. Because the number of government institutions involved in GIS since the beginning, some of the SDI aspects, especially on data organization and sharing/distribution were present in many early GIS projects. 1

15 There were a set of leading institutions which have played an important role in pioneering GIS technologies in Brazil. These early adopters ( ) combined R&D in spatial information with the production and dissemination of spatial data. They formed a collaborative network that was instrumental to ensure that such a large country could benefit from spatial information technologies. The network was successful because it combined expertise in different areas of spatial information technology. From 1994, the growth in the number of adopters and the increase in the private market for software, hardware and services determined the path towards maturity of the GIS market. Among the many participants in the development of the Brazilian SDI, there were some key organizations, originating from different sectors of the economy with varying missions. One of them is INPE (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais), the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, is a major research institute funded by the federal government, who successfully create and disseminate their own software since Another one is PRODABEL (Empresa de Informática e Informação do Município de Belo Horizonte S/A Information and Informatics Company of the City of Belo Horizonte), is a information technology company owned by a local government which has developed one of the most successful urban GIS projects in Brazil, in the early 1990s. Both experiences are described in greater detail in the main report, under Best Practice Examples, along with other significant initiatives. Brazil has been largely successful in setting up qualified institutions that produce and distribute spatial data. The collaborative network of early adopters was instrumental in ensuring that such a large and diverse country could benefit from the widespread adoption of spatial information technologies. This collaborative network was successful because its members were able to (1) combine specialized expertise in different segments of spatial information technologies and (2) view knowledge as a public consumption good. 1.4 Current situation The current situation of SDI in Brazil is defined by a recent executive order (Decreto No , de 27 de novembro de 2008) that defined and created INDE (Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais), the Brazilian spatial data infrastructure. It corresponds to the American National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), to the European INSPIRE, and, more recently, to the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI). As required by the executive order, an action plan has been created for the development and dissemination of INDE (CONCAR 2010). The plan follows the traditional definition of a SDI, along the lines set forth by the American Federal Geographic Data Committee, which says that SDIs consist of not only data and technological tools, but also involve people, policies, and standards. More specifically, the plan defines INDE s objectives as creating metadata catalogs, integrating and sharing geospatial data created and maintained by different Brazilian government institutions so that the data is easily found, browsed, and used through the Internet. In the spirit of a traditional SDI, it states clearly that the data and metadata are to be created and maintained by their original producers. INDE is being implemented under the supervision of CONCAR (Comissão Nacional de Cartografia), the Brazilian National Committee of Cartography, which is under the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (MPOG, Ministério do Planejamento, Orçamento e Gestão). CONCAR congregates representatives from 17 of the 24 ministries, two secretariats of the President s office, the cartographic services of the Brazilian military, and a representative from the class association of the aerial surveying companies. IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) is the executive institution that technically and administratively supports CONCAR. IBGE is responsible for creating, implementing and maintaining the SIG Brasil Web geoportal, which should provide access to all of INDE s geospatial data and services. The portal will host the central data catalog, which is called Diretório Brasileiro de Dados Geoespaciais (DBDG). Data should be free (no cost) to any registered user. INDE is already operational, at Other SDI creation initiatives are taking place at the state and local levels. The main report 2

16 discusses details on these projects, under Best Practices Examples. Funding for INDE and for most other SDI development projects comes mostly from budgetary resources, but in a few instances initial resources come from a small part of development projects financed by the World Bank, especially on physical infrastructure construction. Charging for data access or use is relatively rare in Brazil nowadays, and this is reinforced by the executive order that created INDE, which mandates free data access. Other SDI projects follow suit. INPE has also an open access policy regarding its extensive library of remote sensing images. This policy not only provides scientists and NGOs from anywhere in the world with much needed data, but it also enables independent verification of deforestation numbers. All the necessary standards for SDI implementation are in place, with national versions developed and promoted by CONCAR and its affiliated institutions, especially IBGE. Along with mapping (cartography, geodesy, surveying) standards, there are regulations in place regarding geospatial metadata and a broad interoperability architecture, called e-ping. E-ping establishes the use of XML, XML Schema, UML, XSL and other well-known Web standards, fosters a gradual shift towards service-oriented architecture, and provides an architectural model for government systems. E-Ping adopts the most important Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards, and recommends the adoption of others. In 2003, a free software strategy was included as part of the national e-government policy. This action came as a result from a previous movement by state and municipal administrations, which perceived in the increasing availability of highquality free software an opportunity for rationalizing expenditure in IT. Currently, the free software initiative is led by a committee (CISL Comitê Técnico de Implementação do Software Livre, Technical Committee for the Implementation of Free Software), which meets periodically and publishes its deliberations on the Web. The initiative also maintains a portal for the promotion of public software, i.e., software that can be shared among governmental organizations and branches, at every level. One of the strongest communities in the public software portal supports i3geo, an assemblage of geospatial software geared towards the dissemination of spatial data over the Web. The main components of i3geo are PostGreSQL, MapServer and a Webbased viewer. I3Geo is very well known throughout the country, and is being employed in numerous projects. INPE developed and maintains TerraLib, an open source library for GIS and associated applications, which is the base of other products. 1.5 Lessons learned and insights gained Nowadays, GIS technologies are widely available, both as proprietary and free software. International standards are guiding both the development of such software and the organization of large repositories of geographic data, which can be searched and discovered with the help of metadata, which in turn are also governed by international standards. The current combination of technological tools and international standards is showing in practice that SDIs can be envisioned, designed and implemented to cover a broad range of scales, from global to local, based on the same fundamental architecture. As to people, the report shows that Brazil has a diversified and capable academic sector, with a worthy presence in world science, and therefore the country is capable of educating people in all required subject related to SDI. There is, nevertheless, a strong market pressure on highly specialized professionals, resulting from the recent increase in economic growth. The most interesting part of the SDI equation regards policies. Coherent and effective policies are only possible in a context of institutional maturity. Taking Brazil as an example, we observe that the creation of INDE was possible because various conditions were met. First, there is a national geography/cartography/statistics bureau (IBGE) in place, with a long term involvement in geographic information and a vision on the demands for GI from the government and the society in general. IBGE, in turn, is part of a broader arrangement of cartographic institutions, all of which have undergone a transition from conventional mapping to GIS technologies in the last two decades. When CONCAR, led by IBGE, 3

17 set forth the initiative of creating INDE, provisions were made to allow the participation of the most important institutions in the process, and the resulting action plan has arisen from consensus, rather than from a centralized planning decision. In a sense, one can say that institutional maturity led to the kind of cooperation and agreement necessary to create something like INDE. Of course, the initiative is in its initial steps, and much remains to be seen as to the reality of funding INDE s operation and to the actual usage of the information provided in the infrastructure. IBGE is currently undertaking an initiative to disseminate INDE in GIS-related events countrywide, and is offering support for the establishment of local or thematic SDIs that are to become part of the national infrastructure. CONCAR and IBGE are working with the objective of encouraging GISenabled organizations to move towards SDI and to join INDE. If the installation and configuration of INDE-compatible server becomes simple enough, many more geographic information sources can join the bandwagon, in turn increasing the importance of INDE to the society. It is important to ensure that not only governmental or official data sources are allowed in; there must be openings for other types of organizations to join, making available then, for instance, research data, community-oriented points of interest, commercial locations, and others. 1.6 Useful lessons for developing countries Naturally, Brazil s territorial extension and large population preclude the immediate application of many of the lessons listed in this section to other developing countries. However, all institutional concerns apply. SDI requires a solid array of functioning institutions to be successful, especially those that cover critical GI aspects such as cartography and data collection. Institutional maturity is a requirement if SDI policies are expected to work. Since SDI is best seen as a cooperative endeavor, geographic data producers need to agree on standards and effectively enforce them if the infrastructure is expected to work. Furthermore, developing countries need to count on a reasonable supply fo competent professionals, which will accumulate and disseminate the necessary technical knowledge. Administrators are also needed, in order to plan the implementation of something as complex as an SDI, while locating and ensuring sufficient funding. As to standards, probably, most countries will be comfortable adopting ISO and OGC international standards for their SDIs. Of course, the wide variety of OGC-compliant free GIS and SDI software available today also contributes to this decision. The Brazilian policy that establishes the preference for free software in the public sector is also easily replicated in developing countries, but governments should be aware that the economy in software licenses will probably have to be invested in training of competent support and development people. Considering the most urgent data needs, global sources of free GI, such as the digital globe Web sites, can easily be used to leverage projects. Some companies, such as Google, also offer products that can be used with other data sources, such as traditional cartography or existing remote sensing imagery, along with or instead of their publicly available data. There are numerous reports of online, data creation or improvement projects cooperatively developed by volunteers, as in the case of OpenStreetView. These kinds of initiatives can be easily integrated into an SDI, even though data quality has to be assessed by specialists. While the no-cost policy used in Brazil may not appeal to institutions that intend to recover part of the data development costs by charging for data access, this is a subject that needs to be carefully debated, considering the target country s conditions, legislation, and bureaucratic practices. Also on funding, the development of SDI with a small share of larger sources engaged in the implementation policies seems to be a good idea, especially if it is used to monitor the outcomes of the development project itself. 1.7 Long-term perspectives Overall, current SDI-related initiatives share the vision of providing useful information to the society, thus considering such information to be a public good. Although most of the required legal framework for data publication is currently in place, some SDI creation initiatives seem to be 4

18 politically held back by the lack of legislation that mandates the publication of non-sensitive data, as in U.S. s Freedom of Information Act. However, a promising bill on open access to public information (currently in the Brazilian Senate, after being passed by the House in April 2010), presents an opportunity to change this situation 1. The bill applies to every branch of government (federal, state, municipal), along with non-profit private entities that receive public funding. Curiously, there is not much concern as to the assessment of the impact of SDIs. Beyond requirements towards recording the number of accesses, current projects carry no special provision towards dimensioning the demand for spatial data and its rate of growth more accurately. The lack of such information can lead either to over- or underspecified computational infrastructures. The use of cloud computing resources can provide an alternative solution for the computational infrastructure. Financially, information producers have the intent of supporting the costs of SDI creation and maintenance, and there is no foreseeable intention of charging for access. On the contrary, some initiatives, including INDE, specifically require open and costless data access. Some projects count on World Bank financing for starting up, and promise a reasonable maintenance plan with their own resources. This is in line with older GIS initiatives in Brazil, most of which never charged for data. It also reflects in part the cooperative nature of some GIS initiatives, in which costless spatial data interchange has been taking place since the early 1990s, covered by cooperation agreements and other legal instruments. This is a sensible perspective, since it simplified agreements and facilitated cooperation, but budgeting for data providers must be analyzed considering also the services rendered to other organizations and to the society. Information infrastructure is a big challenge, since access to potentially large volumes of data online requires broadband connections. A plan has been issued by the government to pursue rapid improvements in that direction, but so far 1 PLC 41/2010 Lei Geral de Acesso à Informação (General Law on Information Access). Available at concrete actions have not been taken. In discussions with potential SDI users, some of them expressed concerns on their capacity to hire fast enough Internet links, and would like to have a backup plan, involving data replication. The potential impact of networking limitations on SDI usage remains to be seen. We see the need for better coordination among governmental agencies in charge of SDI development and e-government initiatives. For instance, there is currently no mention of INDE or public geographic information in the Brazilian e-government program, and INDE s portal does not mention e-government initiatives either. Although we agree that there has been little time to promote such integration, we see it as a natural and necessary step in both initiatives, especially when the bill on information access passes in Congress. As established by INDE s creation decree, the participation of federal institutions is mandatory. However, the decree does not include any kind of penalties for non-compliance thus making participation optional in fact. Nevertheless, the participation of other federal geographic information providers should raise the need for motivation, more than enforcement. The forthcoming legislation on information access can provide a valuable incentive, considering that SDI is arguably one of the best ways to disseminate geographic data in a large scale, and the existence of INDE may render other alternatives less interesting or economically less viable. In that respect, there is reason to believe that INDE may be called upon to provide better visibility for the efforts of participant institutions, as a way to generate political return for their efforts. On the other end of the spectrum, user demand for continued service is frequently a source of stabilization for many technology-related projects. There is ample evidence in GIS projects that beyond the point in which information and services become critically important for some groups of users, the chances for achieving sustainability improve dramatically. 1.8 Conclusions The major result in the Brazilian SDI policies is the recent creation of INDE (Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais), the Brazilian spatial data 5

19 infrastructure. INDE relies on two organizations, IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and CONCAR (Comissão Nacional de Cartografia), the Brazilian National Cartographic Committee. Brazil is a large country with a healthy economy and a number of challenges. One of them is how to distribute resources equally and prioritize the most needing regions. Geographic information and its distribution through SDIs can play a decisive role in this process. The Brazilian SDI scene is characterized by the play between two tendencies: centralizing and decentralizing. Brazilian funding structure forces local and state government to depend too much on federal funds. However, as we reported here, the most successful GIS and SDI projects to date come from local and state agencies. Therefore, in order to keep this balance and at the same time extract the best from it, this report recommends that World Bank funding should prioritize local and state initiatives. We also recommend that this funding should not be made through the federal government. Nevertheless, funded projects should strictly follow the recommendations and requirements set by INDE. This way the funding will support both strengths in the current Brazilian scenario: the newly crafted legislation that created INDE and the successful independent SDI projects, while at the same time reinforcing a bottom-up strategy for creating and disseminating INDE. Current strategies by interested agencies that piggyback GIS and SDI in funding for larger projects seem to work well, because they reinforce planning and management with a very small share of development funds that are provided for improving physical infrastructure and major public services. IBGE has been slowly but steadily pushing itself into the new information age. All data for the 2010 census were collected in the field using handheld computers, and today most of the census results are available in digital form. IBGE also managed distribute the geographic features related to census data. CONCAR is doing its job of creating and maintaining Brazilian cartographic standards. Of course it is a challenge for both institutions, the former 73 years old, the latter 44 years old and recently renovated, to keep up with the Internet and its constant changing scenario. SLTI, which is apparently more agile, since it was born in the new era, is promoting new standards such as e-ping, a set of directives for interoperability among federal government organizations, which are fundamental for the success of INDE. E-Ping needs to be more widely known and studied, including its geographic data section. In a market where technology is constantly changing, government agencies and private companies struggle to adapt themselves to these changes, including staffing of their technical team. Hiring cartographers and geographers for map making activities will not solve their problem. They need experts in spatial analysis and in spatial databases. These experts should know how to take advantage of the increased availability of data as INDE is being established. The government agencies that are the early adopters of GIS technology are usually the main providers of qualified personnel for the market, but government is in turn very slow in the hiring process, and it can be very difficult for governmental agencies to compete with the private market s salaries. It is important to find mechanisms for funding the creation of short and long term education program in GIScience area. They should complement the current offerings that already offer a good foundation in the associated sciences. Besides that, students should also be funded directly and indirectly through encouragement of possible promotions in their professional careers. So studies to make this happen in government agencies need to be developed. A model similar to what is currently used to encourage scientific production in Brazilian universities might be used. Any funding program should be encouraged to follow the human resources guidelines suggested in INDE s initial plan and future updates. Considering the software scenario, Brazilian GIS applications evolved from a few users based on mainframe computers and expensive software to widespread use of personal computers and inexpensive or free and open source software. The proliferation of GIS applications although positive in spreading the idea and increasing local knowledge also brought lack of standardization and duplication of efforts. Many digital mapping 6

