The topic of geospatial data became very popular when the executive agencies and bodies in Ukraine started opening their data as it is required by the newly adopted legislation.

The law on "Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on Access to Public Information in the Form of Open Data" – adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament in April 2015 – represents a very important step to increase transparency and efficiency. The launch of the open data development in Ukraine has also the potential to create new opportunities not only in terms of democratic control over the authorities, but it can also bring gains to the national economy. In order to take advantage from these new opportunities, it is crucial to understand the importance of open data and to reflect on how to make use of them to fully exploit their potential.

Geospatial data are a kind of information about physical objects that can be represented by numerical values in a geographic coordinate system. Generally speaking, geospatial data represent the location, size, and shape of objects on the planet. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to access, visualize, manipulate and analyze geospatial data.

The event hosted by 1991 Open Data Incubator had the purpose of fostering a discussion on the principles of open geospatial data among the civil sector activists, IT professionals, business people, and representatives of ministries, government agencies, and municipalities.

Managing the physical infrastructure requires a good communication system and an efficient information infrastructure. Geospatial data play an important role in this sense, because location information is important in managing everything that governments manage, from roads and sewers to education and public health. Like most types of infrastructure, geospatial data also provide a platform for economic development.

Government organizations often participate in the process of publishing geospatial data, both to advance the standards and to learn more about them. An example of a successful initiative comes from Moldova, a country which added to the Open Data Portal an open geospatial repository with datasets ranging from cadastral map, aerial photograph, topographic map, and information on the location of some public amenities.

Another example comes from the "Common Strategy for Sustainable Territorial Development of the cross-border area Romania-Bulgaria" sponsored by the EU – a project with the aim to develop a harmonized common geospatial database and user oriented operational services, jointly for Bulgaria and Romania on the local and regional level.

Renowned experts and speakers took part in the event in Kyiv in order to explore opportunities for a similar development also in Ukraine. Oleksandr Krakovetsky, CEO at DevRain Solutions and independent expert of the State Agency for e-Governance of Ukraine, analyzed the Ukrainian experience with geospatial data in a global perspective. Viktor Putrenko, Head of GIS World Data Center at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, talked about the format of geospatial data. Finally, Andriy Gazin, Chart Maker at Texty.org.ua, presented the statistics on Ukrainians' intercity travel via "Ukrzaliznytsia" in 2014-2015.

The State Agency for e-Governance encouraged the participants to make the best use of the government data that is being open on the state open data portal and to create their own geospatial social projects based on this information.

 

Speakers' presentations can be found here.

 

This initiative is organised under the framework of Democratization, Human Rights and Civil Society Development Programme in Ukraine, implemented by UNDP and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.