Development of National Satellite Image Atlas: Their Importance in Corporate and National SDI Development The Peripheral Countries Case

Abstract

Information technology has strong relevance in the social and economical environments of the countries. Education, investments, sustainable growing, natural resources exploration and exploitation are some of the activities that are negatively affected by the lack of information. Peripheral countries usually have limited structural and financial resources for supporting NSDI projects. But at the information age, it is necessary that those countries will have at least a minimum and efficient information infrastructure, or others resources and applications that will promote the development of more complex systems. Like others peripheral countries, Argentina has serious problems with information availability. Due to the lack of information such as topographical, geological and other kind of geospatial data, several users like geoscientists, industry, government, etc. have strong difficulties to make their regional and project studies, especially when digital analysis should be made. Despite the great effort of different international organisations (UNEP GRID, Geocover, etc.) to supply free geodata coverage, information could not be efficiently used and managed without a good technological support. In this context, geographically integrated satellite image data management systems became an essential part of the NSDI core system because satellite images can provide the spatial context for different kinds of spatial datasets and are the main source of different kinds of regional information. The Argentine Satellite Atlas for Geological and Geographical Studies is a special cartographic product generated by automatic procedures based on GIS technology and public and institutional data. The aim of this project is to provide a useful reference document for students, geologists, cartographers and other earth science professionals, as well as to create a core data system framework for other Corporate SDI or NSDI projects and applications. The Argentine Satellite Atlas is not only a cartographic product, but also it is an integrated product generated by a special structured system where cartography, and spatial thematical information are managed and coordinated in a systematic way. This paper describes the conceptual model, digital components, database structure and cartographic criteria that provided a framework for the Atlas generation. Also we emphasise the relevance of the constructed system in the development of the organisation SDI. We propose the development of systems with similar characteristics for peripheral countries. Such a system can create the basic infrastructure and foundation for other systematic and national projects.