20 applications were developed at IBGE, EMBRAPA, INPE and other federal agencies, along with state level initiatives such as Minas Gerais and Bahia, and successful local GIS such as Belo Horizonte and others. The development of Brazilian computer science leveraged the development of GIS expertise and applications. Some Brazilian universities and institutes help end users in the development of their GIS applications. This is done usually through foundations linked to the academic institutions. Large government agencies are able to rely on their internal IT infrastructure but many local governments lack this kind of support. Brazil has a strong tradition in software development. Although less known than China and India, the Brazilian software industry develops much of the software used in Brazil, including GIS applications such as SPRING, TerraView and i3geo. The most important results in GIS software were achieved by INPE, through its open source GIS library TerraLib, an open-source GIS component library used internationally. The Brazilian geographic information community would greatly benefit from the availability of such a general, open source GIS library. This would have a direct impact on the use of GI in development projects and environmental monitoring and protection. It is necessary to improve on and fully establish the basic library so that further uses and applications can follow. We realize that funding might be a problem for the Brazilian SDI. INDE s initial budget accounted only for the first year, and long term funding is still an unanswered question, besides counting on budgetary resources for the hosting organizations. The World Bank is already funding some Brazilian SDI initiatives. Two important SDI development projects, IDE-BA and DataGeo/IDEA, described in this report, are funded as part of a larger World Bank endowment for transportation infrastructure. It also happens that, in the past, some metropolitan GIS projects have been financially supported by a share of funds for large garbage collection and treatment projects. The history of success in Brazilian GIS projects with external funding is often linked to larger projects more in line with the country s development goals. Funding of independent projects might lead to results that are disconnected with immediate development needs of Brazil. Nevertheless, the no charge policy enforced by INDE and other state SDIs replicates successful GI dissemination initiatives in the past, and we see no reason to change that. We recommend that funding should be tied to larger projects which are in line with Brazil and the World Bank s millennium development goals. This strategy has the advantage of securing resources for information, technology and planning in parallel with development initiatives, thereby facilitating the assessment of the impact of the broader project. Infrastructure is a major issue in Brazil nowadays. Brazil has reasonable network services in the main metropolitan areas but being a large country this still leaves many areas that need to be addressed. The high network demand of spatial data transfer might also be a problem. Wide public use is another challenge because Internet access is expensive for a country with a large part of its population close to the poverty line. In order to address that problem, the Brazilian government developed a national plan for broadband Internet connection (PNBL - Plano Nacional de Banda Larga). The plan proposes to give 40 million Brazilian households low-cost broadband connections by This is in line with the goals set at the UN s World Summit of the Information Society, which are to have Internet access in all communities, schools, museums, public libraries, hospitals and health centers, and all governmental instances. The expansion of broadband Internet access in Brazil faces two challenges: establishing effective conditions in regulation for competition among major suppliers of broadband services, and expanding the geographic reach of broadband coverage. Meeting the second challenge means using public resources to expand collective points of access, with specific actions towards remote areas and low income municipalities; this means that no amount of competition can ensure coverage in remote and poor areas, and the plan recommends that the government becomes involved as a part of the solution. Considering SDI access needs, the actual implementation of the broadband plan is an obvious recommendation. Two main efforts need to be funded. First, the expansion of information and communication technologies infrastructure. In 7

21 parallel, as these services become available, it is necessary to support projects that give broad Internet access to the general public. This might be achieved with support for public schools and libraries. It is necessary also to invest in initiatives (such as INDE) that promise to regulate and organize data distribution. INPE s Open-Data policy should also be extended to other organizations, while supported through funding and governmental policies. Special lines of funding for data sharing following INDE s recommendations should be made available. Funding for research that addresses the main problems in this area, such as semantics, network optimization for large data sets distribution, user interfaces, and user requirements should also be available. All these needs could be combined in a single comprehensive policy, with two major points: (1) providing funding for data producers, conditioned to the creation of INDEcompatible and INPE-style open access data dissemination, (2) funding SDI-related research with an emphasis on applications and realistic usage scenarios. The extrapolation of the SDI development practices and institutional conditions discussed in this report to other countries is an exercise that should take into consideration the number of features that make Brazil a unique country. Nevertheless, it is our opinion that the development of a national SDI, considering its technology, people, policies and standards definition, presents as the main hurdle the policies part. Technology for SDI development is widely available, with a prevalence of opensource (and zero cost) software. The most important standards are being defined by ISO and OGC, and adopted internationally. There must, of course, be a source of qualified people to conduct the SDI. But the most difficult part is achieving the kind of institutional maturity that allows public organizations to communicate, share experiences, obtain funding, and develop cooperative efforts that generate useful information, even in the absence of enforcement policies or of penalties for non-compliance. Public managers, who know the intrinsic value of detailed, correct, timely and upto-date information to fulfill their mandates, will surely appreciate such efforts. 1.9 Summary of recommendations The recommendations embedded in the conclusion of this report are briefly summarized below. Prioritize thematic, state and local SDI development initiatives, while strongly supporting INDE s geoportal and metadata catalog; Empower IBGE and CONCAR for fostering INDE as a source for geographic information generated by multiple data producers; Reinforce and value technical personnel in IBGE and in CONCAR member institutions by providing opportunities for updating their knowledge, and establishing rewards based on performance indicators; Improve on the connection between SDI and e-government through e-ping, by realizing that geographic information systems can be integrated in the overall e- government strategies; Support national software development initiatives, and proceed with the open source public software policy; Establish alternative funding sources (e.g., piggyback SDI projects in larger development or physical infrastructure projects) while keeping the no charge policy established in INDE s creation; Effectively implement broadband expansion plans in a timely fashion; Incentive the growth of INDE, by conditioning the funding of data production to the subsequent publication in an SDI, following all established standards; Fund SDI-related research with an emphasis on applications and real-world scenarios. 8

22 2. Societal Context 2.1 Country overview Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, the largest in South America, with over 8.5 million square kilometers, which is about 47% of South America. As a frame of reference, Brazil is larger than the continental U.S. and almost twice the size of the countries that compose the European Union. Its climate ranges from equatorial to subtropical, with most of the country classified as tropical. There are also semiarid and temperate areas. The diverse topography leads to regional microclimates in some parts of the country. Vegetation varies accordingly, from the equatorial rainforests in the North to temperate coniferous forests in the southern states and savannas in the central highlands. The country is situated in the middle (and geologically oldest part) of the South American tectonic plate. As a result, the country s mountain ranges are relatively modest in height (the highest point in the territory reaches just under 3,000 m) and the country is virtually free of the effects of volcanoes and earthquakes. Brazil is divided into five geographic regions (Figure 1), each of which composed of states with similar cultural, social, economical and historical backgrounds. There are 26 states and the Federal District, and over 5,500 municipalities. Roraima Amapá Acre Amazonas Rondônia Mato Grosso Mato Grosso do Sul Pará Tocantins Distrito Federal Goiás São Paulo Maranhão Piauí Minas Gerais Bahia Ceará Espírito Santo Rio de Janeiro Rio Grande do Norte Paraíba Pernambuco Alagoas Sergipe Paraná Rio Grande do Sul Santa Catarina North Northeast Central-West Southeast South Figure 1 States and regions of Brazil. (Map source: Wikimedia Commons) 9

23 2.2 Demographics Brazil is home to more than 193 million people (mid-2010 IBGE estimate) 2. Population is unequally distributed (2.3 ). The Southeast region houses 38% of the population, and is the most densely populated (over 77 people/km 2 ), while the North region is the most sparsely populated (under 4 people/km 2 ). The largest city in the country is São Paulo, with a population of over 11 million people (almost 20 million in the metropolitan area). Other large cities include Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Brasília (the country s capital), Fortaleza and Belo Horizonte, all of which housing more than 2.5 million people, not including their metropolitan regions. More than 84% of the people live in cities. Working-age people (15 to 65 years of age) comprise 66% of the population. Current life expectancy at birth is about 72.6 years. Birth rates are declining, reaching per thousand people, while the overall fertility rate was 1.86 in Population annual growth rate is also declining, and was 1.045% in Infant mortality rate was 23.3 per thousand births, and general mortality rate was at 6.27 per thousand people in 2008 (IBGE 2008; IBGE 2010). Persons per km 2 Under 1 1 to t to 100 Over 100 Figure 2 Brazil demographic density map (Source: IBGE) 2 shows a population clock, an up-to-the-minute Brazilian population estimate. 2.3 Economy The Brazilian gross domestic product (GDP), according to the World Bank purchase power parity estimate, has reached US$ trillion in 2008, ranking 9 th in the world (The World Bank 2010). The recent worldwide economic crisis has had some impact over the country s economic growth; estimates indicate that the GDP shrunk by 0.2% in 2009, but the fourth trimester has shown a 2.0% growth. Per-capita income reached about US$7,300 in 2008 (The World Bank 2009). The country s Human Development Index (HDI) reached in 2007 (UNDP 2010), ranking 75 th worldwide, among countries with high human development. Income distribution is quite uneven, although inequality has been slowly decreasing throughout the last decade. In 2008, the Gini index was at (IBGE 2010), down from in 2005 and in 2001 (Barros, Foguel et al. 2006). In 2008, the 10% richer concentrated 42.7% of the income, while the 10% poorer had only about 1.2% (IBGE 2010). Two ghosts from the Brazilian economic past, inflation and external debt, are currently under control. In December 2005 Brazil repaid its debt to the IMF (US$ 15.5 billion) two years ahead of schedule, saving US$ 900 million in interest payments. It has also repaid its Paris Club obligations to the UK, and retrieved all of its Brady Bonds, again ahead of schedule. Brazil has international reserves in excess of US$ 200 billion. Inflation is controlled by an inflation targeting policy, being at 4.31% in 2009 (IBGE 2010). Tax load, on the other hand, has increased from 31.9% of the GDP in 2003 to 34.7% in 2007 (IBGE 2010). Brazil s economy is structured around services (65.3% of the GDP), with significant industry (28.0%) and agriculture (6.7%) sectors. As to services, the banking sector has survived reasonably well the recent international crisis, with a 14% increase in managed assets between 2008 and It is a sector in which much technology is developed and used: 35.1% of all clients use internet banking solutions, more than half of the transactions are either online or through ATMs. 10

24 Direct cashier operations at a bank branch account for 9% only of the total transactions (FEBRABAN 2010). Although the banking sector is very active and is able to supply the economy with a wide range of services, interest rates in Brazil are still among the highest in the world. The country is a traditional source of commodities, and ranks among the top producers and exporters of several such products. It is the largest world producer of sugar cane, coffee, beans and oranges, the second largest of soybeans, tobacco, and beef. Large-volume agricultural exports include soya (beans, cake and oil), chicken meat, beef, coffee, sugar, tobacco, corn, orange juice, pork, cotton, and others. On the other hand, major food imports include wheat, rice and malt (FAO 2010). As to mineral commodities, Brazil has a very diversified production. The country is the second largest producer of iron ore, manganese, aluminum, and is self-sufficient in petroleum. Recently discovered deep sea reserves may transform the country into a major oil exporter. The mining sector is responsible for about 5.8% of the GDP, not including oil and gas (IBRAM 2010). Brazil also has a diversified industrial sector, and exports of manufactured goods are steadily increasing. Brazil is the largest manufacturer of regional jets, and has a significant automotive and autoparts industry (fifth largest producer since 2008, manufacturing over 3.1 million vehicles a year, and exporting US$11 billion annually). Production is concentrated in the Southeast region, with 45.5% coming from São Paulo and 24.0% from Minas Gerais. Small-engine cars comprise 52.7% of newly licensed vehicles (ANFAVEA 2010). As to jets, EMBRAER (Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A. Brazilian Aeronautics Company), one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, has recently announced that it has orders for the delivery of US$15.2 billion worth of aircraft, and forecasted earnings of US$6 billion in 2010 (EMBRAER 2010). Other important industrial activities include iron and steel, food products, textile and footwear, electronics and appliances, machinery and equipment, cement, consumer durables and petrochemicals. The Brazilian energy matrix stands out for the large share of renewable sources. In 2009, 47.2% of the supply came from hydropower and biofuels, while non-renewable sources accounted for the remaining 52.8%, most of it (46.7%) from petroleum and natural gas (MME 2010). In 2009, 84% of the light vehicles manufactured in the country had flex fuel engines, which operate on any mixture of gasoline and ethanol (ANFAVEA 2010). 2.4 Society Between 1995 and 2008, i.e., since the start of the economic stability period, 12.8 million Brazilians got out of absolute poverty conditions (per capita monthly income of under half the national minimum wage), thus reducing this indicator from 43.4% to 28.8% of the population in that period. Likewise, extreme poverty (per capita monthly income of under a quarter of the minimum wage) was overcome by 13.1 million people, reducing the national indicator from 20.9% in 1995 to 10.5% in 2008 (IPEA 2010). Most of these improvements took place in the last five years ( ), in which macroeconomic conditions were more favorable. Brazil has yet to overcome many development hurdles. The illiteracy rate, for instance, is 10% (IBGE 2010), and functional illiteracy reaches 21.6%. Average schooling time among people over 10 years old is of 6.9 years (IBGE 2010). In 2008, 30.1% of the population has had 11 years or more of formal education, 17.0% have between 8 and 10 years, and the remaining 52.7% have 7 years or less. Total government expenditure on education is 4.1% of the GDP (IBGE 2010). Health care in Brazil is organized around a unified health system (Sistema Único de Saúde - Unified Health System - SUS), which ranges from everyday services up to high-cost and highcomplexity procedures, such as organ transplants. The health system is managed primarily by municipal governments, with financial support and technical cooperation from state and federal governments. In spite of its universality and coverage, the public health system is seen as insufficient and of low-quality. As a result, about 43.2 million Brazilians (22.6% of the population) pay for some kind of private health plan or insurance, and another 13.3 million pay for dental 11

25 plans (ANS 2010). The public health care system maintains major programs dedicated to epidemiology, vaccination, health supplies and drugs, health education and formation of professionals, and emergency medicine. Health care takes up 4.8% of the GDP in governmental expenditure (IBGE 2010). 2.5 Environment More than half of Brazil s territory is covered in forests; the country has the world s largest rainforest, the Amazon. Intensive enforcement of environmental laws and policies has managed to reduce the rhythm of deforestation of the Amazon, from over 27,700 km 2 in 2004 to less than 7,500 km 2 in 2009 (INPE 2010). The country has declared a total of 18.7% of its territory as protected areas (IBGE 2010). Furthermore, 12.4% of the territory is delimited as Indian reservations (FUNAI 2010). As to greenhouse gas emissions, Brazil has achieved notoriety not because of cars, power plants or industry emissions, but because of forest burnouts. Of course, reducing the pace of deforestation will also have the side effect of reducing the country s emissions, and as a result Brazil is active in initiatives such as REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation). In the Copenhagen 2009 climate change conference, Brazil committed to a reduction of 36.1% to 38.9% of its greenhouse gas emissions until That commitment implies in an 80% reduction of deforestation in the Amazon and a further 40% reduction of the deforestation of the cerrado, the savannah-type vegetation found in central Brazil. Brazil holds 12% of the world s surface freshwater supplies (ANA 2007), and has several important basins besides the Amazon. However, the Northeast region constantly suffers from droughts, while flooding and intense rainfall often cause problems in South and Southeast states. Furthermore, there is intensive pressure on water resources in some regions, in which there are demands from irrigation, human consumption, and energy generation. 2.6 Government and political system Brazil is a Federal Republic, consisting of 26 states and the Federal District. The President is both chief of State and leader of the government. Presidential elections occur every four years with one reelection is allowed. Dilma Rousseff was elected in November 2010 becoming the first woman president in Brazil. The same reelection rules apply to state governors. There are 5,564 municipalities, ruled by Mayors, elected every four years as well. The last municipal elections took place in The legislative branch has a Federal Senate (81 seats, three per State) and a House of Representatives (513 members). In States, the legislature consists of a single House, with a number of State Representatives that varies according to on the State s population and specific legislation. Likewise, municipalities also have a Legislative House, in which the number of councilmen varies according to the population. General elections are held regularly every two years since the 1988 Constitution. There are numerous political parties, which freely form coalitions for elections at each race. As a result, governments often have to make commitments with a range of political allies in order to obtain parliamentary majorities. 2.7 Science and technology Brazilian science and technology have reached a significant role internationally in the last decades. Stabilization of funding, and a steady flow of investment in the sector have led to an increasing performance by Brazilian scientists and institutions. Over the last twenty years, Brazilian contribution to worldwide science has been increasing steadily, from 3,176 papers in 1989 to over 19,000 in The relative impact (in terms of citations per paper) of Brazilian science currently supersedes the three other BRIC nations (Russia, India, China), although the impact remains under the world average. The fields in which Brazilian impact rates have increased more rapidly are agricultural sciences, microbiology, pharmacology, and environmental science; highest relative impact comes from engineering and mathematics (King 2009). It should be noted that less than a third of Brazilian scientists work in 12

