National collaboration in geo-spatial information: NARSSGeoPortal case study

The Egyptian government is seeking collaboration between the authorities to build a data sharing platform to support the national development projects. The development projects need to be planned, managed and monitored in addition to the ongoing Egyptian economy support. However, the current management structure will not be able to manage national resources effectively without access to adequate information, analysis tools, and monitoring systems. National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS) took the initiatives and developed a platform for the national collaboration to share the geo-spatial information required for e-government and the sustainable development. NARSS extended the efforts and built a full proposal for the “National Collaboration for Sustainable Development Spatial Decision Support Portal”. Then, the proposal was communicated to a high level committee between the interested authorities to proceed forward with the proposed project. The research process was inherently intermixed design, building and evaluation of the platform. The process was also developed within collaborative and organizational context. Multiple research channels were employed in order to collect data that was necessary for delivering the project results such as memos, progress reports and prototypes. As a result, NARSSGeoPortal was successfully developed in accordance with the government authorities’ needs. This paper presents a case study showing the developed approach to build the geospatial data sharing systems required to provide support for the nationwide development. The paper also discusses the challenges during the implementation phase and provides the recommendations that should be taken into consideration during planning.