National Mapping Organisation Of South Africa

Dr Derek Clarke

National Geo-spatial Information

NMO-Industry Forum 2011

National Geo-spatial Information is the national mapping organisation of South Africa

Mandate from legislation

Land Survey Act

Spatial Data Infrastructure Act

National Mapping Organisation of South Africa

Responsible for:• Geodetic and topographic surveying;• National spatial reference frame;• National aerial imagery;• National mapping;• National spatial data infrastructure (2010)• Archive of records

Not responsible for:• Regulating cadastral surveys• Cadastral mapping

National Mapping Organisation of South Africa

Key work programme for 2011/12:• Maintain 980 of the 29 000 trig beacons;• Operate CORS (GNSS) real time and

post process – currently 56 stations;• High accuracy geoid of South Africa;• Complete fully structured topographic

database mid-2011 - nominal scale 1:50000;

• Update changes to topographic database – 99% of main features within 12 months;

• Acquire 315 000 km2 of digital aerial imagery and process to ortho-image;

National Mapping Organisation of South Africa

• Land cover and land use mapping (new programme) – test methodology;

• SA Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI):– Review legislation for SDI– Formulation of key policies– Assign official data custodians– Publication of key standards– Promote meta-data discovery facility.

Budget: US$16.7 million

National Mapping Organisation of South Africa

Some challenges:• Conflict between political agenda of rural

development and mandate of NMO;

• Budgetary cuts – not able to achieve user-demanded targets;

• Recruitment of skilled professional and technical staff;

• Making up lost ground with SASDI;

• Ground truthing/local knowledge – budget and staff limitations;

• User awareness;

• Product distribution.

National Mapping Organisation of South Africa