26 industry, and most research and development activities are carried out by universities. R&D investments are currently at 1% of the GDP (IBGE 2010). 2.8 Information technology According to the most recent household survey (IBGE 2010), 83.3% of homes have access to water supply and 73.6% have adequate sewage. There are stoves in 98.1% of homes and refrigerators in 90.8%. Furthermore, 94.5% of the homes have a television set, and 26.6% have a microcomputer. In 2008, there were telephone ground lines and mobile phones per group of 100 citizens. There were also Internet accesses per group of 100 citizens. In 2008, there were approximately 9.6 million land-based broadband Internet connections in Brazil. Annual growth rates for this kind of connection averaged 49% annually between 2002 and However, the annual rate of growth has decelerated since 2004, and in 2008 broadband connections increased only 29% (MC 2010). As in the case of most social indicators, distribution of these accesses is uneven. While in the Northeast and North regions broadband reaches respectively 4% and 13% of the households, in the South and Southeast these figures improve significantly to 21% and 24%. There is a plan to extend broadband connections to all urban public schools in the country by 2010, reaching 56,000 schools and 85% of the students (MC 2010). The federal government has recently issued a plan to disseminate broadband Internet access throughout the country until 2014 (MC 2010). The goals include reaching 30 million landline broadband connections for homes and businesses, and to reach 100% of government installations with broadband connections, including 100,000 new federal telecenters. There is also the goal to achieve 60 million mobile broadband connections. Currently, over 64 million Brazilians connect regularly to the Internet, and Brazilian users rank amongst the ones with highest online time (over 30 hours per month) (MC 2010). 13

27 3. Historical Perspective 3.1 Introduction The adoption of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) in Brazil begins in middle 80s. The transition from pure GIS projects to a broader view that led to SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructures) is hard to pinpoint. Because the number of government institutions involved in GIS since the beginning, some of the SDI aspects were also present. There were a set of leading institutions which have played an important role in pioneering GIS technologies in Brazil. These early adopters combined R&D in spatial information with the production and dissemination of spatial data. They formed a collaborative network that was instrumental to ensure that such a large country could benefit from spatial information technologies. The network was successful because it combined expertise in different areas of spatial information technology. The Brazilian GIS early adopters viewed knowledge as a public consumption good (Dasgupta and David 1994) and openly spread their experience and their results. These adopters have helped to avoid the lock-in effects associated with the introduction of information technologies in transitional economies (Arthur 1994; Mowery 1996). In Brazil, associating public diffusion of innovation with locally developed no-cost and open source software enabled many institutions to avoid being locked-in to a particular vendor s solution. For instance, an indicator of the reduction on the lock-in effect is the fact that companies offering services based on open source software form 15% of the service provider market (Magalhaes and Granemman 2005). Among the many participants in the development of the Brazilian SDI, there were three key ones, originating from three different sectors of the economy with varying missions. The first one, INPE Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, is a major research institute funded by the federal government. The second, PRODABEL (Empresa de Informática e Informação do Município de Belo Horizonte S/A Information and Informatics Company of the City of Belo Horizonte), is a information technology company owned by a local government which has one of the most successful urban GIS projects in Brazil (Borges and Sahay 2000; Davis Jr. and Fonseca 2006). And finally, FatorGIS, and later, its spin-off MundoGeo, which are, today, the most important media companies with a focus on GIS in Brazil. Each one represents an important facet in the development of the Brazilian GIS scenario. INPE brings in a strong research and technology agenda and resources. PRODABEL is application-driven, a good place to apply the research and technology developed at INPE. FatorGIS and MundoGeo act as places where these two worlds can meet and share their GIS experiences with themselves and with other users. During the 80s, aiming at the protection of the local information technology industry, the Brazilian Government adopted a market reserve policy. For eight years, there was strong economic incentive provided by the government to produce local information technology (IT) hardware goods. The market reserve law provided a powerful incentive for local development of GIS and Remote Sensing Image Processing technology. By then, the average price for a single-seat system was approximately US$ 100,000, including hardware, software and training costs. As a result, INPE established its Image Processing Division in 1984 with the following aims: (a) local development and dissemination of image processing and GIS systems in Brazil; (b) establishment of a research program in Image Processing and GIS, and (c) pursuit of cooperative programs with universities, government organizations and private companies. In 1986, INPE brought out Brazil s first GIS based on an Intel platform, which was later used extensively by 150 universities and research labs up to In 1992, given recent advances in hardware and software and the changes in information technology policy in Brazil, INPE started the development of a free GIS software, SPRING, whose first Web version was made available in late SPRING provides a comprehensive set of 14

28 functions for processing of spatial information, including tools for Satellite Image Processing, Digital Terrain Modeling, Spatial Analysis, Geostatistics, Spatial Statistics, Spatial Databases and Map Management. Currently, in a partnership with the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, INPE is developing TerraLib (Câmara, Souza et al. 2000), an open-source GIS component library. TerraLib enables quick development of custombuilt applications using spatial databases (see www. terralib.org for further details). The second player is PRODABEL, Belo Horizonte s IT company. Belo Horizonte is the fourth largest Brazilian city, with a population of more than 2.2 million people, spread over 335 square kilometers, and is the center of a metropolitan area that houses over 3.5 million people. Belo Horizonte s GIS project, which started in 1989, was managed by PRODABEL. An interesting fact was that PRODABEL also hosted the city s cadastre cartographical services. The main efforts were towards creating the geographic database, the development of the necessary human resources, and the search for partnerships within the city. In the long run, the project became a reference for urban GIS in Brazil. Its team grew out to be participating in the local government activities and today play a major role in the Brazilian scientific community. The project architecture started with a centralized effort and later moved to a decentralized service structure. The GIS project for the city of Belo Horizonte has received national and international recognition for providing applications that deal with important social needs, including education, health, transportation, and environmental control. The results also include over 200 publications, including theses, academic papers and articles in trade magazines, written by PRODABEL researchers (Davis Jr. 1993; Fonseca 1993; Borges and Sahay 2000). The third player is FatorGIS, a media company that started out in 1993 publishing a small magazine on GIS. From the magazine, FatorGIS started a very successful user-conference series called GIS-Brasil, holding annual meetings till The company went through some changes in 1999 which led to an online publication replacing the original paper magazine. It generated also a spin-off called MundoGeo which has a portal, a magazine, and its own user-conference series, GeoBrasil, which has been held annually since Relationship among early adopters in the Brazilian GIS scenario We categorize the early adoption period of GIS in Brazil to span from 1986, when INPE released its first GIS software, to 1994 when FatorGIS promoted the first major user conference. Besides INPE, PRODABEL and FatorGIS, also Unicamp, Embrapa, and TecGraf played a significant role in fostering the adoption of spatial information technology. The early adopters worked together in many projects and thus created significant links, which were fundamental for the successful implementation of an SDI in Brazil. For instance, from 1994 to 1997, Unicamp led a multi-million dollar cooperative project in Geoinformatics with INPE, CPqD, Embrapa, and PUC-Rio (Câmara, Freitas et al. 1994; Câmara, Casanova et al. 1996). Embrapa has developed joint work with INPE focusing on spatial analysis and modeling applied to agriculture (Assad and Sano 1998) and with Unicamp focusing on interoperability and semantics (Fileto, Medeiros et al. 2003). One of strategies adopted by the early adopters was to support initiatives for interaction with other groups interested in GIS in Brazil. The adopters had an active role in pursing partnerships with groups in various disciplines that had an interest in spatial technologies. These included research groups in different areas: (a) spatial epidemiology in partnership with the National School for Public Health; (b) social exclusion in partnership with the Catholic University of São Paulo; (c) crime analysis in partnership with the Federal University of Minas Gerais. A second important strategy of INPE was not to base the technological implementation on cloning existing software and looking for new solutions instead. For this reason, the design of the SPRING system (done in 1991) was based on integrating remote sensing and GIS with an object-oriented data model (Câmara, Souza et al. 1996). At the time, the concepts of object-oriented modeling were new in GIS, and the part of the success of SPRING can be traced to its use of 15

29 what was then an innovative technology and also to the fact that remote sensing imagery is an essential component of most geospatial applications in large countries such as Brazil. 3.3 The role of private companies Assessment of the role played by the private companies in diffusion of innovations is a major challenge in transitional economies. The case of GIS/SDI Brazil is no different. The available surveys are still incomplete and give only rough indicators of the extent of this participation. There are more than 200 companies working with GIS in Brazil. The total market is estimated in around US$ 150 million, and employee numbers are over 4,000, more than 75% of them with a technical background. Agriculture and facilities management are the largest private application markets; urban cadastre makes up 45% of the public customers (Magalhaes and Granemman 2005). Companies offering services based on open source software form 15% of the service provider market. The linkages between the various players and the private companies can be grouped in three main categories: (a) data providers; (b) service providers based on commercial software; and, (c) service providers based on open source software. The data providers have settled their business around the failures of the Brazilian mapping agencies to provide basic digital cartographic information. Mostly, their business consisted of digitizing existing topographic maps, as well as high-resolution imagery distribution. The business of data provision will soon change significantly. As a more comprehensive SDI is established, and public maps are made available in digital formats, the data providers will have to change their business models. Either they have to adopt new technology such as digital photogrammetry for creating new maps, or they will have to become service providers of location based services and online maps. The service providers based on commercial software have based their strategy on the leverage provided by existing proprietary solutions. Usually, they associate software licensing to services such as customization and database modeling. This model has proven successful. However, it is subject to the same transitions that are happening in the international GIS arena, where a new generation of spatial databases is already having a strong impact on the market. These companies are struggling to adapt themselves to these changes, including staffing of their technical team, where instead of mostly hiring cartographers and geographers for map making activities, they require experts in spatial databases. The early adopters are the main providers of qualified personnel for these companies. 3.4 Final remarks Brazil has been largely successful in setting up qualified institutions that produce and distribute spatial data. The collaborative network of early adopters was instrumental in ensuring that such a large and diverse country could benefit from the widespread adoption of spatial information technologies. This collaborative network was successful because its members were able to (1) combine specialized expertise in different segments of spatial information technologies and (2) view knowledge as a public consumption good. All the groups that comprised the network of innovators in Brazil had a primary background in information technology, rather than mapmaking. GIS and SDI are disruptive technologies which need a new culture to be effectively used. The Brazilian experience shows that it is questionable that institutions with deep-rooted cultures such as most national mapping agencies can be fully successful in setting up SDI without undergoing major internal changes. 16

30 4. Current Situation This section presents the current situation in Brazil as to the maturity of the country, its government, institutions and people regarding geographic applications, geospatial information technology, geoinformatics and other topics related to spatial data infrastructures. 4.1 Policy issues and legislation The current situation of SDI in Brazil is defined by a recent executive order (Decreto No , de 27 de novembro de 2008) that defined and created INDE (Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais), the Brazilian spatial data infrastructure. It corresponds to the American National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), to the European INSPIRE, and, more recently, to the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI). As required by the executive order, an action plan has been created for the development and dissemination of INDE (CONCAR 2010). The plan follows the traditional definition of a SDI, along the lines set forth by the American Federal Geographic Data Committee, which says that SDIs consist of not only loads of available data and technological tools, but also involve people, policies, and standards. More specifically, the plan defines INDE s objectives as creating metadata catalogs, integrating and sharing geospatial data created and maintained by different Brazilian government institutions so that the data is easily found, browsed, and used through the Internet. In the spirit of a traditional SDI, it states clearly that the data and metadata are to be created and maintained by their original producers. INDE is being implemented under the supervision of CONCAR (Comissão Nacional de Cartografia), the Brazilian National Committee of Cartography, which is under the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (MPOG, Ministério do Planejamento, Orçamento e Gestão). IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) is the executive institution that technically and administratively supports CONCAR. IBGE is responsible for creating, implementing and maintaining the SIG Brasil Web geoportal, which should provide access to all of INDE s geospatial data and services. The portal will host the central data catalog, which is called Diretório Brasileiro de Dados Geoespaciais (DBDG). Data should be free to any registered user. INDE made sharing geospatial data mandatory for all departments and agencies of the Federal government. INDE establishes a safeguard for classified information, as determined by the Brazilian government, which then does not need to be shared. INDE initially has control only on Federal departments and agencies, but state and local government initiatives are taking place in parallel, some predating INDE, others strongly based on it. INDE s action plan calls for some specific actions by each member organization. It sets some expectations for Federal government departments and agencies, for CONCAR and for IBGE. The Federal government departments and agencies are expected: To follow the standards established by CONCAR and INDE in any activity that involves creation or acquisition of geospatial data; To have consultations with CONCAR before starting new projects to create or acquire geospatial data. IBGE is expected: To build, make available, and operate SIG Brasil (INDE s geoportal) following INDE s recommendations; To manage DBDG (INDE s central data catalog) through the management, maintenance, and advancement of SIG Brasil; To make available the processes for electronic access to data, metadata, and services following CONCAR s guidelines for DBDG; To implement any restrictions to data access as specified by the data producers; To keep the confidentiality of census data as required by Law; 17

31 To bid for resources to implement and maintain INDE; To report to CONCAR annually about the above listed activities. CONCAR is expected: To create evaluation policies and regulations for new INDE-related projects that involve the acquisition of geospatial data; To make sure that INDE s standards match with CONCAR s, which follow previous legislation (Decreto-Lei no 243, de 28 de fevereiro de 1967 and Decreto no , de 20 de junho de 1984) To coordinate the implementation of INDE s central data catalog (DBDG); To create guidelines for the creation and use of the central data catalog (DBDG); To make sure that central data catalog (DBDG) follows the interoperability standards (e-ping) set by the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management; To promote the use of Open Source Software solutions for INDE; To follow up on IBGE s INDE-related tasks; To submit INDE s implementation plan to the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management, addressing the following issues: Creating deadlines for (1) the implementation of DBDG and SIG Brasil; (2) the certification of data and metadata standards; (3) Federal departments and agencies to make available the metadata on data they will contribute to INDE; and (4) the availability of the services and metadata relevant to the data that will be available through the central data catalog (DBDG ); Creating rules for publishing metadata on INDE and for new projects related to the acquisition of geospatial data by Federal departments and agencies; Finding, jointly with IBGE, sources of funding for implementing INDE, development of standards, training, and the establishment of partnerships with Federal departments and agencies. The implementation of INDE is planned to span 10 years, starting in It will take place in three cycles. The first one started in August 2009 will finish in December It is expected that at the end of this cycle a basic infrastructure of hardware, software and telecommunications will be available behind the SIG Brasil geoportal. Functionality such as searching, browsing, and access to geospatial data and metadata from Federal departments and agencies should be available by then. The second cycle, from 2011 to 2014, will be focusing on assessment, consequent planning and implementation of changes. The third cycle will start in 2015 and end in 2020 with a focus on expanding the user pool, better communication, and alignment with the Federal Government objectives. 4.2 Organizational issues The executive branch of the Brazilian federal government is organized in ministries, which create and implement regulations, development programs and policies directed towards the sectors each of them represents. In strategic areas, there are a number of secretariats and councils (see Appendix for a complete list). Ministers and secretaries have the same status in the first level of the government hierarchy, along with the country s attorney general and the president of the Brazilian Central Bank. Councils are joint administration organisms which propose directives or decide on public policies. Furthermore, there are several regulatory agencies, in charge of inspecting and controlling private sector companies that provide public service. First-level government institutions can include, in their structure, secretaries, institutes, foundations, companies, committees and other types of organizations. 18

