Even after the end of Sri Lanka’s 30-year-long civil war in 2009, there were as many as 280,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the northern area, and the stabilization of the said area and the return of the IDPs were of particular concern. The Japanese government considers “assistance for the consolidation of peace and the reconstruction process” as one of the pillars of governmental assistance for Sri Lanka, as described in its Country Assistance Strategy.

This project was to facilitate the stabilization of the northern area and the return of IDPs by the following three components.

The government of Swaziland, attempting to put into effect its Poverty Reduction Strategic Action Plan, needed to accurately grasp its current socioeconomic conditions, to streamline its efforts to implement the plan, and to regularly compile monitoring data of the plan’s progress.

Recognizing such challenges, this project was started with the aim of establishing an integrated geospatial information system to consolidate geospatial and statistical information and to strengthen competency to utilize the information system.

Kokusai Kogyo was selected as a consultant and achieved the following:

In Kenya, there is a desperate need to develop infrastructure such as roads, water supply, sewerage, power, housing and telecommunications. This situation was exasperated by the fact that there is no system with which to acquire and share spatial information needed to develop such infrastructure. One of the aims of Kenya’s National Development Plan was to establish a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) that would standardize and commoditize spatial information, however, the primary organization for NSDI development, Survey of Kenya (SOK), lacked technology related to NSDI, GIS or map digitization. Consequently, this technical assistance project was started as the first step towards developing an NSDI.

Kokusai Kogyo prepared map digitizing manuals and trained SOK operators to improve their skills and quality of their work because it had been quite erratic. Spatial data infrastructure standards were also drafted to facilitate sharing of spatial information by GIS users. Further, a clearinghouse and sample GIS maps were made available on the Internet in order to promote the wide use of spatial information. The map digitizing technology of SOK and the environment of GIS usage, which were developed by this project, will contribute to the future steps towards establishing a NSDI.

The Republic of Macedonia is a small, landlocked country located at the south end of the former Yugoslavia, and is surrounded by Albania, Greece and Bulgaria. The country was not able to develop state base maps by itself after independence, and thus this study was carried out with three purposes: the development of new digital state base maps, technical transfer related to mapping, and dissemination of spatial information.

During the course of the development of new digital state base maps, we acquired aerial photo image data covering 25,713km2 of the entire national land area, produced 105 sheets of state base maps with a scale of 1/25,000 for 55% of the national land area and built a landuse database and an environmental database for an area of about 3,556km2. In doing so, we also transferred such technologies as ground survey, digital photogrammetry and GIS to our counterpart, the State Authority for Geodetic Works (SAGW).

When Macedonia was a part of the former Yugoslavia, spatial information was strictly controlled and considered a military secret, so maps were not publicly available. Even after independence, tedious purchase procedures and high prices made it difficult for private citizens to access maps. For the dissemination of spatial information, the third purpose of the study, we organized forums and an environmental map contest, whereby people could recognize how maps could be interesting and useful. The contest drew particular attention, receiving as many as 276 applications. For better availability of maps, we succeeded in removing the permit system prior to map purchase, considerably reducing map prices, and initiating the sale of digital maps. Further, as part of the openness of SAGW, posters and newspaper advertisements were published to announce the new availability of maps.

The City of Nairobi has experienced a rapid increase in population with an influx of immigrants from rural areas, and the city infrastructure (water supply, sewerage, land management, waste disposal, health and sanitation, etc.) is not sufficient to meet the growing demands. However, the city’s 1:2,500-scale maps, the most basic geographic information, were produced 30 years ago and do not cover the entire city. As they have not been updated or expanded, they do not represent current conditions and cannot be used to formulate urban development plans.

In the study, we developed a geographic information system to manage the city’s infrastructure. Specific activities included: i) aerial photography (scale: 1:5,000; color) covering an area of 702 km², ii) ground control point survey (22 points), iii) ordinary leveling (350km), iv) aerial triangulation (249 models), v) field identification (585 km²), vi) production of 1:2,500 topographic maps (170 km²), vii) production of 1:5,000 topographic maps (415 km²), viii) consultation on GIS related tasks and design of GIS (15 km²), and ix) GIS database construction.