Abstract:

The Environmental Support Project - Component 1, being carried out by the Ministry of Water Resources and DHV Consultants from The Netherlands, aims at establishing a nation-wide meta-database for natural resources and environmental information.

A meta-database is a computerized reference system comparable to a catalogue describing data sets, such as books, reports, maps, satellite images, etc. However, meta-data provide much more information than one would find in a library catalogue. They not only identify a data set in terms of title, author and year of publication but also tell you where you can get it and under what conditions of access. Meta-data make use of all instruments of automation to search, locate and visualize data. It is a powerful tool for finding and retrieving the information you need. It reduces time and costs of finding existing data and avoids duplication of efforts in data gathering. Moreover, it contributes to transparency of information as custodian institutions are obliged to explicit the conditions of access to their data and adhere to these.

The meta-database software, the ENRAEMED suite, being programmed by the project, will be available free of charge and is designed to be as user-friendly as possible. It operates in a Windows environment and uses internationally accepted standards for the description of bibliographic and geo-spatial data.
The project has established a partnership of seven major federal institutions concerned with the collection, storage and dissemination of natural resources and environmental information. These are the Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Geological Survey of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission, Environmental Protection Authority, Ethiopian Mapping Authority and the National Meteorological Services Agency. More institutions are expected to join and in due course all Regional States will be involved. In this way, the bulk of natural resources and environmental information in Ethiopia will be covered. Obviously, the larger the coverage the more useful and effective the meta-database will be.

Partner institutions will transmit the meta-data they create to a central meta-database which will be operated by a National Meta-database Centre (NMC) to be established by the Ministry of Water Resources. The NMC will act as a clearinghouse for meta-data. It will regularly exchange meta-data between partner institutions so that all meta-data will be available to all of them. Customers can have access to meta-data on a computer in any of the partner institutions at federal and regional level and on a web site where all meta-data will be posted. Meta-data search services will be rendered to customers who have no access to the internet.

Biography:

Dr. K.S. Thio, of Dutch nationality, has a long-standing career as an Economist and Institutional Development Specialist on projects in over twenty developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America. He graduated at the University of Amsterdam in 1969 and worked at the Mathematical Centre of Amsterdam, one of the pioneering institutions in scientific computer applications. In 1971, he joined the Department of Development Economics of the Agricultural University of Wageningen in The Netherlands and focussed his attention on natural resources development and environmental economics in developing countries. In 1986, he left the university and became Senior Economist at DHV Consultants, a major consultancy firm in The Netherlands, working on projects abroad in the areas of rural and agricultural development, forestry and water resources development.

Currently, he is working in Ethiopia as a Team leader and Institutional Development Specialist in the Environmental Support Project carried out by the Ministry of Water Resources and DHV Consultants with funding of the Netherlands government. The project aims at establishing a nation-wide meta-database on natural resources and environmental information. The meta-database, a computerized reference system, is meant to facilitate access to information kept in many different places by various custodian institutions. So far, a partnership has been formed with seven major federal institutions concerned with the collection, storage and dissemination of natural resourcse and environmental information. In the course of time, all Regional States will be involved as well.