32 Associated Commissions Commission of external funding National commission of cartography National commission of classification National commission of people and development Executive Secretariat Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management Linked Institutions Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics National School of Public Administration Financial Affairs Chief of Staff Department of state-owned companies Department of inventory management of defunct companies Department of HR management of defunct companies Subsecretariat of planning, budget and admnistration Legal Affairs Secretariat of planning and strategic initiatives Secretariat of federal budget Secretariat of international affairs Secretariat of management Secretariat of logistics and information technology Secretariat of human resources Secretariat of government inventory Figure 3 - Organizational structure of the Brazilian Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management Policies and coordinated action on geographic information and SDI-related themes for the federal government, with implications at the state and local levels, originate mostly in the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (Ministério do Planejamento, Orçamento e Gestão, MPOG). The structure of this ministry (Figure 3) includes three organizations that are central to a federal GI/SDI agenda. The first of these is IBGE, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, which is both a source of census data, socioeconomic surveys and statistical data, and nation-wide mapping. IBGE coordinates CONCAR, the Brazilian cartographic committee, which issues most cartographic standards and regulations. Both IBGE and CONCAR are the responsible for INDE (Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais, the Brazilian SDI). Finally, one of the secretariats under the ministry (SLTI - Secretaria de Logística e Tecnologia da Informação- Secretariat of Logistics and Information Technology) has a mandate to organize logistics and TI initiatives for the federal government. SLTI is the responsible for e-ping, a set of directives for interoperability among federal government organizations, among other important activities regarding to communications, technological infrastructure, e-government, and information systems integration. IBGE and CONCAR actions and decisions regarding INDE, along with interoperability directives issued by SLTI under e-ping, will be mentioned intensively throughout this section. CONCAR congregates representatives from 17 of the 24 ministries, two secretariats of the President s office, the cartographic services of the Brazilian military, IBGE and a representative from the class association of the aerial surveying companies. Among these representations, we notice the absence of the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger (MDS), one of the main organizations behind the Brazilian effort towards achieving the millennium development goals. CONCAR also organizes regional forums, for each of the five geographic regions of the country. Furthermore, there are five technical sub-commissions, covering national defense, spatial data, dissemination of information, legislation and standards, and 19

33 planning. CONCAR members are listed in the Appendix. 4.3 GIS applications Many activities of the Brazilian government require geographic information, and there is a large number of applications that support those activities. To the best of our knowledge, there is no organized catalog of geographic applications in the government, but the widespread usage of GI technology can be assessed by browsing government-related papers in national conferences Table 1 lists a few of these applications, more in the interest of providing a notion of the scope of and journals which describe GI gathering and treatment, GIS implementation and usage, and even SDI creation. Furthermore, all of the major GIS software vendors have clients in some governmental branch, at the federal, state or local levels, including utility companies, governmentowned companies and other organizations. There are also many users of SPRING, TerraLib/TerraView and i3geo; the latter is a compilation and customization of Web GIS tools based on MapServer, while the other two are software tools conceived, developed and freely distributed by INPE. GI development and usage in the Brazilian government, and with no intention of being an exhaustive list. Table 1 Some geographic applications in Brazil Organization EMBRAPA EMBRAPA FUNCATE FUNCATE GeoBahia IDEMA INCRA INPE INPE INPE and UFMG INPE and UFMG INPE and UFOP INPE, FIOCRUZ, UFMG, UFPR, PRODABEL MMA Thematic scope SOMCode Self-Organizing Map Code project CASAA Connectionist approach for spatial analysis of areal data, a tool for exploratory data analysis ZEE Brazilian ecological and economical zoning program GMI Integrated urban geographic information systems, a generic GIS for municipal applications Spatial database for environmental and socio-economic information in the state of Bahia Environmental data for the state of Rio Grande do Norte I3Geo-based interactive map showing themes related to land parceling and the location of colonization projects TerraView, a geographic data viewing and analysis tool TerraNetwork, a problem-solving application for urban networks TerraCrime, a geographic system for criminality analysis and strategic planning TerraStat, a library for spatial statistics that is integrated to TerraLib TerraME, a system for dynamic modeling and simulation SAUDAVEL an epidemiologic surveillance system i3geo-based interactive Web map showing several environmental 1

34 themes MMA MS MS and FIOCRUZ OTCA Organização do Tratado de Cooperação Amazônica Petrobras and PUC-Rio Projeto Manuelzão SEI UFMG UFPR USP SISLA (Sistema interativo de suporte ao licenciamento ambiental), a Web interactive system that provides support for environmental licensing Atlas of health indicators in Brazil Interactive maps on environmental health factors monitoring and worker health programs I3Geo-based application built around themes of interest for international cooperation between Brazil and neighboring countries in the Amazon region. InfoPAE an emergency plan deployment system Developed by Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, uses i3geo to show themes of environmental interest for the preservation of Rio das Velhas basin in Minas Gerais. Statistical and cartographic data for the state of Bahia, includes several GIS datasets ready for download along with an interactive system built around environmental and socioeconomic statistical data Crime mapping art an statistical package that integrates the R library and TerraLib GIS classes SISGIS a geographic system that presents seismological data 4.4 Funding issues INDE s action plan (CONCAR 2010) includes an estimate of the financial resources that are necessary to accomplish the initial activities for the deployment of the Brazilian SDI. The estimate only covers the first year of operation with a budget of about R$10 million (about US$6 million). Such resources are expected to come from the Treasury, since INDE s creation executive order determined that spatial data included in the SDI should be freely available to the registered users. This precludes any initiative to generate revenue from data access, and sets an example to state and local SDIs as to the source of funding for their initiatives. The rationale behind this decision seems to be that most of the data production costs are already included in each data producer s budget, and therefore only dissemination costs are new. In turn, dissemination costs are mostly becoming lower, since computer equipment and Internet connections have diminishing costs in time. Following INDE s example, no other Brazilian SDI development project has currently publicized any intention to charge for information access. Notice, also, that charging for data has been relatively rare in Brazil. Some data producers established a cost-recovery policy based on expenses generated by the fulfillment of the demand, i.e., costs related to extracting, copying or plotting data, such as media and supplies, along with the man-hours required for consumer support. Most organizations used to see data production as part of their institutional responsibilities, and therefore governmental agencies, citizens and businesses were not supposed to pay for information (Davis Jr. 1995). This rationale seems to have prevailed, and many organizations that used to charge for geographic information, IBGE included, now provide free 21

35 access over the Internet. Possibly as a result, no meaningful debate exists nowadays in Brazil as to data commercialization or even costs recovery. One of the most important initiatives of data dissemination in Brazil has been implemented by INPE, the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, in charge of remote sensing and deforestation monitoring (see the Best Practice Examples section). Although in the 70s INPE did not publish either the data or the analytical methods, today the situation is quite different: INPE enforces a paradigm-changing open data and open access policy. Now Brazil has its own satellite program and, according to Science Magazine (Kintisch 2007), INPE generates yearly totals of deforested land that scientists regard as reliable and provides automated weekly clearcutting alerts that other tropical nations would love to emulate. Currently, the Amazonia rainforest in South America is being covered regularly (by LANDSAT-5 and CBERS-2B satellites) and, through INPE, this data is available freely on the Web, at no cost. INPE s open data policy enables experts from all over the world to analyze satellite images over the internet. This means that for experts from Central Africa, using Brazil s open data policy for example, it is more attractive to look for relevant satellite images through Brazilian-provided data of satellites such as CBERS (the Chinese-Brazilian Earth Resources Satellites) than to use commercially available data. Commenting on Brazil s Open-Data policy, an article in Nature said that Brazil has set an important precedent by making its Earthobservation data available, and the rest of the world should follow suit 3. Nature then asks how rain forest nations all over the world be encouraged to do good forest stewardship. INPE has pledged to make its expertise available to all countries and institutions interested in preserving the world s rain forests. This is achieved based mostly on INPE s budget. Although most GIS and SDI projects start up with budgetary funding, in some instances initial funding has been obtained from external sources. For instance, two ongoing SDI development 3 Editorial, in Nature 452(7184), 13 March Available at html, last access Feb projects (IDE-BA and DataGeo/IDEA, see the Best Practice Examples section) are funded by a small part of a much larger World Bank funding for roads development and repavement. In the past, metropolitan GIS projects have been funded by a small share of garbage collection and treatment projects, also funded by the World Bank. Although there are some cooperation agreements for GIS development which allow private companies (especially those involved in public services, such as utilities companies) to participate and contribute, there is to the best of our knowledge no initiative to involve the private sector deeper in GIS or SDI projects. Brazilian legislation allows for public-private partnerships, but these usually apply to large engineering works or to physical infrastructure, such as roads or subways. 4.5 Human resources In most definitions of spatial data infrastructures, people are featured as one of the most important components. This reference is not to the common folk, but mostly to technical personnel, who are able to play the many roles required for a successful SDI. These roles range from the geography, geodesy or cartography expert that is in charge of data gathering and preparation to the computer science specialist that manages the computational infrastructure and ensures the performance of Web services over the Internet. Experts and specialists in other areas can contribute in a variety of thematic data that can compose the SDI, and can also play the role of users, interested in getting access to basic data from the SDI to develop their own projects. Of course, all these roles exist among people connected to governmental organizations, academia, and the society at large, including private companies, NGOs and individual citizens. As one of the most important emergent economies in the world, Brazil has a numerous array of undergraduate programs that provide college education in all of the above mentioned fields. Overall, in 2008 the country had over 2,200 higher education institutions, which host over 24,000 programs 4. There were 162 Earth Sciences 4 Source: default.asp 22

36 programs (geography, geology, oceanography, hydrology, and so on), 1,673 Computer Science/Information Processing programs, and 2,247 engineering programs in all denominations. Given the fact that geographic information has only recently become relatively common, we assume that the presence of geographic information management topics in the curricula of these programs is relatively rare. Nevertheless, there is a growing array of graduate programs on GIS and related fields. Most of these are lato sensu graduate programs, i.e., programs for graduate students that do not provide a Master s or a Doctoral degree in Brazil, the title is Specialist. For instance, the specialization program on geoprocessing, offered by the Cartography department of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais regularly since 1997, certified over 300 students so far. There are also several stricto sensu Master s and Doctoral programs that conduct research in GISrelated themes. An academic symposium on geoinformatics is held annually since 1999, and gathers about 150 researchers and students every year. Brazilian researchers have frequently had papers published in the most important academic journals in the field, and constantly participate in international symposia and conferences. With this background for the development of human resources in the knowledge areas that are necessary for a national SDI, INDE s Action Plan document (CONCAR 2010) did not dwell on the availability of people with the required basic education, but rather on the need to present new concepts to these professionals. The idea is that operating with spatial information through an SDI constitutes a new skill, and so both managers and professionals should be familiar with the datacentric approach and all the related concepts, such as metadata and Web services. As a result, chapter 6 in INDE s Action Plan characterizes three groups of professionals that should become the target for education strategies: (1) institutional users, (2) experts in management, production, and use of data, and (3) technology professionals. The first group includes managers and people responsible for standardization or communication among organizations. The second group includes most data producers and consumers, including those responsible for cataloging and creating metadata. The third group includes mostly IT professionals, in charge of creating and operating databases, establishing Web services, and managing operational aspects such as security. A broad scope of education programs has been proposed in the Action Plan in an attempt to characterize the array of required skills that have to be disseminated in order to promote adequate SDI usage. While some attention is given to undergraduate students in the document, it is natural to expect that SDI-related themes will be gradually incorporated into the curriculum of the programs, as soon as accessing spatial data through the Internet for immediate use is seen as a valid and more efficient alternative to the current 23

37 Table 2 - Potential participants of the Brazilian Directory of Spatial Data Acronym Name Function ANTAQ offline transfer and downloading practice. Currently, however, SDI is still a topic for graduate courses, and an item in the geoinformatics-related research agenda. 4.6 Available datasets Agência Nacional de Transportes Aquaviários INDE s geoportal, called SIG Brasil, is currently under construction 5. At INDE s current Web site, there is a link that provides access to the National Directory of Spatial Data, which currently consists of a description of the intended contents and a list of potential participants. These potential participants are basically all federal spatial data producers (Error! Reference source not found.). There are several Web pages from which the interested user might download spatial information, but these are usually spread throughout Web sites of the data producing organizations. In special cases, such as IBGE, Fluvial and maritime transportation ANTT Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres Ground transportation CENSIPAM Centro Gestor e Operacional do Sistema de Proteção da Amazônia (SIPAM) Environmental protection CPRM Serviço Geológico do Brasil Geology and mineral resources DHN DNIT DSG EMBRAPA IBGE Diretoria de Hidrografia e Navegação (Marinha do Brasil) Departamento Nacional de Infraestrutura de Transportes Terrestres Diretoria de Serviço Geográfico do Exército Brasileiro Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística Cartography (Brazilian Navy) Roads and highways Cartography (Brazilian Army) Research on agriculture and livestock Cartography, demography, statistical data ICA Instituto de Cartografia Aeronáutica Cartography (Brazilian Air Force) INCRA INPE Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais Settlement and land distribution Space research, remote sensing, environmental monitoring MC Ministério das Cidades Ministry of cities MF Ministério da Fazenda Ministry of finance MT Ministério dos Transportes Ministry of transportation SPU Secretaria do Patrimônio da União Federal real estate records there is a more structured site for downloads, which works much as a clearinghouse. IBGE, for instance, maintains an FTP server with a wide variety of geographic data layers and statistical information. Only a few institutions are currently offering access through Web services. These include the ministry of environment (MMA), CPRM, the Brazilian geological survey, and, of course, IBGE. MMA has the most advanced site, with a GeoNetwork installation, from which a variety of metadata can be searched. Available information 6 includes data on environmental reserves, species distribution maps, ecological zoning, land use maps, and others. MMA also offers direct viewing and manipulation of data using an i3geo installation (see the Software and Network Issues

38 section ahead). CPRM 7 hosts OGC Web services over geological information, such as geology maps and geoenvironmental maps, along with relief imagery and mineral provinces. IBGE has recently installed GeoNetwork 8, and is currently undergoing the production of metadata and the creation of services related to basic cartographic data. INPE hosts an online catalog of remote sensing images, which are free of charge for download. The image library includes images from satellites Landsat 1/2/3/5/7, CBERS-2, CBERS-2B, and ResourceSat-1. INPE s initiative to offer remote sensing images free of charge has achieved wide repercussion, and inspired the opening of image catalogs from other national space agencies around the world, including NASA and the Landsat archive (Kintisch 2007). Currently there is much more concern about publishing available data than on updating or enhancement of existing datasets. In some cases, the development or updating of datasets runs in parallel to the development of SDI services, with an established intention to integrate new data to the SDI when it is ready. One of the most interesting features of service-based SDI, namely the possibility of publishing historical datasets along with the most current ones as separate services, can modify established GIS updating practices. This possibility is perceived in some ongoing SDI projects. 4.7 Standards There are several standardization laws and bylaws in Brazil that relate to cartography, spatial information and SDI. The competence for issuing standards and regulations originates in a 1967 law (Decreto-Lei 243/1967), complemented by regulations issued in 1984 (Decreto de 20 de junho de 1984). Cartography is also regulated by the national metrology system (Lei de 11 de dezembro de 1973). There are also standards for geodesic surveying (Resolução IBGE PR 22, de 21 de julho de 1983). One particular standard (defined by CONCAR s predecessor, COCAR, Resolução COCAR 84, de 5 de dezembro de 1984) defines rules for the development of all other Brazilian cartographic standards. More recently, CONCAR issued a renewed definition of cartographic standards (Resolução CONCAR 01/2006) and, already within the scope of INDE, defined the Brazilian spatial metadata profile (Perfil de Metadados Geoespaciais do Brasil MGB, Resolução CONCAR 1/2009, de 01 de dezembro de 2009). MGB is the result of the work of CONCAR s committee for structuring geospatial metadata throughout 2008 and MGB is based on the ISO 19115:2003 standard on geographic information metadata. Since the ISO standard covers over 400 elements, a subset was selected to form the Brazilian metadata profile, after an analysis of metadata profiles adopted in Portugal, Spain, North America (USA and Canada), Peru and a proposed profile for Latin America (CONCAR 2009). The profile is organized into sections, as in ISO 19115: general identification, identification of the geographic dataset, constraint information, quality (including lineage), maintenance information, spatial representation, reference system, content information, distribution, and metadata on metadata. In each section, fields are thoroughly described, their status as mandatory or optional is indicated, their constituent elements are listed, and a textual description is presented, along with examples. Furthermore, a data dictionary is included in MGB s basic document, in which names adopted by the standard and adapted from ISO are described and characterized main.home 25

