NATIONAL SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE (NSDI) OF BANGLADESH – DEVELOPMENT, PROGRESS AND WAY FORWARD

Abstract

National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) refers to a framework of policies, institutional arrangements, technologies, data, and people that enables the sharing and effective usage of geographic information. This paper aims to present the development and current progress of NSDI in Bangladesh. In preparing this paper, we have reviewed several papers, documents and articles related to NSDI development in Bangladesh. We have also explored different spatial data sharing platforms of related agencies and departments. This study finds that, in last decade, there is substantial increase in the production and use of geospatial data in Bangladesh. However, due to the absence of planning and centralized spatial data infrastructure (SDI) system, there are duplication of efforts among different organizations in respect of spatial data production leading to wastage of time and financial resources. There is also problem of maintaining same metadata standard among different organisations creating difficulties in building and sharing spatial data. Against this background, in 2016, Bangladesh government has decided to develop NSDI. As there are some organizations already have developed geoportal so it is decided that existing platform will be used as NSDI initially. Based on this decision GeoDASH platform is being used at present. However, there are many challenges and much to develop the platform. Development of NSDI in Bangladesh is still under process and there are some challenges also. Overcoming the problems and challenges, full-fledged development and operation of NSDI is expected to support the achievement of SDGs in Bangladesh.