UNFPA Donates Resources to Statistics Office for Updating and Cartography of Rural Areas

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) donated 18 million pesos to the National Statistics Office (ONE) to finish the field work and rural mapmaking being done by the National Digitization and Cartography Updating Project. The goal of the project is to generate a digital cartography base, under the Geographic Information Systems platform, linked to census data, surveys, administrative registers and other like systems.  

“…the government has made an important investment of nearly RD$130 million pesos earmarked for this task, viewed as an important strategy.”

UNFPA representative, Gilka Meléndez, handed over the first installment of RD$9 million pesos during a press conference in the office of ONE Director Pablo Tactuk. This initial donation will be immediately put to use in the project, beginning in the third trimester of this year. The second and last RD$9 million pesos will be delivered at the beginning of next year.

The updating and digitization of the data base will gather information through surveys and census-taking on issues involving the levels and sizes of city blocks and building constructions in the following provinces: Puerto Plata, Valverde, Montecristi, Santiago Rodríguez, Dajabón, Azua, San Juan, Elías Piña, Barahona, Pedernales, Bahoruco, Independencia, San José de Ocoa, Sánchez Ramírez, Monseñor Nouel, Samaná, María Trinidad Sánchez, Hato Mayor and El Seibo.

 “Considering that the Geographical Statistics Information Platform is a public management tool of the Dominican state, the government has made an important investment of nearly RD$130 million pesos earmarked for this task, viewed as an important strategy. As such, we are intending to update and digitize the data bases to be functioning in 2009. Today, updated cartography covers 100 percent of the urban areas and about 30 percent of the rural zones while digitization of the data has been carried out in 70 percent of the urban areas. Although the updating and digitization is still to be completed in rural areas, it is a task that we will undertake this month with the help of this generous support from the UNFPA,” said Pablo Tactuk, National Director of ONE.

The National Digitization and Cartography Updating Project of the Dominican Republic is a continuation of an ONE effort underway since 2005, undertaken with the optimization of the infrastructure through an acquisition of the software, hardware and knowledgeable staff necessary to carry out the project. 

Currently the project has a structured geographic information platform which is user accessible for ONE staff but will soon be available to the public on a Web platform. Available products include: national cartography and political-administrative divisions by province (including municipal districts), current as of 2008; neighborhood building statistics and land usage for the Capital, Santiago and Peravia. In addition, block-by-block internal applications for land use and building projects; land use and 2002 census data for 18 urban provinces and ongoing work in the remaining 14 provinces; printed cartography  information about building characteristics for the digitized provinces. By the first trimester of next year, information in 100% of the urban areas in the country will be available in digital format.

In substantial terms, the project is organized like a continued production process of analogical and digital cartography. The process begins with updating borders and boundaries of each of territorial unit, urban and rural, which must be approved by municipal, community and local government land boards. This process culminates with a geographical land report for each unit within the reach of the project (province, municipal, municipal capitals).

Currently the project has a structured geographic information platform which is user accessible for ONE staff but will soon be available to the public on a Web platform.

The cartography updating is done by working directly on the land in question. Preliminary plans are drawn up in urban and rural areas that take into account the level of buildings. These plans are reviewed and validated once more on the land as part of a system of quality control to obtain definitive charts. Updating and supervision teams assure quality necessary to guarantee that the cartography results are of the highest qualitative level so that once the final draft is completed, it can be submitted directly to the digitization laboratories.

“This donation is added to other technical cooperation and financial agreements with UNFPA, such as those from other agencies as the United Nations System, governments, statistic offices and other financial organizations and academic institutions. It reinforces our commitment to oversee the strict fulfillment of the work and the time in which it should be carried out in order to continue to receive regular support and to continue to consolidate the trust placed in this institution,” said Pablo Tactuk.

The activity was presided over by Pablo Tactuk, National Director of ONE; UNFPA representative in the DR, Gilka Meléndez; Engineer Bernardo Santana of the National Population and Development Office of the UNFPA; Clara Báez, Manager of Technical Coordination and International Cooperation of ONE; Juan Arias, Chief of the ONE Cartography Department and Geographer Raúl Ponce, International Project Consultant