39 Table 3 - Adoption of geospatial Web services as part of e-ping (Source: (CEGE 2009)).A Adopted; R - Recommended Spec Themes Specifications Comments (*) GEOREFERENCED INFORMATION Interoperability between geographic information systems WMS version 1.0 or later WFS version 1.0 or later WCS version 1.0 or later CSW version 2.0 or later WFS-T version 1.0 or later WKT/WKB SLTI, along with the national institute of information technology (subordinated to the office of the President) and SERPRO, the federal information technology company, have developed and fostered e-ping 9, an architecture for interoperability in the Brazilian e-government. The architecture is intended as a TI infrastructure for e-government initiatives, so that systems can be more easily integrated, and investments in the sector can be properly channeled, with lower overall costs. It also envisions the necessary integration with other countries and international organizations. The e-ping structure is initially conceived as a platform for the executive branch of the federal government, and covers several areas, such as interconnection, security, access, information organization and exchange. E-Ping maintains an interoperability guide for e- government and an interoperability catalog. The interoperability catalog 10 includes a data formatting catalog, a Web services catalog, and an XML Schemas catalog (not yet implemented). There is also a metadata standard for e- government, called e-pmg (Padrão de Metadados do Governo eletrônico) 11, but it is not referenced to an international standard, as in the case of MGB. As to information organization and exchange, the e- Ping guide (CEGE 2009) simply establishes the use of XML, XML Schema, UML, XSL and other well-known Web standards. The guide also defines a navigational taxonomy, which is in fact a controlled vocabulary, called VCGE (Vocabulário Controlado do Governo Eletrônico). For integration, the e-ping guide recommends the use of Web services 10 A A A A R R Follow patterns and security policies set by the GT2, particularly WS-Security To encrypt coordinates in conventional Web services. The coordinates must be in Lat / Long using the datum SIRGAS2000 or WGS-84. Use GML whenever possible

40 and the gradual shift towards service-oriented architecture (SOA), while simultaneously providing an architectural model (Arquitetura Referencial de Interoperabilidade dos Sistemas Informatizados de Governo AR). Many specifications have been adopted by e-ping, as listed in Error! Reference source not found.. Notice the adoption of the most important Open Geospatial Consortium s Web services, and the recommendation to adopt others; GML has also been adopted. Currently, the interoperability catalog still does not include any data formats, but some Web services are listed. INDE s geographic Web services are not included in the interoperability catalog, and therefore we observe that the integration initiative still lacks more support and needs more time so that existing systems can migrate towards SOA. The adoption of international standards, however, is a good starting point. 4.8 Access issues Current statistical analyses point out that Brazil may have an infrastructural bottleneck regarding Internet access and usage. This prompted the federal government to develop a national plan for broadband Internet connection (PNBL - Plano Nacional de Banda Larga) (MC 2010). The plan intends to reach 40 million Brazilian households with low-cost broadband connections until 2014, thus fulfilling the goals proposed by the U.N. in the World Summit of the Information Society, held in 2005: taking the Internet to all communities, all schools, museums, public libraries, hospitals and health centers, and all governmental instances. However, the main idea behind the plan is to stimulate the private sector to invest in the development of the broadband infrastructure, in a competitive environment. The government plans to act directly as well, focusing its investments in collective accesses, in the context of reducing regional and social disparities. Estimates collected by PNBL show that in December of 2008 there were 9.6 million broadband connections in Brazil, corresponding to 17.8 connections per 100 households, and 5.2 connections per capita. These numbers have certainly increased strongly since then, considering the expanding role of cellular phone based connections and the 49% yearly growth rate observed between 2002 and In the current rate of progress, PNBL expects connections to reach 31.2 per 100 households by 2014, still leaving Brazil with proportionately less connections than countries such as Argentina, Chile and Mexico. Furthermore, the study points out that most broadband connections are concentrated in São Paulo state. On the other hand, considering both narrow and broadband connections, Brazil has an expressive number of Internet users, about 39% in 2008, indicating that there should be much demand for broadband services in the near future. The expansion of broadband Internet access in Brazil faces challenges in two main directions: (1) establishing effective conditions in regulation for competition among major suppliers of broadband services, and (2) expanding the geographic reach of broadband coverage. PNBL acts mostly on the second challenge, intending to use public resources to expand collective points of access (telecenters and governmental usage), with specific actions towards remote areas and low income municipalities. The plan also intends to foster mobile accesses, establishing a goal of reaching 60 million mobile broadband connections, while reaching 30 million fixed broadband connections, by This means reaching 50 connections per 100 households by the time the country hosts the next soccer World Cup. Notice that, as mentioned in the Funding section, there is no established intention to charge for data access, and actually INDE s creation decree states that data will be provided at no charge for registered users. Therefore, SDIs will be able to side with, or, ideally, to expand on and complement the capabilities freely provided by commercial GI services and virtual globes to fulfill the needs of the society for geographic information. 4.9 Software and network issues In 2003, a free software strategy was included as part of the national e-government policy. This action came as a result from a previous movement by state and municipal administrations, which perceived in the increasing availability of high- 27

41 quality free software an opportunity for rationalizing expenditure in IT. Furthermore, it was a period of intensive evolution of the use of the Internet by the government, and IT infrastructure staples such as and Web sites were beginning to become universal for public organizations. Federal universities have also had a role in this push towards free software, since many of them had knowledge and experience in early networking initiatives such as BitNet. An initiative towards building a low-priced popular computer was also developed, geared towards basic education, and using free software as part of the necessary cost reduction. By 2005, there were some GNU-Linux distributions configured specifically for governmental use. More recently, an agreement established the Open Document Format (ODF) as a standard for the Brazilian government, with an interoperability rationale. Currently, the free software initiative is led by a committee (CISL Comitê Técnico de Implementação do Software Livre, Technical Committee for the Implementation of Free Software), which meets periodically and publishes its deliberations on the Web 12. The initiative also maintains a portal 13 for the promotion of public software, i.e., software that can be shared among governmental organizations and branches, at every level. Available public software include Ginga, a middleware for interactive digital TV, and Cacic, an automatic agent for the collection of hardware and software configurations in networked PCs. One of the strongest communities in the public software portal supports i3geo, an assemblage of geospatial software geared towards the dissemination of spatial data over the Web. The main components of i3geo are PostGreSQL, MapServer and a Web-based viewer. The package includes utilities that facilitate the installation and configuration of these components. Some analysis and visualization tools are also provided. Users include many ministries (the Ministry of the Environment was the responsible for the initial development and GPL licensing of i3geo), regulatory agencies, and other institutions The Brazilian government started funding a largescale open source GIS project in The project is TerraLib, an open-source library for GIS and associated applications (Câmara, Souza et al. 2000). TerraLib enables quick development of GIS applications and is available at As a research tool, TerraLib aims to enable GIS prototypes that would include recent advances in GIScience. On the application side, TerraLib supports custombuilt applications using spatial databases. The main driving forces behind TerraLib are the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC- RIO). INPE has a mission to develop science, technology and applications for space-related fields. PUC-RIO is home to one of Brazil s leading research groups in Computer Science. The TerraLib project came out of the need to offer Brazilian users an alternative to commercial GIS software. The software has functionalities for spatio-temporal data handling that are not available in any commercial or open source GIS software. Starting in 2001, INPE and PUC-RIO invested more than 50 person-years of programming effort in TerraLib. The TerraLib project started as a research initiative to provide an innovative environment for GIS applications and have a Low-Low classification, low shared conceptualization and low modularity, according to Camara and Fonseca s open source software (OSS) typology (Câmara and Fonseca 2007). They claim OSS projects have four different stages, varying from low to high potential for shared conceptualization and from low to high potential for modularity. Besides the low-low, OSS projects can also be High-High, with a high shared conceptualization and high modularity; High-Low, with a high shared conceptualization and low modularity; and Low-High, with a low shared conceptualization and high modularity. The project got started with funding from the Brazilian Science foundation, CNPq. However, when the institutions involved considered that the project was mature enough for a production release, they devised a strategy to move the project to a more sustainable situation. INPE and PUC- RIO considered two alternatives to take the TerraLib project out of the low-low quadrant. The first was to move the project into the low- 28

42 high quadrant (low shared conceptualization, high modularity) and the other was to move the project into the high-low quadrant (high shared conceptualization, low modularity). The transition of TerraLib to the low-high quadrant was considered difficult because of the nature of the geoinformation technology. A typical GIS application consists of a core of functions that access a spatial database, and a set of customized user interfaces that fit the user s needs. These user interfaces are difficult to share, since each application (e.g., an urban cadastre in a municipality) has specific requirements. In fact, this customization of a core library of functions is a task carried out by service companies. The kernel of these GIS applications is a tightly integrated set of functions that are best maintained by a small team of skilled programmers. Therefore, INPE and PUC-RIO chose to transition TerraLib to the high-low quadrant. The Brazilian government continues to support the core team of developers of the kernel and has provided additional support for building a shared conceptualization of the product. These resources have been assigned mainly for two tasks: capacity building for commercial and public users, and direct support for service companies that use the software. INPE and PUC-RIO have invested heavily in user documentation and direct contact with commercial companies that could use the library for providing value-added services to GIS market. There is evidence that this strategy is paying off. On early 2006, more than 10 private companies in Brazil develop products using TerraLib. Since then, the number of downloads of TerraLib and of TerraView, the viewing and analysis tool developed on top of TerraLib, has been increasing steadily (Table 4). Table 4 - Number of downloads per year by registered users of TerraLib and TerraView (Source: INPE, TerraLib team) (Up to October) Total TerraLib 7,944 9,747 8,935 9,195 7,301 6,563 49,685 TerraView 0 7,636 9,726 12,591 14,182 12,238 56,373 Note 1: Includes downloads from Brazil and various other countries (China, USA, India, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Canada, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, and others) Note 2: Brazilian downloads count for abou 13% of TerraLib and 48% of TerraView downloads 29

43 One of the important decisions on the TerraLib project was to decide on its open source license. There is a strong debate on which software distribution policy governments should take on publicly funded software. In TerraLib s case, the decision considered the characteristics of the GIS market. The GIS software market is an oligopoly in which two companies (ESRI and Intergraph) have a market share of 50% (Daratech 2003). Therefore, there is a lock-in effect (Arthur 1994) in the users choice of products. INPE considered that there should be a strong incentive for commercial companies to use TerraLib to reduce the lock-in effects of the GIS market in Brazil. Therefore, TerraLib was released as open source according to the LGPL (Lesser GNU Public License). The LGPL allows private companies to build their applications on top of OSS, and market them as proprietary software. The impact on the commercial market of TerraLib-based products is an indicator of a decrease on the lock-in effect, because of a suitable licensing policy. Bregt 2006) and first-generation national spatial data infrastructures (Onsrud 1998) did not include Brazilian initiatives. However, IBGE participates in many international initiatives and endeavors for geography, cartography and statistics, including the establishment of SIRGAS2000, the geodesic reference system for the Americas. IBGE and CONCAR have recently hosted a meeting of the planning workgroup for the permanent committee for spatial data infrastructure of the Americas, in which a plan of action has been discussed for the timeframe 15. Eight nations were represented by directors of their geosciences institutes, with three more in contact through video conferences. Seven workgroups were proposed, in order to push forward various aspects of international SDI development, including groups on institutional strengthening, standards, best practices, innovations, diagnostics and technology International issues The Brazilian involvement with international instances regarding the creation of a global spatial data infrastructure is still in an early stage. Participation of Brazilian government officials in GSDI events is only recent 14, and INDE s documentation does not include any mention to initiatives in that direction. Furthermore, academic surveys on spatial data clearinghouses (Crompvoets, Bregt et al. 2004; Crompvoets and 14 See, for instance, Fortes, L. P. S. Status of Spatial Data Infrastructure Construction for Brazil. Presentation in GSDI-10, St. Augustine, Trinidad, Feb. 2008, available at

44 5. Best Practice Examples 5.1 City of Belo Horizonte: From mapping to GIS to SDI Belo Horizonte s GIS development efforts began in 1989, as part of the administration s response to the numerous new challenges presented by the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. The new constitution emphasized a shift of responsibilities from the Federal and State levels to the local level. Various public services, such as health, basic education, water and sewage, energy, transportation, and traffic were transferred from other levels of government to the municipalities, along with regulations and standards that placed additional pressure on them to be more responsive towards the demands of the citizens. Traditionally, in Brazil, most urban GIS projects were led by tax collection departments, rather than by urban planning departments. In Belo Horizonte, GIS was developed by the municipal IT company (PRODABEL), which was also the responsible for the city s cartography. This unusual scope of activities enabled PRODABEL, early in the project, to form a multidisciplinary team of specialists in several IT areas (databases, information systems, computer graphics) as well as in fields such as urban cadastre, cartography, surveying and others. Concern on multiple uses of the data was present early on the project. Ensuring the level of investments and political support required to push the project forward, at a time when this technology was largely unknown, required project managers to propose applications in many different areas. Project managers were also able to convince decision makers throughout the administration that a solid base map was required in order to provide adequate support for the thematic applications. With this, Belo Horizonte s GIS faced, early on, three important challenges: (1) building a general-purpose database, (2) developing a wide range of applications, mostly in social fields, and (3) keeping this database up-todate, as required by the applications (Davis Jr. and Zuppo 1995). The first challenge is directly related to research in topics such as data transfer standards, evolving towards interoperability, and then on to semantics and ontologies. This caused part of PRODABEL s GIS team to evolve into a research team, continuously seeking innovative approaches and solutions to all these themes, often in cooperation with universities and research centers (see (Davis Jr. 1995; Fonseca and Davis Jr. 1999; Fonseca, Egenhofer et al. 2000; Davis Jr. 2002; Fonseca, Egenhofer et al. 2002) for a sequence of research initiatives conducted along that path). The second challenge regards arguably the most important aspect of GIS as a technological tool, which is its interdisciplinary nature. From this, the involvement of specialists from each application area was required, thus forcing the establishment of strong connections between PRODABEL s original GIS team and thematic specialists in each of the city s departments, particularly in health, education, sanitation, transportation, planning and licensing. In each of these areas, GIS became a tool geared towards technical activities, used directly by technicians, with the IT and base map support being given by PRODABEL. The third challenge required an approach that is neither academic (as the first) nor integrational (as the second). Updating such a varied database (currently comprising over 6 million objects, distributed through over 300 object classes) requires a strong coordination of efforts and cooperation with external agencies (utility companies, state government departments, federal institutions, universities, and others). In turn, this drive towards cooperation provokes an interest in data sharing among the municipal administration and these external actors, which expands even more the range of GIS data and applications, thus forming a virtuous circle, leading to increased data quality, interoperability, and scale gains. 31

