A qualitative comparison of South Africa's geomatics professional body's academic model against industry's understanding of SDI knowledge and skills requirements

Abstract

The South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI) was established in 2003.Registration of geographical information science (GISc) practitioners by the South African geomatics professional body followed in 2004 and accreditation of university GISc programmes in 2012. In 2010, the Committee for Spatial Information identified inadequate knowledge and skills of GISc practitioners as a challenge for the implementation and maintenance of SASDI. In response, SDI knowledge and skills requirements for GISc professionals were specified by GISc industry representatives and the professional body's academic model was qualitatively compared against these requirements. Results are discussed and improvements recommended.

Keywords::

• spatial data infrastructure
• geographical information science education
• professional body
• registration
• accreditation
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

We thank members of South Africa's CSI Sub-committee on Education and Training and individuals from the GIS industry, for their contributions during the two workshops on SASDI education and training held in November 2011 and July 2012. The authors are grateful for the comments from the editor and anonymous reviewers, which helped us to improve the article substantially.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partly supported by a GSDI Small Grant Award, titled Developing a framework for South African SDI education and training.