Strategic planning of agricultural land information systems in South Africa

[摘要] The planning processes involved in the design and development of strategic landinformation systems in a semantic context require a logical approach. An array ofefficacy problems associated with the relevance of the information required and the datato be provided must be dealt with in terms of this logical approach so that wise decisionscan be made about future land resource use options.This study applies the aforementioned statement to strategic decision-making regardinginformation management in the provision of accurate and relevant information about thecharacteristics of the land resource for use by both the public and private sectors in SouthAfrica.With ever evolving human needs that increase pressure on the limited land resource, theneed for accurate and relevant information for strategic purposes is increasing. However,even at the present time, land information systems design and development ischaracterised by a technical design orientation and a narrow cost-efficiency focus, with alack of strategic envisioning. Strategic decisions require effective choices regarding whatdata should be collected and how this should be stored and processed to support landresource-use decisions in the future. Information systems can, however, not cater for toomany variables due to cost implications. Hence, strategic choices in generating only therequired information and data for storage and processing become necessary.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University