45 Belo Horizonte s GIS path from its cartographic beginnings to a true SDI can be divided into three phases. The first phase corresponds to the initial capacity building, including initial data set creation, hardware and software acquisition, personnel training, and initial applications development. In the second phase, the GIS project acquires more maturity, shifting the focus to sustainability through the deployment of a wide range of applications and the assurance of data quality through maintenance routines. The third phase corresponds to the maturity of the GIS, a phase in which the accumulation of knowledge and experience with urban GIS leads to a more secure definition of goals and to a vision of the role this technology can play in the future of local government. In this phase, a new technological architecture (Davis Jr. and Oliveira 2002) starts to replace hardware and software from the early 1990s, data sets are renewed, and an already wide cooperation agreement gains further momentum. INITIAL CAPACITY BUILDING ( ) This Initial Capacity Building ( ) phase begins as soon as the decision was taken to create a new base map, in electronic form, for the city of Belo Horizonte. This base map was created from a new aerial survey, followed by extensive and detailed stereoplotting. At this time, PRODABEL started a series of discussions with institutions and companies that were deemed as possible partners in the use and updating of the base map. This included the utility companies (power, water and sewage, telecom) plus several municipal, state, and federal organizations. In these discussions, the possibility of sharing the data resulting from the rather large investment in database creation acted as a catalyst to push cooperation forward. The joint project involved generating a compatibility table for street codes. Later, this evolved into the development of our first common address data set, with over 300,000 individual addresses, georeferenced as points (Davis Jr. 1993). The creation of the addressing database was further accelerated by the creation of an image data set by the scanning of the formerly existent cadastral plans. This element would also help PRODABEL to accelerate the absorption of the previous cadastral routines by the new system. In parallel, PRODABEL started internal and external training for its IT GIS group and hardware and software acquisition. The proprietary GIS solution purchased by PRODABEL had a number of advantages in the technological side, but was somewhat difficult to integrate with other information systems. Also, since PRODABEL was the only user in Brazil at the time, there was no source from which the company could hire development and training services. The solution envisioned at that time was to increase the investment in PRODABEL s own personnel, and to identify as soon as possible a desktop GIS alternative, in order to increase the capillarity of the GIS with reasonable costs. A strategy to establish a firm foothold for the GIS in the municipal administration, through a wide diversity of applications, was established. Furthermore, specialists in each application s field were summoned upon to participate in the development efforts. At that stage, it was evident that a clear strategy for sustainability was required, thus inaugurating a new chapter in the project, the Sustainability Phase ( ). SUSTAINABILITY PHASE ( ) The development of the geographic database continued with the addition of important elements of the urban infrastructure and services, street centerlines, and spatial reference units of all kinds (neighborhoods, health care districts, census sectors, planning sectors, and so on). PRODABEL s GIS team started to participate in many GIS conferences, nationally and internationally, and to publish articles on GIS concepts, development strategies, technology, maintenance, and other aspects in all sorts of publications. Regarding technology acquisition, in this phase PRODABEL s multidisciplinary team became fully operational, and started to expand its reach through new technologies (such as desktop mapping, remote sensing, digital image processing, and others). Research initiatives began to take place, motivated by the early publications and participation in academic events. A fundamental landmark of this phase is the development of a maintenance methodology for the digital data (Davis Jr. and Zuppo 1995). In fact, it was the result of the adaptation of manual, paper-cartography based routines to incorporate the GIS as a tool and as the result of the maintenance efforts (Silva and Ottoni 1995). Since PRODABEL s cadastral team had a large 32

46 experience in field work, the maintenance methodology was created with most of the correct concerns in mind. The most important decision here was on prioritizing the maintenance of data that would potentially be shared among numerous applications. Data that were merely cartographic, meaning object classes that were vectorized form aerial photos solely to fulfill cartographic standards, would be disconsidered until some application determined its use and the adequate method for its maintenance. The development of this methodology is a classical example in the life of the project of the fusion of practical and technical knowledge that lead successfully to emancipatory knowledge. Agreements on shared data were also reached in this phase. First, an agreement on street codes and addresses made it feasible to create a street code conversion table involving all the coding systems in use (PRODABEL, power company, water and sewage company, telecommunications company, police, and postal codes). As a result, many of the partners revised their conventional information systems to reflect and to facilitate this integration. An agreement on the limits of some commonly used spatial information units was also developed in this phase. To summarize, the sustainability phase was characterized by numerous efforts to stabilize, standardize, consolidate, and evolve with the GIS towards its original goals. This was achieved by deepening the emphasis on applications, by increasing the GIS team s technical capacity, and by extending the reach of the GIS data to as many partners and users as possible. Making good use of the investment in the GIS has driven these efforts, thus generating a successful strategy of turning something that was seen as expensive into something perceived as inherently valuable, inside and outside the municipal administration. MATURITY PHASE (1995-PRESENT) The next phase of the project is characterized by extensive usage of GIS resources, and by a drive towards a new technological architecture (Davis Jr. and Oliveira 2002), through which the distribution of data and the integration with partners can be achieved with greater ease and flexibility. Regarding the technological aspects, in this phase we can actually say that PRODABEL s research and development efforts start producing results, materialized as methodologies, in-depth studies, and experiments with issues that are clearly in the project s future. A geographic data modeling method has been proposed, and is currently used in many organizations throughout the country (Borges, Davis Jr. et al. 2001). A new architecture for the GIS was studied and is currently under implementation. This new architecture incorporates elements that allow it to be interoperable and distributed, and with a strong support for digital imagery (Davis Jr. and Oliveira 2002). Specialists at PRODABEL are currently researching advanced subjects, such as process and action modeling through ontologies, visualization in large spatial and spatio-temporal databases, and service-oriented architectures. Another maturity aspect is the scope and range of applications. Most of the applications cover social fields, and include, but are not limited to education, health care, transportation, urban development and safety. With such a wide variety of applications, and a significant number of partners there was a clear need for a better arrangement as to the maintenance tasks. Although PRODABEL remained in charge of coordinating the updating effort, the maturity of Belo Horizonte s GIS is better demonstrated by looking at the cooperative efforts to maintain the addresses database. This cooperation started even before the GIS, with the matching of street codes we mentioned before. Currently, a group of professionals, representatives of every one of the 27 organizations that signed the cooperation agreement, meet every two weeks to discuss possibilities of action, to exchange knowledge on technical aspects, and to coordinate joint efforts. This kind of data, expertise, effort, and investment sharing initiatives, along with the wide availability of general use data, in standard formats, available on-line, and housed at a neutral server, motivates us to begin thinking in terms of a SDI for Belo Horizonte. Actually, the cooperation (and the interdependence that results from it) among multiple partners, to support multiple applications, with multiple clients, correspond to what is expected of a true SDI. Technological barriers were once great, at the time every partner used a GIS from a different vendor. With new technological tools, such as spatial databases and 33

47 Web-based GIS, these barriers started to diminish in importance, and future pro-sdi elements (we can mention research topics such as ontologydriven GIS, geospatial semantics, service-oriented architectures, OpenGIS standards, geospatial Web services, and many more) will reduce those barriers even further. 5.2 Bahia State: IDE-BA and Geoportal Bahia Bahia is one of the largest Brazilian states. With 564, square kilometers, it is almost the size of France. Salvador, the state capital, currently houses almost 2.8 million people 19% of the state s population. Geographic information is regarded as an important item for governance and public administration and territorial planning. In Bahia, the SDI initiative predates INDE by many years, as described next. In 2002, REBATE a spatial information technologies research network composed by public and private sectors and led by the Federal University of Bahia showed, with a survey, that most spatial data sets in Bahia state were hard to access. Only one of the 30 surveyed organizations offered a link to download spatial data from the Web. To overcome this situation, REBATE proposed to establish more favorable environmental conditions to diffuse Geomatics among private and government institutions, through a Spatial Data Infrastructure, in order to guarantee diffusion and access to geographic information (Pereira and Rocha 2002). A year later, a new survey found that the spatial data exchange between organizations was increasing, as well as the number of spatial data elements collected, but data were still not openly available to be shared. To make things worse, only a few state government Web pages provided information about GIS projects, metadata and how to access spatial data (Mattos 2003). In 2003, REBATE also published a research paper where it summarizes initiatives in organizing state and local geographic information, particularly in Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, Paraná, and Bahia states. Beside these actions, the research identified some other initiatives in Goiás and Mato Gosso states concerning inter-institutional coordination and geographic data framework dissemination (Pereira and Rocha 2003). That 34 paper also mentioned national projects that promoted spatial data acquisition and dissemination at that time, led by public organizations which were relevant to establish a national SDI, including, among others, the Brazilian geological service (CPRM), the The Brazilian Agency for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA) and IBGE. The research mentioned incentives in place to produce and integrate geographic information, such as basic and thematic spatial data from various Brazilian states. These incentives came from public policies in fields such as cadastral regularization in slums, water resources, environmental governance, support to territorial management and planning, and some other government activities that posed strong demands for geographical data (Pereira and Rocha 2003). Based on this situation, and observing international experiences, REBATE presented, in 2002, and detailed in 2003, a proposal for a multiinstitution arrangement to develop a Spatial Data Infrastructure in Bahia (Pereira and Rocha 2004). In the proposal, a coordination board would take responsibility for establishing policies and standards, for organizing a data framework and generating metadata content, and for developing and deploying a geoportal as a tool to distribute basic spatial data and to provide information about any existing spatial datasets produced in Bahia. The idea, in 2003, was to change the situation by making tools and links available to geographic information users (both organizations and citizens), so that they could to discover what spatial data were available, and where and how to access it. The geoportal was envisioned as a virtual repository of all spatial data produced and maintained anywhere in Bahia state, regardless of storage format and structure. It would offer basic spatial datasets to download, an on-line metadata catalog with links to other datasets, and possibly some Web mapping services based on available data (Pereira and Rocha 2004). At that time there was already a formal proposal to the state s Cartographic Committee to coordinate a state SDI, generating an executive order from the State of Bahia, which restructured the committee (Decreto n , de 14 de agosto de 2002). In this context, the implementation of a geoportal was proposed in 2004 as a strategy to start

48 building an SDI in Bahia state by improving geographical data and information visibility (Rocha and Pereira 2004). The initial proposal evolved into a conceptual design, developed by PRODEB, Bahia state s information technology company, in a partnership with the state s social and economic studies organization (SEI Superintendência de Estudos Econômicos e Sociais da Bahia), which is also responsible for Bahia s regional cartography. In April 2005, the conceptual design for a Bahia SDI was concluded (Pereira et al., 2005). This conceptual design evolved later, considering developments on Web services and SOA-based SDI, so that a new proposal was needed (Pereira, Davis Jr. et al. 2009), now named IDE-BA (Infraestrutura de Dados Espaciais da Bahia), which includes the Geoportal Bahia and a metadata catalog. Currently, all specifications for the development and deployment of IDE-BA are ready for public bidding, while a new set of digital cartographic data is being finalized. Funding was obtained as a collection of small shares of international financing for public works, such as road construction, from sources such as the World Bank. 5.3 São Paulo State: IDEA and DataGEO São Paulo State s Environment Secretariat (Secretaria do Meio Ambiente do Estado de São Paulo SMA-SP) was created in 1986 to promote the preservation, improvement and recovery of environmental conditions in the state, coordinating and integrating actions regarding environmental protection. Three years later, SMA- SP was also put in charge of creating and implementing the state s environmental policy. SMA-SP is also responsible for environmental licensing and monitoring, for promoting environmental educational, and for developing standards and regulations. Several organizations work under SMA-SP s umbrella, including departments, coordinations and foundations, with various complementary mandates. Since 2007, SMA-SP has defined 21 strategic environmental projects, which address a variety of environmental agendas, such as the reduction of solid waste, sewage treatment and destination, air pollution, water and groundwater quality, ecotourism, environmental education, reduction of sugar cane residue burnouts, and the integration of environmental licensing activities. To carry out these agendas, SMA-SP establishes links with other state government organizations, municipal governments, NGOs, academia and federal institutions. Since it is the focus of all environment-related activity in São Paulo state, SMA-SP considers the adequate management of spatial information on the environment to be strategically important to their work. Since it is the confluence of several organizations, most of which functioning as data producers, the idea of creating an SDI is quite appealing to SMA-SP, since it is seen as a way to avoid duplicating efforts in spatial data management, while providing an opportunity for sharing and publication of an extensive array of spatial data. IDEA, which stands for Infraestrutura de Dados Espaciais Ambientais (environmental spatial data infrastructure, in Portuguese), is the name of SMA-SP s SDI. As in the case of IDE-BA from Bahia State, IDEA has also been proposed within a service-oriented framework, with a central metadata and services catalog, and a geoportal. The main data sources for IDEA include some of SMA-SP s units, such as CETESB (Companhia Ambiental do Estado de São Paulo), along with the state s cartography and geography institute and IBGE. Currently, IDEA and SMA-SP s geoportal are fully specified, and a request for bids is about to become public. An effort, in cooperation with academic partners, is being developed towards creating a conceptual model and an ontology for environmental management and monitoring, in order to subsidize the metadata on data and services with meaningful semantic annotations. The request for bids includes the development and deployment of the geoportal and of a metadata management system, and the preparation of a set of background services that provide access to basic cartographic data. The winner of the bid must also provide technology transfer, in the form of training services and technical support. A full set of specifications and guidelines for the expansion of IDEA beyond the first services is also called for in the terms of reference. INDE s standards and definitions, particularly in the case of the Brazilian metadata profile, are already 35

49 included in the specifications. As in the case of IDE-BA, funding for the creation of IDEA is coming from a small share in a large international financing project dedicated to highway construction and improvement. 5.4 Minas Gerais State: IEDE The government of Minas Gerais and its organizations was, partially as a consequence of the success of Belo Horizonte s GIS project, a pioneer in GIS applications at the state level. As early as 1994, Minas Gerais had a project to put together and disseminate a common set of basic digital cartographic data. The project, called GeoMinas, created data kits, which were freely distributed using CDs. In 1996, the contents became available for download in a dedicated Web site 16, which is still in operation, although with no new content. Data producers involved in GeoMinas included the state s cartography and geography institute (IGA Instituto de Geociências Aplicadas), state-owned utilities companies and many state secretariats. Other participants included federal and local government institutions, universities and research centers (Davis Jr 2002) Along with the data kits, GeoMinas also developed initiatives towards technology dissemination and development, education, and metadata gathering. Technology was the focus of discussion groups, which produced, among other results, an agreement on a common data exchange file format (Davis Jr. 1995). The education initiative fostered the creation of a graduate (specialization) course on geoprocessing, coordinated by UFMG, starting in 1997, initially dedicated to state employees, but later open to the community. As to metadata, a large effort resulted in the development of an information system dedicated to managing metadata -- although the term was not in use by then (Marinho 1998). A political change brought GeoMinas to a halt in 1998, although most of the informal network of technicians and professionals continued to meet and work under Belo Horizonte s data exchange agreement. Recently, Minas Gerais state regained momentum in the direction of improving geographic data 16 exchange, after having contact with the plans for INDE and by negotiating a similar initiative within the state administration. Under the coordination of IGA, Minas Gerais developed a number of integrated actions: (1) the development of a plan for the updating of the state s cartography, using new technologies, (2) the reactivation of the state s cartographic committee, (3) the revision of the state s network of geodesic landmarks, and (4) the creation of IEDE (Infraestrutura Estadual de Dados Espaciais, State Spatial Data Infrastructure), an exact replica of INDE except for the regional scope. In fact, a gubernatorial decree determining the creation of IEDE is a nearly exact replica of INDE s creation decree from December As a result, IEDE strictly adheres to INDE s standards and regulations, and establishes identical policies, including the costless dissemination of data. The new datasets that are being produced for IGA and IEDE jump for the traditional 1:100,000 and 1:50,000 scale maps to digital contents produced for 1:10,000 scale, including 3D relief coverage, digital orthophotos and hi-res satellite imagery, a geographic database and a refined digital terrain model. An initial survey of Belo Horizonte s metropolitan region was started in May 2010, after a successful pilot site at Itabira, a city hosting a traditional and rich iron ore province. Initial IEDE data are scheduled to include high resolution satellite imagery gathered recently for forestry control, geocoding information from the state-owned electrical utility, and other sources. IGA plans to launch a geoportal (PMDG - Portal Mineiro de Dados Geográficos), and to simultaneously make some data available to the general public using Google s Enterprise services. An effort towards the creation of a metadata catalog will also have to be developed, although there is hope that the previous experience with geographic data cataloging and the cooperation of GIS technicians from many GeoMinas participants will boost the process. Financing for IEDE comes from two sources, the state s Treasury and, where applicable, the state s research and development fostering agency (FAPEMIG Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais). FAPEMIG receives about 1% of the state s budget to invest in R&D projects statewide, and it is obligated to dedicate part of 36

