THE DESKTOP GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM APPLICATION SUPPORTS THE VIEWING, EDITING AND ANALYSIS OF GEOSPATIAL DATA.

The governments of Saint Lucia and the United States of Mexico have partnered on a Project to Strengthen Saint Lucia’s Capacities for the Design and Update of the Coastline Geographic Information – Technical and Scientific Program. The project, implemented through the Mexican Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AMEXCID), is nearing completion.

The capacity-building initiative included a series of online training programmes that will broaden the skill sets of technical personnel from the ministries of Agriculture, Physical Development, Infrastructure, Home Affairs, Equity, Finance and the Office of the Prime Minister, as well as the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force, the Water Resource Management Agency (WRMA) and the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO).

The project helped trainees to develop competencies in the following areas:

• Register of Continental and Insular Geographic Names;
• Geographical Names of the Underwater Relief Forms;
• Digital Elevation Models;
• Coastline Generation;
• Generation of Digital Elevation Models; and
• Bathymetric Information

The final installment of training, will be held in person and will focus on the use of Quantum GIS (QGIS), an open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system application that supports the viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data. Training is scheduled to  take place from September 25 to 29, at 8:30 a.m. in the conference room at Ministry of External Affairs.

The media is invited to provide coverage at the Sep. 25 opening.