50 those resources to state-owned research centers. IGA, which was hardly ever seen as a research facility, gained this status and currently benefits from FAPEMIG s financing programs. Lack of technically qualified personnel in geoinformatics is seen as a hurdle by IGA, although they have access to the support of the state s IT company. 5.5 INPE: Remote Sensing SDI The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), a major research institute funded by the Brazilian government, is for Brazil roughly what NASA is for the U.S. INPE carries activities that range from launching observation satellites, collecting their data, and creating and using environmental models. INPE is the research institution designated by the Brazilian government to collect data and perform calculations on the annual rate of deforestation of the Amazon rain forest. Currently, INPE has over 100 scientists working on research questions directly or indirectly related to Earth Systems Science. Additionally, INPE maintains graduate programs in Meteorology, Space Geophysics, Remote Sensing and Computer Science. Collectively, these graduate programs have produced over 75 Ph.D.s and 241 Masters theses since To carry out such research, INPE assembled an array of state-of-the art facilities for field and laboratory measurements, supercomputers for global and regional atmospheric and oceanic modeling, an instrumented research aircraft, a number of satellite receiving stations for environmental and meteorological satellites, and several research laboratories in Brazil. Historically, INPE has focused its attention on a number of issues of direct relevance to the understanding of the functioning of natural systems, mainly the Brazilian rain forest, and how this and related systems are being affected by climate and land use changes. Important contributions have been given to the attempt to understand natural climate variability in many time and temporal scales, the climate impact of deforestation and of biomass burning, and the complex dynamics of land use change in the region. INPE had operated a LANDSAT remote sensing ground station since 1974 and had established a remote sensing application group since From May 2004 to May 2005, INPE delivered more than 100,000 CBERS-2 CCD images, which are available free to Brazilian users through the Internet. CBERS-2 is the second of a series of five remote sensing satellites being developed in cooperation between China and Brazil between 1988 and These numbers make Brazil one of the world s largest distributors of remote sensing imagery. INPE s foray into the GIS software market started in the 80s, when the Brazilian Government adopted a market reserve policy aiming at the protection of the local information technology industry. For eight years, there was a heavy economic incentive provided by the government to produce local information technology (IT) hardware goods. The market reserve legislation provided a powerful incentive for local development of GIS and Remote Sensing Image Processing technology, insofar as a typical price for a single-seat system at this time was approximately US$ 100,000, including hardware, software and training costs. As a result of this scenario, INPE established its Image Processing Division in 1984 with the following aims: (a) local development and dissemination of image processing and GIS systems in Brazil; (b) establishment of a research program in Image Processing and GIS, and (c) pursuit of cooperative programs with universities, government organizations and private companies. In 1986, INPE brought out Brazil s first GIS+image processing station based on a MS- DOS PC-286. The system was used extensively by 150 universities and research labs up to In 1992, given recent advances in hardware and software and the changes in information technology policy in Brazil, INPE started the development of a free GIS software, SPRING, which is widely used in GIS courses in Brazilian universities. INPE is also developing an open source GIS library in partnership with the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro. Recently, INPE launched an initiative called Global Forest Information System (GFIS). Among its principles, INPE proposes that any 37

51 individual worldwide would have the right to copy and use the data for his own purposes. A GFIS should allow remote access to its database so scientists can experiment with their own tools. Applying this idea to environmental monitoring, INPE envisions a Global Forest Information System (Câmara, Vinhas et al. 2009) along the lines of an enhanced "Digital Earth" concept. According to INPE s view, the Digital Earth metaphor can become much more than what today s virtual globes provide, and work as a largescale repository of data, services, and models that can be discovered and used by the multiple actors involved in rainforest monitoring. A Global Forest Information System is a Web application that can increase the capacity of rainforest nations to estimate and monitor deforestation by making essential data and models easily available. The key objective is to enable cooperation and participation from the various actors involved, notably scientists, policy makers, and common citizens. Content as distinct as satellite images, spatial data infrastructures, geobrowsers, research data, laws and policies, and citizen-provided information can be indexed, searched, discovered and used by all interested parties. In INPE s view, although nations should be the ultimate responsible for forest monitoring and reporting, improving communication in a setting such as the one proposed here would be helpful in many different ways, particularly for involving all interested parties and helping to eliminate speculation on the validity or reproducibility of scientific results. 38

52 6. Lessons Learned and Insights Gained SDI is a combination of technologies, people, policies and standards required to foster the dissemination and usage of geographic information through all levels of government, private and non-profit sectors, and academia (Fonseca 2008). Nowadays, GIS technologies are widely available, both as proprietary and free software. International standards are guiding both the development of such software and the organization of large repositories of geographic data, which can be searched and discovered with the help of metadata, which in turn are also governed by international standards. The current combination of technological tools and international standards is showing in practice that SDIs can be envisioned, designed and implemented to cover a broad range of scales, from global to local, based on the same fundamental architecture. As to people, we have shown that Brazil has a diversified and capable academic sector, with a worthy presence in world science, and therefore the country is capable of educating people in all required subject related to SDI. There is, nevertheless, a strong market pressure on highly specialized professionals, resulting from the recent increase in economic growth. The remaining part of the equation, namely policies, is the most interesting. Coherent and effective policies are only possible in a context of institutional maturity. Taking Brazil as an example, we observe that the creation of INDE was possible because various conditions were met. First, there is a national geography/cartography/ statistics bureau (IBGE) in place, with a long term involvement in geographic information and a vision on the demands for GI from the government and the society in general. IBGE, in turn, is part of a broader arrangement of cartographic institutions, all of which have undergone a transition from conventional mapping to GIS technologies in the last two decades. When CONCAR, led by IBGE, set forth the initiative of creating INDE, provisions were 39 made to allow the participation of the most important institutions in the process, and the resulting action plan has arisen from consensus, rather than from a centralized planning decision. In a sense, one can say that institutional maturity led to the kind of cooperation and agreement necessary to create something like INDE. Of course, the initiative is in its initial steps, and much remains to be seen as to the reality of funding INDE s operation and to the actual usage of the information provided in the infrastructure. IBGE is currently undertaking an initiative to disseminate INDE in GIS-related events countrywide, and is offering support for the establishment of local or thematic SDIs that are to become part of the national infrastructure. CONCAR and IBGE are working with the objective of encouraging GISenabled organizations to move towards SDI and to join INDE. If the installation and configuration of INDE-compatible server becomes simple enough, many more geographic information sources can join the bandwagon, in turn increasing the importance of INDE to the society. It is important to ensure that not only governmental or official data sources are allowed in; there must be openings for other types of organizations to join, making available then, for instance, research data, community-oriented points of interest, commercial locations, and others. As in the case of GIS projects from the 1990s, current SDI initiatives appear to be growing out of the already existing infrastructure and funding, embedded in data collection and updating efforts. In some cases, special projects have been developed, seeking funding from organizations such as the World Bank, but such projects are presented as a small IT part of a much larger physical infrastructure initiative. In this sense, a relatively small percentage of a large effort is being redirected towards improving information availability and dissemination, which is a positive outcome. Since geographic information can be used in many other unforeseen uses, the positive outcome is potentially multiplied by the quantity and variety of alternate uses of information, an

53 improvement which is at the core of SDI development goals. Sharing part of the computational infrastructure in the establishment of SDIs is now much easier than it was to share spatial data 15 years ago. Therefore, organizations could cooperate in establishing the core of an SDI, and divide among themselves the hosting of Web services for that SDI, thus forming local- or theme-specialized SDIs that could be eventually integrated to INDE. This is reminiscent of cooperation agreements for GIS data sharing, as initiated by some GIS projects in the 1990s, with the difference that now data replication is not necessary. However, achieving broad institutional agreements remains as difficult as in those days. SDIs can be seen as a publication platform by data producers. Current data collection and validation methods can go on as usual, and periodically a new data release can be copied from maintenance servers to the SDI servers and made available to the users. The coexistence of several data releases, each of which with its own metadata, enables users to perceive temporal evolution. This is similar to the comparison of paper maps from various dates, something that GIS datasets kept us from doing in the last two decades. 40

54 7. Long-Term Perspectives Overall, current SDI-related initiatives share the vision of providing useful information to the society, thus considering such information to be a public good. Although most of the required legal framework for data publication is currently in place, some SDI creation initiatives seem to be politically held back by the lack of legislation that mandates the publication of non-sensitive data, as in U.S. s Freedom of Information Act. However, a promising bill on open access to public information (currently in the Brazilian Senate, after being passed by the House in April 2010), presents an opportunity to change this situation 17. The bill applies to every branch of government (federal, state, municipal), along with non-profit private entities that receive public funding. Curiously, there is not much concern as to the assessment of the impact of SDIs. Beyond requirements towards recording the number of accesses, current projects carry no special provision towards dimensioning the demand for spatial data and its rate of growth more accurately. The lack of such information can lead either to over- or underspecified computational infrastructures. Financially, information producers have the intent of supporting the costs of SDI creation and maintenance, and there is no foreseeable intention of charging for access. On the contrary, some initiatives, including INDE, specifically require open and costless data access. Some projects count on World Bank financing for starting up, and promise a reasonable maintenance plan with their own resources. This is in line with older GIS initiatives in Brazil, most of which never charged for data. It also reflects in part the cooperative nature of some GIS initiatives, in which costless spatial data interchange has been taking place since the early 1990s, covered by cooperation agreements and other legal instruments. This is a sensible perspective, since it simplified agreements and facilitated cooperation, but budgeting for data providers must be analyzed 17 PLC 41/2010 Lei Geral de Acesso à Informação (General Law on Information Access). Available at ate=96674, last access Feb considering also the services rendered to other organizations and to the society. The sustainability of SDI in a country where resources are relatively limited is an important issue. If geographic information is considered mission-critical for government agencies, then there is a stronger possibility of a sustainable SDI. In Brazil, because of the regional and global importance of the rain forest, environmental concerns seem to be an area which might lead to this path. For instance, environmental policy making requires a substantial amount of information, ranging from the scientific point of view (in many disciplines) to the experience of the local population. Scientists constantly gather data, perform analyses, and generate information and recommendations for policy makers. Wide access to that information is required, so that not only policy makers can decide on more solid grounds, but also the targets of policies can understand the reasons behind governmental action. Clear indicators of progress must be in place, so that the effectiveness of policies can be assessed. People in general must also be allowed to participate in a more direct and active manner, getting to know facts about the region, expressing themselves, and contributing to find solutions. In this scenario, it is evident that information must flow and connect as many people as possible. Although, in many aspects, this kind of arrangement exceeds the current concept of a traditional SDI, it has the potential not only sustain an SDI initiative but also to expand it in many ways. Such an SDI is different from the traditional approaches, in which SDIs operate mainly as automated map distribution systems. This broader SDI would be an enabler for understanding space. The SDI would not only deliver general-purpose maps, but disseminate spatial data to support sustainable development policies. It is necessary to go beyond SDI to integrate science and communities in the effort of creating, enforcing, assessing, and revising environmental policies. This kind of SDI is one of the ways of making the Brazilian SDI initiative sustainable in the long run. 41

55 Information infrastructure is a big challenge, since access to potentially large volumes of data online requires broadband connections. A plan has been issued by the government to pursue rapid improvements in that direction (MC 2010), but so far concrete actions have not been taken. In discussions with potential SDI users, some of them expressed concerns on their capacity to hire fast enough Internet links, and would like to have a backup plan, involving data replication. The potential impact of networking limitations on SDI usage remains to be seen. While we have not listened to many complaints on the availability of technical personnel, current Brazilian legislation for hiring people in the public sector is very strict, and might hinder the necessary expansion of technical staff. This is of particular importance to information providers that do not have strong IT support, either internal or from a sister organization. Anyway, the private market for IT professionals is on the rise, with increasing wages, and this might point towards the need for data publishers to hire specialized IT services. We see the need for better coordination among governmental agencies in charge of SDI development and e-government initiatives. For instance, there is currently no mention of INDE or public geographic information in the Brazilian e-government program, and INDE s portal does not mention e-government initiatives either. Although we agree that there has been little time to promote such integration, we see it as a natural and necessary step in both initiatives, especially when the bill on information access passes in Congress. As established by INDE s creation decree, the participation of federal institutions is mandatory. However, the decree does not include any kind of penalties for non compliance thus making participation optional in fact. Nevertheless, the participation of other federal geographic information providers should raise the need for motivation, more than enforcement. The forthcoming legislation on information access can provide a valuable incentive, considering that SDI is arguably one of the best ways to disseminate geographic data in a large scale, and the existence of INDE may render other alternatives less interesting or economically less viable. In that respect, there is reason to believe that INDE may be called upon to provide better visibility for the efforts of participant institutions, as a way to generate political return for their efforts. With the current availability of free spatial data access, such as Google Maps/Earth, Bing Maps, Yahoo!Maps and OpenStreetMap, many people do not clearly see the need for SDIs, other than being the outlet for public spatial information. While public organizations have been slowing down their data collection initiatives, private companies are roaming the world to collect and organize information that is offered to the society at very little or no cost. Nevertheless, it is the combined availability of multiple data sources that empowers the user in selecting what is best for his or her intended application, thus enabling a hyper global GIS in which everyone can participate. In this way, volunteered geographic information (VGI) initiatives should be directly linked to SDIs, much in the spirit of current Web 2.0 trends. Citizens can contribute to maintain public data sources, and the society can benefit from the outcomes of this cooperative setting, which in turn is also very much in the spirit of SDI. 42

56 8. Conclusions The major result in the Brazilian SDI policies is the recent creation of INDE (Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais), the Brazilian spatial data infrastructure. The executive order that officially created INDE defines it much in the spirit of current national and global initiatives such as the U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), the European INSPIRE, and the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI). It encourages government agencies to create and share geographic data following the standards and regulations laid out by INDE. INDE relies on two organizations, IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and CONCAR (Comissão Nacional de Cartografia), the Brazilian National Cartographic Committee. IBGE is in charge of creating, implementing and maintaining the SIG Brasil geoportal on the Web, which should provide access to all of INDE s geospatial data and services. CONCAR has a supervision role and is also responsible for creating evaluation policies and regulations for new INDE-related projects that involve the acquisition of geospatial data, and to make sure that INDE s standards match existing legislation. Brazil is a large country with a healthy economy and a number of challenges. One of them is how to distribute resources equally and prioritize the most needing regions. Geographic information and its distribution through SDIs can play a decisive role in this process. The Brazilian SDI scene is characterized by the play between two tendencies: centralizing and decentralizing. Brazilian funding structure forces local and state government to depend too much on federal funds. However, as we reported here, the most successful GIS and SDI projects to date come from local and state agencies. Therefore, in order to keep this balance and at the same time extract the best from it, this report recommends that World Bank funding should prioritize local and state initiatives. We also recommend that this funding should not be made through the federal government. Nevertheless, funded projects should strictly follow the recommendations and requirements set by INDE. This way the funding will support both strengths in the current Brazilian scenario: the newly crafted legislation that created INDE and the successful independent SDI projects, while at the same time reinforcing a bottom-up strategy for creating and disseminating INDE. The same applies to thematic SDIs, such as DataGeo/IDEA, either national or local in scope. Current strategies by interested agencies that piggyback GIS and SDI in funding for larger projects seem to work well, because they reinforce planning and management with a very small share of development funds that are provided for improving physical infrastructure and major public services. Along with cartography, IBGE functions as the Brazilian census bureau, also in charge of socioeconomic surveys and statistical data. IBGE provides operational support to CONCAR, which creates and maintains most cartographic standards and regulations. Both IBGE and CONCAR are the two main agencies responsible for INDE, the Brazilian SDI. The third important agency involved with INDE is SLTI (Secretaria de Logística e Tecnologia da Informação), the Ministry of Planning s Secretariat of Logistics and Information Technology, which organizes logistics and TI initiatives for the federal government. Unlike some other subdivisions of the federal government, the three main organizations (IBGE, CONCAR and SLTI) that are important to INDE are relatively stable and have a deep knowledge on the creation and use of geographic information. Institutional stability, technical competence and adequate funding are very important for both information providers and regulation agencies, so it is our opinion that such organizations are a prerequisite to successful SDI development in the national scale. Furthermore, IBGE has been slowly but steadily pushing itself into the new information age. All data for the 2010 census were collected in the field using handheld computers, and today most of the census results are available in digital form. IBGE also managed distribute the geographic features 43

57 related to census data. CONCAR is doing its job of creating and maintaining Brazilian cartographic standards. Of course it is a challenge for both institutions, the former 73 years old, the latter 44 years old and recently renovated, to keep up with the Internet and its constant changing scenario. SLTI, which is apparently more agile, since it was born in the new era, is promoting new standards such as e-ping, a set of directives for interoperability among federal government organizations, which are fundamental for the success of INDE. E-Ping needs to be more widely known and studied, including its geographic data section. This can be done through more open discussion through academic and professional meetings and conferences. Academic funding needs to follow the traditional model through Science foundations. Professional meetings can be funded as special topics in large development projects. Again, special lines of funding for Masters and Ph. D. programs would encourage the depth that is needed to integrate INDE into the backbone provided by e-ping. We mentioned the lack of adequate connection between SDI and e- government initiatives in Brazil; maybe e-ping s evolution can serve as a bridge, so that geographic information services can become and effective part of the country s e-government strategies. It is hard for traditional institutions to keep up with the dynamic landscape of today s interconnected world. After initiating INDE, IBGE and CONCAR must strengthen their connections to SLTI, in order to keep geospatial data and technologies within the scope of Brazilian governmental interoperability initiatives. A stronger connection to academia and research on geoinformatics and the numerous areas of knowledge that are potential users of INDE is also necessary, in order to foster new sources of innovation in SDI and GIS-related technologies in Brazil. In a market where technology is constantly changing, government agencies and private companies struggle to adapt themselves to these changes, including staffing of their technical team. Hiring cartographers and geographers for map making activities will not solve their problem. They need experts in spatial analysis and in spatial databases. These experts should know how to take advantage of the increased availability of data as INDE is being established. The government agencies that are the early adopters of GIS technology are usually the main providers of qualified personnel for the market, but government is in turn very slow in the hiring process, and it can be very difficult for governmental agencies to compete with the private market s salaries. Brazil has a good number of undergraduate programs in the Geosciences with 162 Earth Sciences programs (geography, geology, oceanography, hydrology, and so on), 1,673 Computer Science/Information Processing programs, and 2,247 engineering programs. There also special studies and graduate programs. Although the market is currently in high demand for all of these professionals, Brazil has both the potential human resources and the training and education infrastructure. It has also the plan laid out by INDE, which mentions three groups of professionals that should become the target for education strategies: (1) institutional users, (2) experts in management, production, and use of data, and (3) technology professionals and proposes a broad scope of education programs which include undergraduate and graduate education. It is important to find mechanisms for funding the creation of short and long term education program in GIScience area. They should complement the current offerings that already offer a good foundation in the associated sciences. Besides that, students should also be funded directly and indirectly through encouragement of possible promotions in their professional careers. So studies to make this happen in government agencies need to be developed. A model similar to what is currently used to encourage scientific production in Brazilian universities might be used. Any funding program should be encouraged to follow the human resources guidelines suggested in INDE s initial plan and future updates. In that respect, another important recommendation regards employees of key organizations such as IBGE, CONCAR, and SLTI. It is necessary to commit funds to refocus the current and form new human resources for 44

58 these agencies, considering the new technological environments and paradigms. This effort has to leverage the early Brazilian GIS tradition of mixed conferences in which both users and academics shared their experiences. The collaboration and knowledge sharing between universities and the public sector has to be encouraged. This can be done leveraging CONCAR s regional meetings to bring universities to give workshops and seminars for government employees. The participation of IBGE employees and CONCAR members in purely academic conferences should also be supported. The First Global Forest Systems workshop 18 that took place in Rio in 2009, in tandem with an academic conference, is a good example of such an initiative. We also feel that incentive to employees can be implemented in the context of monitoring the outcomes of public actions. There are a few governmental initiatives in that direction, but none so far connected to SDI or GIS projects. Implementing effective monitoring practices, meaningfully connected to SDI operation and usage indicators, can have a positive effect both to personnel and to the overall performance of the system. Considering the software scenario, Brazilian GIS applications evolved from a few users based on mainframe computers and expensive software to widespread use of personal computers and inexpensive or free and open source software. The proliferation of GIS applications although positive in spreading the idea and increasing local knowledge also brought lack of standardization and duplication of efforts. Many digital mapping applications were developed at IBGE, EMBRAPA, INPE and other federal agencies, along with state level initiatives such as Minas Gerais and Bahia, thematic SDIs such as SMA- SP s DataGeo/IDEA, and successful local GIS such as Belo Horizonte and others. Again, the development of Brazilian computer science leveraged the development of GIS expertise and applications. Some Brazilian universities and institutes help end users in the development of their GIS applications. This is done usually through foundations linked to the academic 18 Workshop%20SDI%20for%20the%20Amazon.html institutions. Large government agencies are able to rely on their internal IT infrastructure but many local governments lack this kind of support. Thus, it is necessary to create basic applications directed to specific markets such as sustainable agriculture, local government land use and taxation, public health, and crime prevention. These applications should be based on open source software, be able to run on basic computer platforms and software, follow standards set by INDE, and come up training packages. These initiatives should be based on partnerships with universities, state agricultural agencies, and other institutions or organizations that have access to each and every Brazilian locality, and could be the source of thematic SDIs. INPE and its associated foundation, FUNCATE, have several good examples of the feasibility of this kind of work. Notice that Brazil has a strong tradition in software development. Although less known than China and India, the Brazilian software industry develops much of the software used in Brazil, including GIS applications such as SPRING, TerraView and i3geo. The most important results in GIS software were achieved by INPE, through its open source GIS library TerraLib, an opensource GIS component library used internationally. The Brazilian geographic information community would greatly benefit from the availability of such a general, open source GIS library. This would have a direct impact on the use of GI in development projects and environmental monitoring and protection. It is necessary to improve on and fully establish the basic library so that further uses and applications can follow. The main source of funding for the basic development of TerraLib is the Brazilian government. This needs to be diversified in two ways. First, funding from other sources would make the project less dependent from the yearly budget variations and disputes. The diversification of uses would also help the sustainability of the TerraLib project. While the basic development of the library is well supported, the training of users and development of front-end solutions still lag behind in terms of financial support. Also on funding, we realize that it might be a problem for the Brazilian SDI. INDE s initial 45

59 budget accounted only for the first year, and long term funding is still an unanswered question, besides counting on budgetary resources for the hosting organizations. The World Bank is already funding some Brazilian SDI initiatives. Two important SDI development projects, IDE-BA and DataGeo/IDEA, described in this report, are funded as part of a larger World Bank endowment for transportation infrastructure. It also happens that, in the past, some metropolitan GIS projects have been financially supported by a share of funds for large garbage collection and treatment projects. The history of success in Brazilian GIS projects with external funding is often linked to larger projects more in line with the country s development goals. Funding of independent projects might lead to results that are disconnected with immediate development needs of Brazil. Nevertheless, the no charge policy enforced by INDE and other state SDIs replicates successful GI dissemination initiatives in the past, and we see no reason to change that. We recommend that funding should be tied to larger projects which are in line with Brazil and the World Bank s millennium development goals. This strategy has the advantage of securing resources for information, technology and planning in parallel with development initiatives, thereby facilitating the assessment of the impact of the broader project. Infrastructure is a major issue in Brazil nowadays. Brazil has reasonable network services in the main metropolitan areas but being a large country this still leaves many areas that need to be addressed. The high network demand of spatial data transfer might also be a problem. Wide public use is another challenge because Internet access is expensive for a country with a large part of its population close to the poverty line. In order to address that problem, the Brazilian government developed a national plan for broadband Internet connection (PNBL - Plano Nacional de Banda Larga). The plan proposes to give 40 million Brazilian households low-cost broadband connections by This is in line with the goals set at the UN s World Summit of the Information Society, which are to have Internet access in all communities, schools, museums, public libraries, hospitals and health centers, and all governmental instances. The expansion of broadband Internet access in Brazil faces two challenges: establishing effective conditions in regulation for competition among major suppliers of broadband services, and expanding the geographic reach of broadband coverage. Meeting the second challenge means using public resources to expand collective points of access, with specific actions towards remote areas and low income municipalities; this means that no amount of competition can ensure coverage in remote and poor areas, and the plan recommends that the government becomes involved as a part of the solution. Considering SDI access needs, the actual implementation of the broadband plan is an obvious recommendation. Two main efforts need to be funded. First, the expansion of information and communication technologies infrastructure. In parallel, as these services become available, it is necessary to support projects that give broad Internet access to the general public. This might be achieved with support for public schools and libraries. It is necessary also to invest in initiatives (such as INDE) that promise to regulate and organize data distribution. INPE s Open-Data policy should also be extended to other organizations, while supported through funding and governmental policies. Special lines of funding for data sharing following INDE s recommendations should be made available. Funding for research that addresses the main problems in this area, such as semantics, network optimization for large data sets distribution, user interfaces, and user requirements should also be available. All these needs could be combined in a single comprehensive policy, with two major points: (1) providing funding for data producers, conditioned to the creation of INDEcompatible and INPE-style open access data dissemination, (2) funding SDI-related research with an emphasis on applications and realistic usage scenarios. The extrapolation of the SDI development practices and institutional conditions discussed in this report to other countries is an exercise that should take into consideration the number of features that make Brazil a unique country. Nevertheless, it is our opinion that the development of a national SDI, considering its 46

60 technology, people, policies and standards definition, presents as the main hurdle the policies part. Technology for SDI development is widely available, with a prevalence of opensource (and zero cost) software. The most important standards are being defined by ISO and OGC, and adopted internationally. There must, of course, be a source of qualified people to conduct the SDI. Bu t the most difficult part is achieving the kind of institutional maturity that allows public organizations to communicate, share experiences, obtain funding, and develop cooperative efforts that generate useful information. Public managers, who know the intrinsic value of detailed, correct, timely and up-to-date information to fulfill their mandates, will surely appreciate such efforts. 8.1 Summary of recommendations The recommendations embedded in the conclusion of this report are briefly summarized below. Prioritize thematic, state and local SDI development initiatives, while strongly supporting INDE s geoportal and metadata catalog; Empower IBGE and CONCAR for fostering INDE as a source for geographic information generated by multiple data producers; Reinforce and value technical personnel in IBGE and in CONCAR member institutions by providing opportunities for updating their knowledge, and establishing rewards based on performance indicators; Improve on the connection between SDI and e-government through e-ping, by realizing that geographic information systems can be integrated in the overall e- government strategies; Support national software development initiatives, and proceed with the open source public software policy; Establish alternative funding sources (e.g., piggyback SDI projects in larger development or physical infrastructure projects) while keeping the no charge policy established in INDE s creation; Effectively implement broadband expansion plans in a timely fashion; Incentive the growth of INDE, by conditioning the funding of data production to the subsequent publication in an SDI, following all established standards; Fund SDI-related research with an emphasis on applications and real-world scenarios. 47

61 9.1 Brazilian Government The Executive Branch The executive branch of the Brazilian government has ministries, secretariats and councils. Ministries Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply Ministry of the Cities Ministry of Science and Technology Ministry of Communications Ministry of Culture Ministry of Defense Ministry of Agrarian Development Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger Ministry of Education Ministry of Sports Ministry of Finance Ministry of National Integration Ministry of Justice Ministry of Environment Ministry of Mines and Energy Ministry of Fishing and Aquaculture Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management Ministry of Social Security Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Health Ministry of Labor and Employment Ministry of Transports Ministry of Tourism Secretariats Office of the President s Chief of Staff General Secretariat Office of Institutional Security Secretariat of Social Communication Secretariat of Strategic Affairs Secretariat of Institutional Affairs Special Secretariat for Women Policies Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality Special Secretariat for the Human Rights Special Secretariat of Ports Appendices Councils Cade - Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica - Administrative Council for Economic Defense

62 CDDPH - Conselho de Defesa dos Direitos da Pessoa Humana - Council for the Defence of the Rights of the Human Person CDES - Conselho de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social - Council for Economic and Social Development CGPC - Conselho de Gestão da Previdência Complementar - Council of Complementary Social Security Management CRPS - Conselho de Recursos da Previdência Social - Council for Social Security Fund Codefat- Conselho Deliberativo do Fundo de Amparo ao Trabalhador - Deliberative Council of the Worker Protection Fund CMN - Conselho Monetário Nacional - National Monetary Council Conjuve - Conselho Nacional da Juventude - National Council of Youth Condec - Conselho Nacional de Defesa Civil - National Council for Civil Defense Consea Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional - Nutritional and Food Security Council CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - National Council of Scientific and Technological Development CNE - Conselho Nacional de Educação - National Council for Education Conselho Nacional de Esportes - National Council of Sports Conmetro - Conselho Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial - National Council for Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality CNPE - Conselho Nacional de Política Energética - National Council for Energy Policy CNPS - Conselho Nacional de Previdência Social - National Council for Social Security CNS - Conselho Nacional de Saúde - National Council of Health CNSP - Conselho Nacional de Seguros Privados - National Council of Private Insurance Contran - Conselho Nacional de Trânsito - National Council of Traffic Conama Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente - National Council of the Environment Conanda - Conselho Nacional Dos Direitos da Criança e do Adolescente - National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents CNDI - Conselho Nacional dos Direitos do Idoso - National Council for the Rights of the Senior Citizen 9.2 Members of CONCAR The National Cartographic Committee, CONCAR, is coordinated by a president and na executive secretary, and is composed by one representative of each of the following organizations: Office of the President s Chief of Staff Office of Institutional Security Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply Ministry of Mines and Energy Ministry of Science and Technology Ministry of Communications Ministry of Environment Ministry of Defense Ministry of National Integration Ministry of Transports 49

63 Ministry of Agrarian Development Ministry of the Cities Ministry of Education Ministry of Health Ministry of Finance Ministry of Justice Ministry of Tourism Geographic Service Directorate of the Army, Ministry of Defense Hidrography and Navigation Directorate of the Navy, Ministry of Defense Aeronautical Cartography Institute of the Air Force, Ministry of Defense Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics IBGE National Association of Aerial Survey Companies (ANEA - Associação Nacional das Empresas de Aerolevantamentos) Furthermore, CONCAR hosts regional forums, which congregate representatives from the federative units (states and municipalities). There are forums in each of the five geographic regions: North, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast, and South. 50

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69 About infodev infodev is a global development financing program among international development agencies, coordinated and served by an expert Secretariat housed at the World Bank Group, one of its key donors and founders. It acts as a neutral convener of dialogue and as a coordinator of joint action among bilateral and multilateral donors supporting global sharing of information on ICT for development (ICT4D), and helping to reduce duplication of efforts and investments. infodev also forms partnerships with public and private sector organizations who are innovators in the field of ICT4D. infodev is housed in the Financial and Private Sector Development (FPD) Vice Presidency of the World Bank Group. For additional information about this study or more general information on infodev, please visit 56